'Green Hornet' trailer makes its debut

Posted Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 4:37 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 8:55 PM Central

by John Couture

I'll be honest, I know very little about The Green Hornet, other than what I was able to glean from its Wikipedia entry, but I know that many of you are anxiously awaiting its release. I also know that Seth Rogen is a divisive actor, you either love him or you despise him.

I tend to be in the former camp, but there are times when I stray into the latter camp, so this trailer will go a long way in determining peoples' initial reactions. From the get go, it seems that the character of Britt Reid (aka The Green Hornet) was completely re-tooled to mesh with what Rogen does best, play a snarky party boy with little regard for anyone else.

This all changes (somewhat) when he learns that his straight-laced father has died. This isn't a spoiler as they sort of wrap the entire trailer (below) around it. This little piece of revisionism will surely anger some die-hard fans of the character as not only do they change his father's name, but kill him off before Britt takes up the persona of The Green Hornet, which puts them dangerously close to Batman territory.

In the radio series, Britt's dad was Dan Reid, who was the nephew of The Lone Ranger, thus creating a bit of a vigilante blood line through the two radio serials. It can be assumed that the movie won't make any reference to this connection now that Dan has been changed to James.

My cohort in crime Tim offered his own critique on the trailer. He said that it initially reminded him a lot of Inspector Gadget where the lead hero was a bit inept but helped along by the gadgets of his sidekick. I can see his point to a degree.

Speaking of sidekicks, relative newcomer Jay Chou has his hands full stepping into the mask of Kato, who was perhaps most famously played by Bruce Lee in The Green Hornet TV series. I will say that his portrayal is one of the highlights of the trailer.

What do you think? The Green Hornet was originally supposed to hit theaters this Summer, but has been pushed back to January 14, 2011.