The Buzz(no pun intended) on this film has been interesting since the first trailers debuted several months ago. Until recently, it hasn't been hyped up as much as most films in this genre, and I've heard more than one or two people react with incredulity upon hearing that the main creative force in this endeavor was Seth Rogen, of Knocked Up and SuperBad fame. He not only stars in the Green Hornet, but also wrote and produced it.
My opinion on Seth Rogen being what it was(see previous post), I was not optomistic about this movie. And though at the end of the day, I can't say I didn't enjoy this movie at all, Seth Rogen did nothing to disprove my opinion of him.
The film spins a typical origin yarn: a nowhere near developed enough exposition episode introduces us to Britt Reid(Rogen), is the spoiled sole heir to the Reid newspaper empire, though he's more concerned with partying than with, well, anything really. He is shocked out his complacency by the combination of the death of his father, and meeting Kato, an employee of his father whose penchant for mechanical wizardry is only matched by his affinity for kung fu awesomeness.
After deciding that it's his destiny to become a hero after seeing Kato fight off a group of thugs, Brit commisions Kato to build a car dubbed Black Beauty, replete with all the requisite accoutrements for urban crimebusting, and our heroes are off, with the twist that they play the part of villains.
The main antagonist is a russian crimelord, Chudnovsky(whom is saddled with a silly and pointless subplot regarding how innapropriate his name is for a criminal) whom is concerned that the Hornet may be trying to horn(et) in on his action. After all the players are in place, more or less typical hijinx ensue. Eventually, Britt finds out that his father was actually the victim of foul play, not of a bee sting as was initially reported. At this point, I had a brief flash of hope. In most films this would be the great revelation serving as the impetus that makes the hero get serious about fighting the good fight(this is done particularly well in the 2002 "extreme" spy movie XXX). Alas it was not to be. The revelation is immediately followed by a dumb joke about sushi, and the opportunity to actually go somewhere is lost, forced to demure to make room for Rogen's antics.
Honestly The Green Hornet wasn't that bad. Decent Special effects and well done action sequenses all seemed worth the time. Extra kudos go to Jay Chou, whose deadpan delivery and damn near perfect comic timing made him the perfect Martin to Seth Rogen's Lewis. But therein lay the problem. There was Seth Rogen, doing the Seth Rogen thing; embodied by a seemingly endless string of goofball quips and rejoinders while things happen around him. Observe the photo at the head of this post. That's pretty much a perfect representation of how these two characters come off in the movie. Kato doing the heavy lifting, The Green Hornet standing there, being Seth Rogen.
It's unfortunate that the ostensible star of the movie proved to be such a distraction from the things that made the movie good, especially considering he wrote it. This is the unfortunate side effect of when someone gets their head gassed up on their own fame. It becomes about them, and not about the story. You can get away with this in a movie like The 40 Year Old Virgin, which was more character driven than story driven or a Knocked Up, where the whole point is "how is dude going to respond to this?". With a long established property like Green Hornet, it's GOT TO BE about the story or it just won't work, particularly with a character that's primarily existed for the last several decades as a comic book entity. Fanboys(a euphemism for comic fans)are notoriously unforgiving when the history and traditions of these characters are not honored. Don't believe me? Ask Ben Affleck or Ang Lee.
In The Green Hornet, the canon took a back seat to Seth Rogen's one-liners. There was no character development for the hornet at all, which is a shame because there was a lot of potential to do so. You got some of the traditional hallmarks of great Superhero storytelling(motivated to the cause of justice due to great tragedy), with a few fun twists(G.H. pretends to be a villain, that's his cover), and just enough WTF randomness to keep you on your toes. Unfortunately the star of the movie missed a great opportunity to build a franchise because he was just too distracted by his own silliness.
No comments:
Post a Comment