[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Directed By: Jake Castorena
Written By: Jim Krieg
Starring: Chris Diamantopoulos, Diedrich Bader, Kevin Conroy
Summary
Green Arrow becomes involved with Booster Gold when he discovers that the self-centered superhero has brought dinosaurs back from the past for a money-making venture.
Positives
This was definitely a fun episode. I love Booster Gold on this show, so when I saw the name of the episode, I was pretty excited. Diedrich Bader does a fantastic job voicing Booster, bringing that comical arrogance that makes the character who he is.
In this episode Booster watched (part of) Jurassic Park (though he never uses the name) and decides to create his own version called Booster World. I absolutely loved this. Jurassic Park is one of my favorite films, and to see it referenced so comically, yet so well, was great. They even referenced Jurassic World with the big dino jumping out the water. It was great
But that wasn’t the only film they referenced. After they escape from Booster World, then end up in a future where we the island has become a dinosaur version of Planet of the Apes. I could watch an hour of these two bouncing through time making great film references. DC…please make this happen!!
They even when as far as to take a jab at the popular CW series Arrow. Booster rags on Green Arrow for having such a long name (even though Booster Gold is longer in both letters and syllables), suggesting it should be shortened, and Ollie responds with, “to what, just Arrow? I don’t think so.” I laughed quite a bit there.
Negatives
When I saw the title, as I said, I was excited to see a Booster Gold story, but half of the episode is Green Arrow centric, with no booster at all for the first 5 minutes (of an 11 minute runtime). As I was watching it I wasn’t sure what why it was titled this as it just seemed like too much Ollie. But it turned around once Booster showed up.
I’m also not a big fan of Green Arrow’s voice. Maybe I’m just so used to the CW series and the old Justice League cartoons, but I feel like he should’ve sounded a bit more gruff than he did. Also, no offense, but I just don’t see him outrunning a raptor.
Verdict
Overall, it wasn’t my favorite episode I’ve seen, mainly because of the first 5 minutes, but the back half saved it for me, as that part I loved. If it had jumped into the Booster World stuff at around the 2-3 minute mark, I think it would have been much better, and then they could’ve jumped to a couple other places and referenced some other movies, which would have made this film lover’s heart happy.
