Film Review with Robert Mann – The Green Hornet

17th January 2011

The Green Hornet 3D ***
The Green Hornet 2D ***

The first of numerous superhero movies to be released in 2011 (and the first ever superhero movie to be released in 3D, three others following this summer), The Green Hornet (not to be confused with this summer’s Green Lantern) finds its original inspirations in a very different source than most superheroes.
Whereas most superheroes start their lives in the pages of comic books, The Green Hornet was originally broadcast on the airwaves in a radio series that ran from 1936 to 1952 – although the character has since made the transition to the world of comics as well. Created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker with input by radio director James Jewell in 1936, the titular American pulp hero and masked vigilante has appeared in a number of serialised dramas in a wide variety of media since his creation, including film serials in the 1940s, a TV series in the 1960s – starring Van Williams as the titular hero and Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato in what is perhaps the best known incarnation of the character – multiple comic book series from the 1940s onwards and, of course, now a big Hollywood movie. The Green Hornet’s 2011 incarnation, however, has been a very long time coming and the journey to its release has been an uphill one. The issue about who would play the film’s two main roles has been on the mind of many a Green Hornet fan for a very long time and the question as to who would actually direct the film has been a case of what goes around comes around ever since a film version of the character was first contemplated in the 1990s by Universal Pictures. With George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee originally being considered for the roles, the job of direction was going to go to then commercial director Michel Gondry but, alas, the project wasn’t meant to be. In the time since numerous actors have been considered to play the parts of the Green Hornet and Kato, those being considered for the former including Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Wahlberg and Vince Vaughn while those considered for the latter have included Jet Li and Stephen Chow. Additionally, the film has passed through the hands of several film directors and writers, with Kevin Smith coming on board after the rights were bought by Miramax but departing because he felt insecure making something with a much larger production budget than he was used to. Smith, however, did stay on as writer, writing two drafts, but with no further progress on the script – which has since manifested itself in the form of a comic book series – the rights lapsed and were purchased by Columbia Pictures. At this point the film began to gain some momentum with Seth Rogen, fresh off the success of his comedy Knocked Up, being hired to both play the lead role and co-write the script with frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg (who is also an executive producer alongside Rogen), although Hong Kong star Stephen Chow, who had been set to direct as well as co-starring as Kato, eventually left due to creative differences. It was at this point that original director Michel Gondry, now having made a name for himself with the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the charming indie film ‘Be Kind Rewind’, returned to the director’s chair, all those years after the original attempt at the project had failed to come to fruition. And when Chow also decided to not play Kato anymore, the role went to Taiwanese popstar Jay Chou, finally setting the film in motion after so many years in development hell. The casting of Jay Chou has proven rather popular with The Green Hornet’s fanbase since it was first announced and the same has been true of the casting of Christoph Waltz, fresh off his Academy Award win for his role in Inglourious Basterds – his presence bringing some real pedigree to the film – as the villain (a role which was Nicolas Cage was previously in negotiations to play – and also Cameron Diaz as the love interest type role but the involvement of Seth Rogen has received a considerably less favourable reaction, not aided by the fact that the star, who seemed like a red hot comedy property in 2007 after the huge success of Knocked Up, has seen his popularity crumble massively in the years since with comedies such as Observe and Report being unanimously rejected by paying moviegoers. The decision to approach the film as a comedy rather than taking a more serious stance also hasn’t proven popular with the fans and the reaction at a screening of the film at Comic Con – where the fans actually walked out – certainly suggests that this is not an adaptation of The Green Hornet really made with the fans in mind. Also not helping the film’s buzz is the decision to convert the film to 3D, a la Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Gulliver’s Travels. Following the poor 3D seen in all these films, much concern has been raised regarding the 3D here and understandably so. But, this is not just another cash in 3D conversion. For one thing, all of those films were converted either without the consent of or with the active opposition of the directors who actually made them while The Green Hornet was not only converted to 3D with the full support of director Michel Gondry with the active participation of him in the conversion process, the director actually being rather excited about the prospect of making the film 3D when the decision to convert it was first announced. What’s more, Gondry’s filmmaking style seemingly lends itself almost perfectly to 3D – there has been some speculation that he originally envisioned the film in 3D and, despite not being allowed to film it with 3D cameras, still shot the film with 3D in mind (whether this is true or not remains to be seen) – and, because the decision to convert was made pretty much straight after shooting had wrapped – and the film was pushed backed to allow more time for conversion – far more time has been available for the conversion job to be done. This, coupled with the extra effort put in to the conversion process and the fact that the reshoots were carried out – using 3D cameras if rumour are to be believed – and the visual effects were all done in 3D as well, certainly suggests a conversion job far superior to any seen yet and certainly one that is as much creatively motivated as it is done to make extra money out of moviegoers. So, does the film deliver on its promise of 3D that will make 3D conversions respectable and, more importantly, does the film overcome some of the bad omens and truly deliver something that is worth the long wait?

