Guinness World Records is currently double-checking before they provide official certification of the record, but it's hard to believe there's ever been a larger recitation of the oath than that of the over 4,200 fans gathered to watch the latest DC animated movie. To put that in the nerdiest perspective possible, the Green Lantern Corps itself only has 3,600 sectors of space under its protection.

As an observer of (not to mention participant in) the saying of the oath, I can safely report that the vast majority of those assembled really did know all the words, though there seemed to be some confusion in the crowd as to whether it's "blackest night" or "darkest night." Admittedly, this has varied over the years, although I suppose a certain ongoing comics mega-event has made it fairly clear which is the currently preferred version.

Green Lantern: First Flight comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, July 28.

Considering the sheer volume of animation Bruce Timm and company have put out featuring the DC characters over the past seventeen years, it's frankly astonishing how little of it has involved Hal Jordan, with only Justice League: New Frontier and the briefest of cameos in Justice League Unlimited to his credit. Much like Wonder Woman, whose heretofore neglected origin provided the basis for the last DC animated movie, there's a lot of unexplored territory when it comes to Hal Jordan.

Thankfully, screenwriters Alan Burnett and Michael Allen make the most of this, and does not rely on the familiar beats of the Green Lantern origin story. Within the first ten minutes, Hal Jordan has received his ring from his dying predecessor Abin Sur, accepted his role as the Green Lantern, and decided to head out into space to better understand his new duties. What happens next is a story that, while far from perfect, is hugely refreshing in both its originality and its frequent craziness.

Brought before the immortal Guardians of the Universe so that they might assess his worthiness to serve in the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan faces more than his fair share of anti-human prejudices. On the verge of losing his ring before he even really gets to use it, Jordan is saved by the legendary Green Lantern Sinestro, who says he could be of use in hunting down the murderers of Abin Sur.

After a sequence on an alien planet that feels vaguely like a cross between the Denzel Washington corrupt cop movie Training Day and the Mos Eisley cantina scene from Star Wars, Sinestro and Jordan trace Abin Sur's death back to Kanjar Ro, once a fairly unremarkable warlord who recently acquired the fabled yellow element, a power source that could potentially overthrow the Guardians and the green element that powers their corps. But, as is inevitable in both superhero and cop movies, there's a crooked officer in the force, and it's only a matter of time before Hal Jordan finds himself on the wrong side of a conspiracy.

Although Green Lantern: First Flight does end with the customary massive fight between the superhero and the supervillain, a surprising amount of the film really does play more like a cop drama than a superhero movie. The Green Lanterns eat lousy food in a precinct substation, Sinestro is reprimanded by his superiors for his overly violent interrogation techniques, and so on. This makes a welcome change from the familiar story beats of the average superhero movie, and it's this narrative freshness that goes a long way towards making up for the film's flaws.

Chief among those flaws is the often tedious exposition (Hal Jordan at one point even asks whether he should be taking notes). DC Comics in particular has a number of heroes whose backstories revolve around complicated power hierarchies and fantastic elements, which can make it difficult to elegantly explain the setup to those unfamiliar with the characters. Wonder Woman got around the problem of clunky exposition with a lot of knowing humor, as Nathan Fillion's Steve Trevor's one-liners acknowledged the more ridiculous parts of the Wonder Woman mythos. Hal Jordan is too much the straightforward hero to play that role in Green Lantern: First Flight, and the weirdly catty Guardians are more strange than amusing. The first section of the movie, which features the most sustained deliberations between the Guardians, is easily the weakest part.

Still, once Sinestro takes over, Green Lantern: First Flight shifts into high gear and only rarely falters. Much of that is due to Victor Garber's performance, which ably captures the character's slide from potential ally to fascist antihero to all-out villain. Equal parts calculating, menacing, and charming, Garber is the standout of Green Lantern: First Flight.

Beyond Garber's Sinestro, voice director Andrea Romano has once again assembled a cast that is solid throughout, from Christopher Meloni's Hal Jordan to Tricia Helfer's Boodika to Kurtwood Smith's Kanjar Ro. Admittedly, it's a bit odd to hear Michael Madsen as Kilowog after Dennis Haysbert so perfected the character on Justice League. Alan Burnett and Michael Allen's script wisely makes the most of the recasting by tweaking Kilowog's character, making him a gruffer interpretation of the characters whose respect Jordan must really work to earn.

Director Lauren Montgomery follows up strongly on her impressive work in Wonder Woman. Green Lantern constructs are perhaps the most memorable visual element of the film, and Montgomery does not disappoint with Hal Jordan's giant green fly swatter, gold club, and so forth. Featuring a menagerie of aliens in the cast, the film's character design is a huge asset, with the four-legged Weaponers of Qward proving particularly memorable.

Still, much like the rest of Green Lantern: First Flight, the direction has its flaws. There are a couple reaction shots that drag on far, far too long for no apparent reason, and much as these are minor faults it's hard to figure why they weren't edited down. The bigger problem is the film's CGI. Although the CGI has come a long way from the notoriously bad inserts seen on Justice League, they still remain jarringly different from the rest of the animation, and it's hard to see such elements (particularly when they play a fairly major role in the film's climax) as anything but a liability.

Green Lantern: First Flight might be a slight step down from Wonder Woman, but it's still a hugely entertaining film that dares to do something different with the superhero genre. Throw in the DC animated movie's giddy use of PG-13 language (the films have gotten better about this since Superman: Doomsday, but there's something still delightfully wrong about Sinestro telling Hal Jordan that, "I own your ass") and gleefully grotesque ways in which the film kills off characters, and Green Lantern: First Flight is definitely some good fun, even if it's decidedly not old-fashioned.

