A Review of the Green Hornet Trailer

The Green Hornet had an initial start as a serial during the Golden Age of radio. I grew up listening to rebroadcasts of how millionaire playboy Britt Reid turned to a superhero of sorts, fighting crime by posing as a bad guy to infiltrate crime from the inside. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to learn about the making of a movie version of this old time radio show. From watching the trailer, I think that movie audiences are going to be in for a big surprise.

The trailer opens with an outside shot of what appears to be a motel. There is a sense of quiet in the air. Suddenly, there is a crash and something that looks like a refrigerator comes crashing through an upstairs window front. Here's our first introduction to Britt Reid, played by Seth Rogan. His party boy life style is more than adequately portrayed, showing his love of excess drinking and dancing with women. This offers a perfect counterbalance to the voice over of his father describing his mission of reporting on crime and corruption while Britt does absolutely nothing. When his father dies in a car explosion, apparently orchestrated by dirty looking criminals, Britt is giving a sobering wake up call.

Enter Kato, played by Jay Chou, offering his condolences to Britt. Apparently, Kato was a close partner to Britt's father and introduces Britt to a side of his father that he never knew. With his new desire to serve humanity, and the neat toys and gadgetry that Kato has created, Britt decides to help out the city and its people. At this point in the trailer, as Britt outlines his plans of fighting crime in memory of his father, we see that this is most definitely an action film. A large number of guns, exploding cars, and matrix style fighting is interspersed with a small humorous scene Britt asks Kato to take his hand and join him on this venture. Kato declines touching him. Britt asks him to still come with him on this journey. Laughter ensues, and then more fighting and explosions.

Overall as a trailer, it definitely gives this movie a sense of it being more than a normal bang bang, shoot-em up flick. You see Britt change from a party boy who doesn't care to someone who wants to save the world, but there's really no feeling for him. However, once all the neat toys are revealed, and the music and explosions are playing in the background, the adrenaline starts pumping. Britt is a superhero with special gadgetry, much like Batman, which is part of the audience the director, I feel, is trying to draw in. The special effects are reminiscent of a Michael Bay film and the soundtrack sounds like something good to work out to. Seth Rogan's acting, in the trailer, reminds me of his role in Pineapple Express, with the dry, flat delivery. Because of my love of the character of the Green Hornet, however, I hope that this is because of poor choices from the film.

In closing, I would say that if you like action movies with a standard plot line, this may be the movie for you. Although that is not one of my favorite types of films, I will be watching because of the radio series.

Sources: imdb.com (for both cast list and trailer)