Hollywood has long been trying to bring The Green Hornet to the big screen. The newspaper man turned superhero has been around since the 1930s, and was one of the more popular serialized radio dramas of the era. Along with characters like the Shadow, the Masked Avenger, and (though a little later) Flash Gordon, the Green Hornet is one of the original American superheroes. Yet, for the longest time the character was stuck in development hell as everyone from George Clooney, to Jet Li, to Kevin Smith has been attached at one point or another to star or direct a movie adaptation. In fact, they’ve been trying to make a Green Hornet film for so long that at one time, Bruce Lee was attached to play the loyal sidekick Kato (Lee did play Kato in a short lived Green Hornet television series in the 1960s).
After long last, we finally have a Green Hornet film, in eye popping 3D no less, and directed by Michel Gondry. Gondry is most well known for directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Though perhaps a strange choice for a superhero movie, more and more the genre is finding that good directors are what matter, not so much whether they are fanboys or not. Gondry also may have been the best choice because he was able (along with Rogen’s help) to blend action and comedy in a way so that one rarely impedes on the other.
Seth Rogen stars as Britt Reid, the son of a wealthy media magnate and newspaper man (played by Tom Wilkinson). Britt is a Billy Madison-esque playboy who spends his days partying. After his father’s untimely death, Reid has to come to grips with taking over for a man so publicly loved, despite the fact that their private relationship was far more complex. In trying to reconcile the two, Reid meets Kato (Jay Chou), an employee of his father’s who is part mechanical genius, part whiz barista, and part martial arts master.
After struggling to ease their frustrations over their respective relationships with the elder Reid, Britt and Kato stumble into the idea of crafting a superhero persona, the Green Hornet, to fight crime in the city. Ironically enough, their plan involves acting like bad guys to get close to the crime lords of the city. With aid from Britt’s new secretary Lenore (the poorly cast Cameron Diaz) Reid and Kato work to clean up the city and take on Russian criminal Benjamin Chudnofsky (Oscar winner Christoph Waltz).
If the story feels a little familiar - son takes over the family business after parents are dead, decides to take up the cause to rid his home city of crime and corruption - it is. At least the premise of it is. Yet, you won’t find a cape, a cowl, or Alfred anywhere near this film. To dismiss The Green Hornet as just a big ripoff on Batman is incorrect and ignorant. The Green Hornet actually predates Batman by three years. (Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939). Plus, the executions in both of their stories is incredibly different.
A little suspension of disbelief is required that Kato could be this mechanical genius, as it is he who crafts most of the weapons and most importantly, the Black Beauty, the signature car of the Hornet and Kato. The Black Beauty is a character unto itself, commanding similar screen presence as all-time great cars like KITT and the DeLorean. Semi-related, the whole motif of the Green Hornet and Kato just oozes cool. Nowhere is that better captured than in the scene where Bitt and Kato are rolling around town in the newly minted Black Beauty singing along to “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio. Any movie that can make relevance out of a Coolio song in 2011 has certainly accomplished something.
Rogen and Chou have incredible chemistry and seemingly were made to do some sort of buddy comedy. Chou specifically is a revelation and is pitch perfect in a role that was notoriously hard to fill, and has been even more of a revolving door of actors than that of Britt Reid. Fans who were disappointed when Steven Chow (Kung-Fu Hustle) left the film need not worry. Chou is fantastic, able to perfectly trade one liners with Rogen and deliver incredible martial arts feats, with the help of spectacular action set pieces designed by Gondry. Waltz is entertaining as the villainous Chudnofsky, and it is clear that he is embracing the chance to take on a fun role after his Oscar winning performance. The tracker record for that is riddled with mis-steps (See Halle Berry in Catwoman), but Waltz definitely avoids that here.
Diaz is the real weak point of the film. Luckily, Lenore doesn’t show up till a ways into the movie,and her character isn’t nearly as central as someone like Pepper Pots in Ironman, but her casting was a real mistake. The fact is that Diaz is just a little too old for the role, and even though the script actually references her age and tries to play it off with comedy, it only highlights the issue more. If the character is supposed to be the type of girl to cause tension between Kato and Britt, I need to buy into her sex appeal more. In this case, I had trouble doing that with Diaz, whose days playing that type of younger role might be ending.
While the acting and writing are relatively strong across the board (Rogen’s comedy rarely gets in the way), the action and camera work contribute just as much to making The Green Hornet a stronger than average superhero film. You can tell that real thought has gone into using 3D and making certain elements stand out (like debris from an exploding building) without it being gimmicky. Gondry’s idea for the action sequences and Kato’s fight scenes are really kind of brilliant for this movie. They probably won’t become industry standard, and wouldn’t really work in a lot of other situations, but for this character and film, they are spot on.
So is this the greatest superhero film of all time? No, of course not. The Dark Knight has that title and it doesn't look like anyone, but maybe the Caped Crusader himself, is going to wrestle that away. A better comparison would be Iron Man, because as an origin story it is nearly on that level (though no single performance matches that of Robert Downey Jr.). If you take into account the track record of serial radio heroes leaping onto the big screen, The Green Hornet becomes even better. The last film in that category was the 90s flop The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin (though it remains a film very close to this reviewer's heart).
Given the sordid history of the film, and the track record of former radio superheros making the jump to the big screen, it is amazing that we ended up with this Green Hornet film. While certainly not the pinnacle of the superhero genre, The Green Hornet settles nicely into its niche of deftly tying together comedy and action, pairing those elements with some unique filmmaking techniques and a better level of attention to 3D movie making than most crews seem to have. Simply stated, The Green Hornet is a better movie than most anticipate it to be, it and should be a pleasant surprise for winter moviegoers, yearning for something to tide them over till the next epic run of summer flicks.
"The Green Hornet" opens January 14, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action. Directed by Michel Gondry. Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg. Starring Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Seth Rogen.
