The Green Hornet

Criminals beware! there's a masked vigilante in town, and he has a car pimped out with missiles and other such cool stuff which he can afford because underneath the mask he's an incredibly wealthy socialite. Awesome, I hear you all say, but has Christian Bale toned down that silly growl yet?

No, it's not Batman. It's that other masked vigilante with a pimped out car. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Green Hornet. Nope, I don't know either. Very much an also ran in the pantheon of super heroes, The Green Hornet began life as a radio serial in the 30s. Brit Reid, wealthy head of a newspaper would take to the streets at night with his trusty sidekick Kato to dispense justice to all the thugs and lowlifes they can get their hands on. Other than the radio show there was also a tv series in the 60s in which Bruce Lee starred as Kato. personally my only memory of the character is a crossover episode with Batman of the 60s in which The Green Hornet poses as a criminal in Gotham in order to bring down a supervillain from the inside. This brings us nicely into the latest incarnation.

For the big screen update, Seth Rogen (Writer and star) has lifted this storyline almost entirely and had a few laughs with it. With Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine fame, on board as director one would expect something a little offbeat and quirky. Indeed, it isn't what you would call a normal superhero movie, but Gondry's influence is rather lost under the weight of it's star. This is a vehicle for Rogen through and through.

Rogen plays Brit Reid the underachieving son of a well respected newspaper magnate. When daddy dies Brit just wants to carry on as normal, spending his fathers money and ignoring any responsibility. Along the way Brit befriends his fathers mechanic Kato, mainly because Kato makes good coffee. Kato has many other handy crime fighting skills already built in to him, and when the two prevent a mugging one night, the increasingly useless Brit decides they should become vigilantes. From here on Silliness ensues. Christoph waltz steals the show as a gangster who wants nothing more than for his men to be afraid of him, Cameron Diaz pops up and doesn't really do anything and Seth Rogen bumbles around like he always does.

All in all, The Green Hornet is a fairly agreeable romp. For the most part it moves along swiftly, although the second act falls flat in parts. Given that Rogen is writing I would have expected far more comedy than action, but he succeeds in melding the two together rather seamlessly. Yes it's over the top, it's camp, and it is most definitely a throwback to the old colourful boys own adventures of old, but that all makes for a decent bit of silly entertainment. It's not perfect by a long shot, and a lot of people may be put off by the fact they've never heard of the damn thing, but there are far worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Rating: 3/5

Batman: The Hype Rises

As the new year begins it strikes me that since Christopher Nolan announced the title of the 3rd installment of his Batman series there has been zero mention of it in the press. One Google search later, and I am informed that the finalised script is due to be completed this month with shooting to start in May. That's alright then. The Dark Knight Rises has not slipped quietly in to development hell, it's just biding it's time a little bit. So I'm going to take this opportunity to engage in a little pre-marketing speculation, as once the script is locked in we won't hear of anything else.

Warning: Spoilers Ahoy

So, there are two items on the agenda today: Who will the villain be, and will it actually be any good? Let's start with the villains. There are a good number of the usual rogue's gallery who can be crossed off the list. The Joker and Scarecrow are both assumed to be inmates of Arkham following the events of The Dark Knight; Two-Face is dead; Chris Nolan has publicly announced that The Riddler will not feature and, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze and Manbat are all a little too silly to fit into the "realistic" version of Gotham we have become accustomed to. So who does that leave?

In no particular order here are some of the front-runners in my head.

Talia Al Ghul - In comic book lore Talia is the daughter of the immortal Ra's Al Ghul and is a love interest of Bruce Wayne. she occupies a space similar to that of Catwoman and is more of an Anti-hero than a villain. Having used Ra's Al Ghul in the first film there is a good possibility of a revenge story coming to the fore here, as well as tying up the story of the League of Shadows a little better. Having the characters linked across the 3 films would nicely bookend the series too.

Catwoman - I think by this stage everyone in the world is familiar with Catwoman. She wears tight leather, she has a whip, she's a devious criminal but not that bad a person, and she is a love interest for both Batman and Bruce Wayne depending on how she's dressed. now the fact that the only female character in the series was blown to pieces in the last film does suggest that Nolan be looking to fill those shoes for the third outing. Hopefully this will be a character who has a modicum of a personality. Catwoman would fit in nicely there as would the aforementioned Talia. Lord knows what story they'd go for with Catwoman. There's plenty to choose from anyway.

Harley Quinn - Up until now there has been absolutely zero mention anywhere of the possibility of the Jokers Girlfriend being introduced. Granted, in The Dark Knight we are led to believe that the Joker doesn't really have any friends, he's a little too crazy for normal interaction. However I do believe Harley could fit nicely into the Nolan universe. Her story goes she is a young psychologist assigned to the Joker in Arkham and is gradually twisted around to his way of thinking over the course of their sessions. Easily done without having to show the joker on-screen. The origin story could be tweaked without much thought either. The Joker has obviously left quite a mark on Gotham and thanks to the Arkham breakout in Batman Begins there are plenty of loonies wandering the streets of Gotham who would be more than willing to act as a copycat. On a Side note, there's the option of introducing the Joker Gang who featured quite heavily in the futuristic "Batman Beyond" series.

Hugo Strange - I can't help notice my list so far has been entirely female, so here's a change of pace. I must admit, I'm not overly familiar with this character but his name has popped up in a few different rumour sites so it's be rude not to include him here. An informed source (Wikipedia) tells me he is a psychologist who becomes obsessed with Batman, and attempts to kill the vigilante so he can take up the mantle himself. To me that could make for a very interesting storyline and fits in nicely with the grim world which has been built up in the first two films.

The Penguin - Why has everyone forgotten Oswald Cobblepot? I suppose no-one really wants to remember Tim Burton's grotesque version involving Danny DeVito and a prosthetic nose. Let's try to look at the character objectively for a moment though. Once you take away his flying umbrella, the Penguin is for all intents and purposes a hardcore gangster. If you look at Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, a lot of it is taken up by badass gangsters trying to take control of Gotham. Now currently the Gotham PD are using all their resources to hunt down Batman. Enter the penguin to quietly take control of the crime syndicates, and suddenly Gotham is more boned than ever before so it's up to one pointy eared vigilante to save the day. Thus he redeems himself in the eyes of the entire city and Christopher Nolan can justify his awful choice of title.

Which, if any, of these villains will actually show up in the film is anyone's guess. Given the history of the series, and indeed the history of superhero movies in general I think it's safe to say there will be more than one antagonist and at least three different plot lines baying for our attention.

In Batman Begins we saw three villains as well as a lengthy origin story and each were given almost exactly the right amount of attention.

The Dark Knight once again, had 3 villains. The Joker dominated the film, Two-Face was unfortunately short changed and the gangsters very much took a back seat, as did any sort of character development. Enough was done right however to ensure it worked.

The hype machine that went along with The Dark Knight was unprecedented. I haven't seen anything like it before or since and the film was very much in danger of collapsing under it's own weight. Instead it became one of the most successful films of all time and everyone loved it. No doubt Warner Bros. are cranking up that machine right now in anticipation of the new script.

So get ready for more of the same in the coming months. I'll be doing my best to ignore it, but I know very well this is an impossibility. I just hope that one more time Nolan won't let the hype get him down and deliver a film that stands up to it's predecessors. Only time will tell.