Review of The Green Hornet (2011) by Stevenf — 11 Sep 2013

Seth Rogan has proven before he has the talent to write convincingly for comedy, he tries his hand here at the superhero genre with his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, reviving The Green Hornet in blockbuster fashion, but too much comic tone spoils what had the potential to be a fun action flick, with gadgets galore and big set pieces, but they fall flat for having very little relevance to the weak plot and over abundance of characters with no part to play in the bigger picture.

Seth Rogen is regrettably miscast as spoilt rich heir Britt Reid, who befriends his fathers mechanic and general whiz kid in seemingly everything, Kato, the two embark on an anti-hero journey where we are subject to the over-talkative Rogen who has written the wrong tone of film, Cameron Diaz is also cast as a pretty pointless character indeed, there is very little for her to do and there is simply too much dialogue and improvisation to the point of ridiculing a popular character. Their plans are to take down the biggest villain in LA, played by Christoph Waltz, who gives an unrecognisable performance compared to his powerful role in Inglorious Basterds, not really his fault considering his very menial lines of attempts at laughs which don't follow through. The emergence of a coherent villain happens to little too late, while the film pokes fun at various superhero flicks and the devices typically used in these films, The Green Hornet should really have been doing the same back at itself. We also have the uneasy 'bromance' between Britt and Kato, Jay Cho makes some very random expressions as if his character is annoyed the entire film, perhaps he was frustrated with the egotistical Rogen in the film. They bicker endlessly and the manner in which they speak always suggests there will be a showdown, which comes at a rushed and over-zealous pace. Things happen that are glossed over and not explained the way they should be, like the hate that Britt has for his father, played in a small part by Tom Wilkinson .

There are a few moments of enjoyable fighting and some impressive gadgetry show-offs, but this reboot/revival feels bloated and batting well above its weight, with too much comedy and not enough of a coherent story and irrelevant characters which ultimately comes down to a side-step in the writing and miscast roles.