The son of newspaper mogul James Reid (Tom Wilkinson), Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) drifts through life with little purpose, spending his nights partying and his days sleeping, caring about nothing but his own selfish desires. Everything changes, though, when his father is killed and he meets a personal employee of his father’s called Kato (Jay Chou), who lets him in on some of his father’s secrets. Kato’s job for Britt’s father was to fix up his cars and make coffee and an unusual friendship immediately sparks off between the two. Realising that the city in which he lives has fallen prey to crime and corruption and that his father wanted to make everyone realise the truth, Britt realises that he hasn’t done anything good in his entire life and decides to make a change, asking Kato to join him on his adventure. Thus, using a staggering cache of weaponry and just about the coolest car you’ve ever seen – all designed and built by Kato – they turns themselves into masked crime fighters, Britt under the alias The Green Hornet with Kato as his nameless not-so-sidekick. Utilising a different approach to crime fighting, they decide to pretend to be the bad guys in order to get close to the good guys, a plan which unfortunately brings them to the attention of Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), a man who has just succeeded in uniting an entire city’s criminal gangs under his rule and who is not about to tolerate a masked hero getting in his way. Also taking the reins on his father’s media empire, much to the annoyance of editor and colleague of his father’s, Mike Axford (Edward James Olmos), Britt also hires a secretary in the form of Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz) who becomes the unwitting mastermind behind the duo’s missions when Britt asks her to do research on the Green Hornet to help him and Kato know what to do next. With Britt providing the money, Kato providing the muscle and gadgets and Lenore unknowingly telling them what to do, the three of them just barely make for a passable crime fighting team. Will it be enough to end Chudnofsky’s reign of terror though?

Conceptually, there was always the possibility that The Green Hornet might come across to many as some sort of Batman rip off – after all, there are many parallels that could be drawn between the two and mainstream viewers, unfamiliar with the origins of the character, would perhaps be more likely to come to this impression. This film, however, is quite literally, the polar opposite of ‘The Dark Knight’ – and not in a good way sadly. The approach taken here is one of an action comedy rather than that of a serious adaptation, something that has annoyed the fans from the very beginning. There is nothing necessarily wrong with taking a lighter approach to a superhero movie – it worked with Fantastic Four after all – but at the very least a film needs to show respect for its source material and, more importantly, actually be good on its own terms, two things that this film largely fails to accomplish. There are a number of reasons why this is the case. For starters, the 3D doesn’t quite live up to some of the promise that has preceded the film’s release. For a conversion job, i.e. compared to last year’s four converted 3D movies, the 3D isn’t bad and, in fact, this is probably one of the better 2D to 3D conversion jobs yet…at least as far as ones that weren’t planned for conversion from the very beginning go. That said, however, this certainly doesn’t deliver anything even close to the best 3D you will see and, as a result of the fact that more attention has been paid to the conversion of action sequences than to other scenes, the 3D is rather uneven, applying some very noticeable visual enhancements to the action sequences – although it’s unfortunate that there aren’t more of them to gain from the 3D – but adding little to nothing to scenes that aren’t based around action or distinctive visuals…and there are a lot of such scenes. The 3D doesn’t work as well, for instance, in scenes that are based around conversations as it does in action sequences. It does, however, work pretty well with Gondry’s trippy visuals, being put to quite effective use in scenes featuring Kato Vision – the means by which Kato perceives the threats posed by adversaries – and also a split screen sequence featuring various levels of depth, something that provides a very innovative and different use of 3D. The film actually works best when it is showcasing director Michel Gondry’s distinctive visuals and these are something that for the most part do deliver, with Gondry delivering some very inventive and eye catching visual sequences with dazzling cinematography, sharp editing and beautifully choreographed, almost poetic, action. The trippy visuals and action sequences, both fights and car chases, are full of Gondry’s unique visual style and he also brings many really good touches to the film, from the aforementioned Kato Vision to the imaginative props and beyond. The Black Beauty, while rather overhyped in the marketing – it is just a car after all and no match for the Batmobile – is still super cool and beautifully realised in the film and Chudnofsky’s double barrelled handgun is a unique and different prop, somehow serving as an extension of the character. The way Gondry shoots everything is almost beautiful and, in particular, the way he captures the motions of a newspaper printing factory is almost enchanting. The 3D may be far from perfect and doesn’t really provide that much value for the extra cost of a 3D ticket but overall Gondry’s visuals are extremely well done, being the best thing about the film.

