We promised that the Green Hornet trailer would be appearing just a few scant hours after the first images, and we were not lying. The footage, which was premiered by star Seth Rogen on US TV chat show Jimmy Kimmel, is now online over at Yahoo and you can watch it below.
So how is it? Mixed. While Rogen has promised that it’s not a goofy, spoofy take on the Hornet story, there’s definitely a lot of typically Rogen-style humour to be found in this first look at Michel Gondry's film.
But from the looks of it, there’s also a healthy serving of action and set pieces on board and, while in this presentation the movie comes across as a fairly generic summer (or, in this case, January) blockbuster, you get the feeling that this first trailer aims to dial down the inherent Gondry-ness. Which, depending on what you’re hoping for from the film, is either a good or a very bad thing.
Plus, the filmmakers, including Gondry and editor Sally Menke are still hard at work on the film, so some elements (like the promised “Kato-vision”) are still being tinkered with. While we get a look at some of the movie’s style, there’s more to come (bet they show some of it at Comic-Con).
And while Rogen has slimmed down for the role, there’s little evidence here of him being an action star, with Jay Chou’s Kato getting the lion’s share of the stunts and Rogen’s Britt Reid more learning the ways of being a vigilante.
What is on display in this first promo is the basic story of the Hornet: party animal Britt is suddenly saddled with his father’s (Tom Wilkinson) media empire and, working with loyal and ingenious employee Kato, decides to finally stop living it up and start giving something back. So together the pair cooks up a vigilante known as the Green Hornet, who can pose as a villain to get close to criminals and shut them down. But they hadn’t bargained with the big kahuna of the Los Angeles crime scene: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), who doesn’t take too kindly to the new interloper…
Take a look at the footage and let us know your thoughts.
The Green Hornet buzzes into cinemas on January 14, 2011.