I went to go see the Green Hornet in 3D on opening night, and I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Like I stated I saw it in 3D so I ended up paying 5 more dollars to watch it, and while I don’t feel like I wasted the money, I don’t necessarily feel like I got anything too special out of it. Don’t get me wrong, the film by itself was fantastic, but the 3D wasn’t necessary, but if you have the money for, I definitely recommend it.
Seth Rogen replaces Van Williams in this interpretation as well a Jay Chou does Bruce Lee. Their relationship plays out like an average buddy cop movie, with Rogen’s typical humor (although toned down for a PG-13 rating) throughout the film. The film starts out with a young Britt Reed being reprimanded by his father for failing to protect a girl in a school yard fight, exclaiming, “Trying doesn’t matter if you fail” and causes Britt to just… stop trying. Instead of trying to do anything with his life he just parties. Until one day, his dad dies, he’s in charge of his father’s media empire and gets drunk with Kato, played by Jay Chou. The two decide to desecrate his fathers tomb as both have unanimously decided that his father was an asshole, and thus end up saving a life. High off of the adrenaline, the two decide to make this into a habit, and exploit their deeds using their newly acquired media empire.
And that’s about the first 20 minutes of the movie. The film gets better even while sticking to the “formula” of buddy action films. The fight scenes with Kato are refreshing and different every time, with an effect called Kato Vision, an ability that lets him see and point out what’s dangerous and useful and use those things to his advantage. This is one of those things that looks better with the 3D. Most of the fights are bookended with a fantastic chase scene featuring their car, The Black Beauty. The Black Beauty is a car that’s filled from top to bottom with gadgets, like reinforced glass windows, rocket launchers, twin gatling guns on the hood, green headlights and power windows. The chase scenes also feel fresh and exciting with added humor and explosions galore.
While I’m still on the subject of the main characters, I’d like to confess my dislike of Rogen’s interpretation. While new comers to the Green Hornet may like and not be bothered by his portrayal, I was. Kato is played similarly to his previous incarnation, just replace Bruce Lee for special effects and the character is basically the same, but the same can’t be said for Britt Reed. In the original series he is played straight, a skilled fighter and often times the brain of the operation. Rogen portrays him as a comical, dumb, horny and drunker character, just imagine Seth Rogen in a suit. While the character works for this interpretation, the jokes and character relationship, I wasn’t too fond of it. I’m just saying is all.
Again, back to the film. Now, all these shenanigans attract the attention of two very important characters Chudnofsky and Frank Scanlon, portrayed by Cristoph Waltz and David Harbour respectively. Chudnofsky is an older criminal mastermind, he’s a little crazy, runs all of the crime in the city and is afraid that he might be losing his edge, which he decides that he needs to change in reaction to the Green Hornet. Christoph Waltz, who was also the main villain, Col. Hans Landa, in Inglourious Basterds, plays the character in a charmingly disturbing manner. Always playing innocent and calm until he pulls his double barrel pistol, which he states “was very hard to make”, and turns homicidal and cynical, but always calm.
Frank Scanlon is over shadowed by most of the characters, but is very well done as an up and coming DA waiting for re-election. His character has a little more to do with everyone else, while I can’t really reveal anything without spoiling the film, though it shouldn’t be too hard to follow if you pay a little bit of attention to him.
The film stays fun, never becoming too serious or too drunkenly funny. It maintains a nice flow of action mixed with story and comedy. The 3D effects are minimal and mostly help the visuals. I would highly recommend this movie, be it a date or just hanging out, easily one of the best movies this year, and the year has barely started.
Before I let you go I want to talk a little bit about the 3D. The whole time I’ve mentioned it and said it doesn’t do much, and it really doesn’t, but for two things. The first was the credits. I enjoyed the outro and credits because of the 3D, without it, they would’ve been just cheesy. The second reason is a fantastic scene in which word is being spread about the Green Hornet; the scene starts out with one person, this person talks to someone else and the scene splits into two, both the people meet more people and it splits into a total of 4, and it continues to divide as more people talk and meet! it all flows as one continuous uncut scene, even as it splits, there are no noticeable cuts or breaks in the scene. Although the scene doesn’t necessarily NEED the 3D, it definitely isn’t the same without it. The entire scene feels like it came out of a comic book, and it looks like it did too.
With a great cast, good plot, fantastic action and fun comedy, I can easily recommend this film to anyone. I recommend a definite Full Price watch at the movies, 3 out of 4 stars in my book.
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