The Green Hornet
So the Green Hornet is not a comic book movie, it’s a superhero movie. Not that big of a difference when you talk about Superhero movies (but a vast difference when you talk about comic book movies). I know they eventually made a comic book out of the character, but it did not start that way, but he is a superhero cause of the mask and the sidekick and the gadgets, plus all that money. He’s kinda like Batman, but not really.
They use to hang back in the 60s
A superhero movie starring Seth Rogen means that you are getting more of a parody of the genre rather than something straight up. Sure, a lot of Superhero movies, like the stuff marvel does is so light-hearted in it’s delivery that it makes you smile, but The Green Hornet goes further than that.
Seth Rogen, who wrote the film, was creating something that acts like Satire to the Superhero Genre, pointing out the reality and the flaws in being one, Plus going against the grain of what superheroes are suppose to do,but at the same time there is a fantasy element that is focus on the Kato character.
It’s hard to imagine Seth Rogen as a superhero, but give him some credit, he did a good job in getting in some sort of shape for the role, the thinnest I ever scene him, but put on no muscle for the role. It makes sense as Rogen plays a millionaire rich kid whose father dies and when he discovers it’s crime related he decides the best way to do good and seek justice is masked crime fighting. Sounds like Batman, but the big difference is that when Batman lost his parents it happen at 8 and fucked up his head so much that he did not have the time to actually become the billionaire playboy he totally pretends to be, vs. Britt Reid whose possibly was the same age as Bruce Wayne when he put on the cape and cowl, but did not have the 9 years of traveling the world becoming a ninja master, just 9 years of booze and broads so that would explain the not perfect body.
Seth does what he does best and makes us laugh. If you are expecting him to do something different even if it is a superhero movie you may not be fully satisfied.
Then there’s Kato, played by Jay Chou. I feel like this Kato is made to give props to what Bruce Lee did to the character back in the day. In the creation of The Green Hornet, Kato was the sidekick, but as Bruce Lee and Van Williams, who played the Green Hornet on the 1966 show, said many times, they saw themselves a partners, a Hornet that would bounce ideas off Kato and Kato would be the best dude to have on your back in a battle. However, the world watching the show may not have given Kato that much juice (Except for China, which called Green Hornet, The Kato show). This movie was definitely The Kato show as they pumped up Kato far more with him being the core of the team (or a one man army with some white dude tagging along). It’s a unique role for a sidekick. His mastery of marshal arts is so off the hook the guy could kill you just by opening a bottle of beer (as Kato somewhat demonstrated). He built all the gadgets and the vehicles (and makes the coffee), but in all fairness to the Green Hornet, Britt Reid has the greatest superpower…Money! You can’t do shit without it, so. When I first saw the Green Hornet I thought it was cool that Kato was the man and was just the better of the two, but I must say now, I get the joke, but it’s real lame that the Green Hornet is incapable of nothing, but like I said before, this is a Seth Rogen comedy not a superhero movie.
What was flawless is Christoph Waltz as the main villain. Waltz is a great actor. When even your small parts you get after making a splash in Inglorious Bastards even showcase the best you can do, that’s great acting. His satire on the villain was great, as he played an evil man who has control over LA’s underground and has this challenged by people who do not think he’s evil enough, but he has no problem proving himself. As far as this being a satire on superhero movies, this was the best one.
Not sure what they were trying to do with Cameron Daiz in the film. She was completely useless in the movie. I’m thinking to myself she got paid a lot of money to insure more people would see the flick, but it’s below her talents. They could have gotten another woman just as hot to play the more than her looks love interest to the main character (or rather the hot chick that makes Green Hornet and Kato agru)
The Black Beauty was a beauty however. Real nice car.
Overall, I did enjoy what Seth Rogen was attempting with this. He wanted to flip the script on the genre. the action was good the comedy was great, but the movie did not make me want to see more of the Green Hornet.