Wonder Woman traces a fairly familiar version of the character's origin story. When fighter pilot Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion) crash lands on the Amazon island of Thermyscira, he represents the first man any of the Amazons have seen in over two millennia. Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) organizes a contest to determine who will escort Steve back to man's world, and her daughter Diana (Keri Russell) emerges victorious. Eager to learn more about the world outside Thermyscira and to foster a new dialogue between the genders, Diana quickly finds nothing but disillusionment upon her arrival in New York City. Meanwhile, Ares (Alfred Molina), the god of war, has escaped from his Amazonian prison with plans for revenge against his captors and endless war for all humanity.

Minus the addition of Ares, it's a well-known, well-worn take on the character's origins, but it's a story that lacks the iconic sweeps of Batman or Superman's beginnings. The Wonder Woman story is full of a lot of potentially tricky elements, such as the heavy reliance on Greek mythology and the presence of some complicated gender politics. Wonder Woman's triumph lies its in willingness to embrace these same elements that have likely stymied so many previous adaptation attempts; Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic's screenplay places the Greek gods front and center, and Diana is true to her status and beliefs as a warrior princess.

The entire voice cast is strong, although the standout is, unsurprisingly, Nathan Fillion. At the panel after this Friday's screening, producer Bruce Timm noted that casting Fillion created the danger that Steve Trevor would steal the entire movie. Keri Russell's Wonder Woman is strong enough to hold her own, but it's certainly true the film succeeds in large part because Steve Trevor bridges the gap between the audience and the less readily accessible parts of the Wonder Woman mythos. This is partially because he never takes the stately Amazons terribly seriously, delivering a bunch of lines that are often incredibly, wonderfully dirty. Wonder Woman is the kind of movie where the lasso of truth compels Steve Trevor to tell Hippolyta, "Your daughter's got a nice rack." If you know anything about Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston (and if you don't, this link is well worth clicking), it's hard to think this is not exactly what he would have wanted.

It's also the sort of movie where Wonder Woman tells a little girl to "Unleash Hell!" in a play swordfight, where one of the Amazons calmly reminds Hippolyta they could have kept Diana on the island by shooting her in the leg, and where half the bad guys in the movie end up getting decapitated, including a minotaur. This is probably the most violent animation ever to bear the DC name, and director Lauren Montgomery manages to keep the violence hardcore but never gratuitous. Indeed, that is the general secret to Wonder Woman's success – the film always manages to strike with its complex elements, whether it's exploring gender relations without sermonizing or embracing Wonder Woman's mythological origins while avoiding too many stilted explanations from the Amazons. The film is also resolutely accessible, requiring no prior knowledge of the characters in a way that wasn't really true of Superman: Doomsday or Justice League: The New Frontier (although there is a cameo at the end that will have any Wonder Woman fans cheering).

Wonder Woman is a film that boldly pushes the DC animated cosmos into more mature territory without sacrificing the sense of joy and, well, wonder that should accompany the introduction of such an iconic character. I can't imagine anyone making a better Wonder Woman movie, although I'd love to see this cast and crew give it a whirl. Bruce Timm mentioned at the panel that, if sales are good enough, there is the possibility of a sequel. I'd be willing to go one better. If ever there was a project deserving of another Timm-helmed animated series, Wonder Woman is it.

[Kung Fu Rodeo]

So it's pretty certain that the Ood, those creepy telepathic slaves from "The Satan Pit," will be back in "Planet of the Ood." And we know for sure the clone warrior Sontarans will be back, because we've seen a promo pic. And it sure looks like the Axons (a sort of space parasite from the 1970s) will be back in the Christmas episode, judging from the latest promo image. And we know Billie Piper is coming back for a few episodes.

But everything else sounds totally bogus. Will Ben Kingsley really play Davros, creator of the Daleks? Will Joanna Lumley really play the Master (actually, that sounds hot.) Will the Ice Warriors and the Brigadier really drag their asses out of mothballs? Not to mention the season concluding with a four-part "Time War," involving every monster ever. Most of the alleged spoiler summary sounds like ridicuous fansturbation. Which, knowing Russell T. Davies and co., means it's probably all true.

Meanwhile, there's a ten-second teaser trailer for the Christmas episode, which reveals nothing. In other news:

The animated Batman DVD that's coming out to promote The Dark Knight could be better than the movie itself. The six animated shorts will include new work by Satoshi Kon (Paprika), Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series), plus animation studios Madhouse (Death Note), Studio 4°C (Tekkonkinkreet) and Production I.G. (Ghost In The Shell)

Movies we might see in 2008 or 2009: The top movie scripts written in 2007 include a few science fiction stories, according to the "Black List" compiled by 150 movie execs and top assistants. The fave scripts include Passengers, about a passenger on an intergalactic spaceship who awakes from cryogenic sleep a hundred years before the rest of the crew. Keanu Reeves' company is producing that script but no studio has optioned it yet. A movie version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, written by Joe Penhall, has already been optioned by 2929 Productions. Also on the list: Get Back about two die-hard Beatles fans who (it gets worse) find a time machine and travel back to keep John Lennon from ever meeting Yoko Ono. Can we please send that one to development hell now now now?

Gerald "300" Butler still might star in the Escape From New York remake, despite reports he's dropped out. Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow is directing, so it should be just cheesy enough for Butler's trademark scowl.