The Green Hornet Review

Yes, I know this is not really a "Comic Book" movie, but it's fucking close enough. I'm kind of still pumped from seeing the movie despite it having ended a couple of hours ago. That will probably provide for an inaccurate review, but I'll just update this later after I've watched it again. This movie was fucking awesome! I was mildly hesitant going into it, and I watched it with a friend who said he had next to no expectations, and we were both pleasantly surprised.

The movie starts at out moderately slow, and takes it's time to build, but it really does know how to build. It's not too much too fast, it takes it's time introducing you to this city, and these characters. And the comedy is pretty much top notch from the beginning to end. Now seeing it in the small town theater that I did, I felt like my associate and I were two of like three people in the theater laughing, and the rest of the crowd was full of dead people... maybe the comedy in the movie is weird... but I thought it was funny as fuck. I mean there were parts I had trouble not laughing at. The banter back and forth between the main two characters, Britt & Kato, is just too good. Also, there are a handful of Bruce Lee jokes thrown in that I not only thought was a great way to pay tribute to the old show and previous actor, but also were really funny too. Not only that, but the villain is pretty funny too. He's like this late aged crime boss who's worried about his image, so he's constantly trying to convince his cronies that he's still scary, and throughout the film reinvents himself as a super villain, mostly just to stay "scary" whilst fighting The Green Hornet. This character could have easily turned into a caricature of a villain, but instead turned into a nice satire of these anti-heroes as a whole, and made sense in the world they set up. The action starts out fine, not too over the top, and slowly climbs up the ladder. When it starts out the pacing is similar to the old TV show (yeah, I've seen a few of them before giving up when they fought aliens in one episode...), and by the end gets to over the top action that's more reminiscent of Shoot 'em Up or Crank, and afterwards you kind of forget where it happened. It felt very well done and almost seamless.

I couldn't decide which photo I wanted to use, so I used both!

There was stuff I didn't like, but I'm honestly going to have to nitpick to point them out. Cameron Diaz... alright I guess I'll elaborate. I didn't know she was even in the movie until recently, and when I found out I guess it just seemed like a last minute addition in my mind, despite whether it was or not. Her part in the movie is awfully minuscule,  and whenever she is the two main characters talk about how hot she is, and they both kind of have a thing for her. This might have worked 10+ years ago, but not so much anymore... Maybe it's just me, but she's kind of not hot anymore. Now I mean she's still a beautiful woman, but not in the "Leading Lady" way. She would be a smoking mom in a movie, but those aren't the roles I see her in, and it's kind of not here either. Britt Reid sleeps with some smoking hot lady in the first fifteen minutes of the film, and Cameron Diaz is the main love interest character? Not so much... I will say they handle it pretty well and don't go a conventional route with this love triangle, despite how awkward it feels... My only real other problem with the film was that some of the effects seemed a little cheesy. Not all of them, I thought most of them were very stylized, and looked awesome, but a few here or there I noticed. Which kind of makes me happier, if they spent less on the effects, maybe the film makes more money and I get to see a sequel? Probably not, but I'll hope...

Everyone who was worried that Seth "I'm the fat awkward comic relief guy" Rogen couldn't pull off a super hero, hopefully you're pleasantly surprised as I was. Rogen re-imagines the character here, and seperates the character from a number of other characters he could easily be lumped in with. I mean why is it totally cool when Chris Nolan wants to completely retool Batman, and everyone loves it, but when the guy who made Eternal Sunshine does the exact same thing to a character no one really gives a shit about in the first place, people throw a fit...? In my mind, The Green Hornet is no longer just another detective superhero with gadgets and a side-kick, like at least half a dozen others I could mention, now he's his own brand of unique hero, and I hope we all get to see more of this version of the character in all forms of media. This movie was everything I wanted out of the Kick-Ass movie (I'll elaborate in a later review), and not only does this character fit into that world pretty easily, but anyone who liked that movie might want to check this one out too!

Thanks for reading

(and seriously go check this movie out! There's really not much out right now that deserves to be seen more...)