Despite the fact that I find superhero and comic book movies incredibly hit or miss I still seem to persist in watching a wide range of titles. After the recent success of Iron Man 2 and Captain America I found myself settling down in front of the TV during the week to watch Seth Rogan take the lead role in The Green Hornet. It's not a comic book I'm familiar with and as such I had no idea about what the storyline would be or whether I'd even enjoy it, but thanks to Lovefilm I was able to find out.

Rise Of The Hornets

Growing up with a millionaire father has its downsides, but Britt Reid seems determined to celebrate the upsides and live the life of a Playboy. When his father is killed Britt becomes the new owner of the Los Angeles Daily Sentinal, the only problem is he doesn't have a clue what he's doing. That is until he and his Dad's former driver stop a robbery and he uses the Sentinal to promote the activities of his new alter ego, The Green Hornet a masked crime fighting hero. Of course like everything else he is out of his depths and only survives through Kato's help and now the Cities top gangs want him dead. Can Britt and Kato bring an end to the crime and corruption before it brings an end to them?

Not As Good As It Could Have Been

The concept of the film could have worked but the execution just wasn't quite good enough. A lot of the ideas for the movie had been done previously in other, better films and that detracted a little from the appeal. In director Michel Gondry I felt they had opted for a strange choice here. He isn't a director with experience of comic book movies and although I'd enjoyed Be Kind Rewind, I wouldn't really have chosen its director for this type of movie. In fairness though he does a good job with the special effects, especially the explosions and the car scenes, which all look very realistic and add a rather more fun element to the movie.

Personally I felt it was let down a little by the script and the constant bickering that had been forced on the two lead characters. For the majority of the film the two leads, Britt and Kato, don't seem to trust or even like each other and that doesn't really create a very believable combination. There is too clear an issue between them, which I felt didn't really get resolved properly. It's a shame because despite a rather predictable script and the tension between the leads it is quite an enjoyable film. It's not great but it is entertaining and for that reason it works in spite of its problems.

Casting Call

If the choice of director had me surprised then the lead role being given to Seth Rogan was even more of a shock. Now let me put that into context, Seth is a great comedy actor, but I'd never really considered him as an Action movie star. He does take to the role of Britt quite well and adds some of his own unique humour to the role, which does work. In the role opposite him is Jay Chou an up and coming Taiwanese actor who I'd not previously come across before. Like Seth he takes to the role of Kato well, but it's the unresolved tension between the two even before the love interest is introduced that drops the quality of this film.

That love interest is played by Cameron Diaz, giving a very assured performance as Britt's new PA. She gets involved with Kato causing a slight increase in the tension between the two. As always her performance is decent but she doesn't really add much more than a pretty face to the plot. The real star of the piece for me was Christoph Waltz as the crime king pin Chudnofsky. His determined attempts to kill the Green Hornet were good and his presence in the film gives the viewer a character they will love to hate.

Could Have been Better

Whilst it isn't a bad film it could have been a lot better with a touch more plot and character development. It is entertaining though with good special effects, fight sequences and car chases that take the edge off the films worse points. It is never going to be a classic and if they don't make a second it's one of those films that will be forgotten about, it is however a good way to spend 2 hours of a Winter's evening with an easy going, simple to follow movie