Notes on the Green Hornet (2011) pt. 2

This is part 2 of my working paper on The Green Hornet

You can find pt 1 here.

2.

Might we consider the characterization and performance by Seth Rogen of Britt Reid in The Green Hornet as a rhetorical articulation of failure?  That is to say, The Green Hornet performs an aesthetic of failure in its attempt to meet all the political, artistic, and commercial demands imposed by the film’s paratext – the politics and discourse surrounding its production.  Rogen, while not necessarily omnipotent, certainly feels the discursive weight it attaches to his body.  After all, he is the palpable persona –co-writer AND lead actor- a veritable shorthand and reference for all the political and artistic decisions in constructing the narrative, as well as the body receiving the majority of criticism.  Despite the ostensible degree of control he has over the remake, I believe Rogen, not “Seth Rogen” but Rogen our discursively imagined auteur, acknowledges his lack of artistic autonomy in the production of The Green Hornet, which can only lead to failure.

Notes on The Green Hornet (2011) pt. 1

This essay is part 1 of 3 mini-essays on the Seth Rogen's remake of The Green Hornet (2011)

This Mask Was Made In China
Notes on Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet (2011)
and
Meditation on the Aesthetics and Excesses of Failure

1.

Much of negative criticism that The Green Hornet (2011) has garnered typically attributes the failure of the film to its infidelity to the source material and the hegemonic standards that determine “good” (commercial?) film.  Film critics questioned Rogen’s casting of himself as the Green Hornet, his tried and tired spoken-to-be-funny dialogue, his choice of director, Michel Gondry, and the film’s last-minute conversion to 3D spectacle/craze/commercialization.  Most concluded that while the remake failed in totality some gems could found between the frames. One such gem was the character of Kato, who alone was, in one critic’s own paraphrased words, “worth the price of admission”.