Unfortunately, however, this is just one side of the coin and if the visuals are pure Michel Gondry then the comedy is pure Seth Rogen. With Rogen and frequent collaborating partner Evan Goldberg doing the screenplay, the writing on this film often seems close to Seth Rogen’s past movies than it does to Gondry’s and this is not a good thing. This is a film that lacks heavily in the writing department – it’s one of its biggest setbacks – the idea to approach the film as a buddy comedy of sorts with a bromance style dynamic at its heart failing to really work because the two leading actors are so mismatched and lacking in chemistry that it is hard to buy that any kind of friendship could ever emerge between the two of them while not enough is made of the rather different idea of a superhero pretending to be the villain. It seems like Rogen and Goldberg have tried to provide a fresh take on the superhero genre and while they may have partially achieved this, it doesn’t help to ignore the fact that plot is virtually non-existent, the story just meandering from one scene to the next and that, outside of an opening scene which shows a young Britt obsessed with superheroes to the disapproval of his father and a bit of exposition here and there, there is very little that could really be considered character development. Also, while there is some funny dialogue and some moments that do prove quite hilarious – Britt coming up with the name “The Green Bee” for instance – the humour often doesn’t hit the mark, the dialogue often failing to zing despite there being some humorous interplay between Britt and Kato and a recurring joke about the pronunciation of Chudnofsky’s name grows old pretty fast. The result of all this is a film that, even without a particularly long running time, feels a bit overlong.

Some of the blame for this, however, can also go to the acting. In the leading role, Seth Rogen is just Seth Rogen. Sure he lost 30 pounds to play the role – something that at least means he is in more suitably physical shape for the part – but aside from this, and the fact that, with this film carrying a 12A rating compared to the usual 15 his films receives, he is freed from the usual crudeness that is present in his films, he doesn’t really seem any different from any of his other films. He is the wrong choice for the role, period, and his casting really lets the whole down, his lack of acting ability and even comic timing making for a character that is lacking in charisma and charm and who only works on any level at all because the character of Britt has been retooled as an egotistical doofus and not a very likable one either, i.e. what Seth Rogen plays in pretty every movie he is in. Effectively, Rogen ruins the movie. Despite not speaking much English, Jay Chou is the real star, displaying far more charisma and proving far more entertaining and, with his character getting most of the stuff to do – Kato is the real hero, being both the brains and the brawn, doing most of the fighting while Britt, who cannot fight for most of the duration (although he does get to kick some ass himself later), just tags along and does little, making Kato a not-so-sidekick – he steals the show from Rogen again and again. With little of note to do, the rest of the cast don’t fare very well. Aside from the fact that her character is presented as a non love interest who is actually repulsed by the titular hero – a bit of a change for superhero movies where the female lead is often there for romantic entanglements of some sort – Cameron Diaz has very little to do and this reflects in something of a non-performance, while Christoph Waltz tries his best but, saddled with an underwritten and poorly developed character, his performance ends up being just okay, far from the brilliance on display in Inglourious Basterds. He is slumming it here. This movie doesn’t deserve him. As for other cast members, Edward James Olmos is completely wasted in a role that offers him little to do although there is an excellent cameo appearance at the start of the film by James Franco as a criminal who makes the mistake of crossing Chudnofsky. Unfortunately, this one great cameo appearance is not enough to save what is a very underwhelming film. Rogen and Gondry’s styles just don’t go together and less emphasis on comedy and more on action might have yielded better results. Quality wise, this is a superhero film owes far more to 90s superhero movies like The Shadow and The Phantom (which themselves were based on classic pulp characters) than it does to some of brilliant superhero flicks seen in more recent years. So sadly, while not an entirely bad film – it does prove reasonably watchable and deliver moments that are very entertaining – The Green Hornet is a superhero movie that lacks sting.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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