Trailblazer
A New Kind of HeroFriday, January 28, 2011 By Emil Mombay
The Green Hornet was formed by an unusual combination, you usually wouldn’t dream or necessarily want to see together: the writer’s of Superbad, Knocked Up, and Pineapple Express; the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; the most famous actor, singer, and pianist in China, and a second tier comic book series that is mostly known for bringing Bruce Lee to American Television. However, among this rather crazy mix of ideas, The Green Hornet makes its own existence well-known with its impressive supporting cast and entertaining action with heavy amounts of humor. The beginning scenes start off with a few of the main characters being introduced, establishing the character of spoiled rich boy Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) who later becomes the Green Hornet because of his pure resentment of his very strict, very uptight newspaper magnate father. The tried and very familiar plot of a man deciding to fight crime because of revenge by wearing a snazzy costume and picking up high-tech weapons is shown as a cliché in other superhero films, but this movie has a different motive. The protagonists, Britt Reid and Kato (Jay Chou) fights crime because they simply felt like it, while also scheming to pose as the “bad guys” to discard the supposed weakness other superheroes have. Not only are the protagonists somewhat “anti-heroes” in their own right, as Britt Reid is a selfish immature playboy who has no fighting experience whatsoever, the movie truly shines with its array of hilarious segments each and every character displays. The writers of Superbad and Pineapple Express, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg proved with those movies that they’ve got a knack for writing funny, tender-loving friendships between men, and they’ve done it just as well with the very amusing banter between Britt and Kato. Jay Chou performed remarkably well in his first English-language role and Rogen’s usual carefree likable nature shines through with his witty and clever lines. As such, The Green Hornet is best viewed as an idealistic buddy romance and the scenes between Britt and Kato as they play with their cool weapons and gizmos and dealing with their own issues of jealousy are the best parts of the film in my opinion. The 3D effects and technical aspects of the movie are lacking however, but clearly that shouldn’t affect the sense of entertainment you get with this movie. The comedic energy rarely drops, but it’s not the funniest movie you’ll ever see or the best action movie either. However, the hybrid works quite well for the most part and even when the pacing for action scenes needs to be better, the movie stays entertaining and evermore hilarious. |