THE GREEN HORNET: Good Posing as Bad

In many ways, “The Green Hornet” film acts like its titular character: posing as a bad guy but actually doing good things. The film is a superhero film—a genre that has twice as many bad examples as good ones; hell, in several “good” series the bad outnumber the good (ex. Superman, X-Men, Batman, etc.). “The Green Hornet” is also a deconstruction of superhero films, as the heroes have no actual superpowers and are largely inspired by fictional heroes--and that sub-genre of films has an even worse track record. Continuing, the film’s production has been delayed and restarted so many times one can see Seth Rogan lose 30 pounds during the course of the 2009 film “Funny People.” The villain is played by Christopher Waltz, whose last film, “Inglorious Basterds,” won him an Oscar, so hitting that post-Oscar curse (the "Stealth" phenomenon) was nearly guaranteed. And lastly, the film’s director Michel Gondry only had experience with small-budget quirky comedies like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Science of Sleep”. Somehow though, all of these elements refuse to make a poor movie; on the contrary, they make up a pretty extraordinary experience.

In 1995, George Clooney was approached to star in the film. Clooney felt it was a better career movie to stick with a more well-known superhero franchise and opted for “Batman and Robin.” 16 years later, "The Green Hornet" is a movie self-conscious of other superhero films but never directly parodying or lambasting them. Nearly every line referring to the absurdity of the movie are articulated, and were likely written, by Seth Rogan—the default ‘every man’ character nowadays. However, Rogan is more than a comedian running around amazed by the nearly supernatural violence—he is an active, and even admirable, participant in beating up the bad guys.

Reciprocal to Rogan, is Jay Chou, a real life Chinese singer and songwriter so talented and famous, he’s never been on American Idol. While Kato (Chou) is physically more skilled at fighting the bad guys than the barrel-chested Britt (Rogan), he is neither impervious nor just a straight man, bounce-board for Rogan’s jokes. Kato is given the cinematic respect appropriate for a star who, in all likelihood, is more world famous than Rogan.

28 million albums sold is even more impressive given China's bootlegging industry.

More than any visual sense, the supporting character strength also coincides with director Gondry’s strongest suit as a director. In all of Gondry’s films, side characters are given personalities, ambitions, thoughts and feelings. Yes, some characters have more screen time, but no character is a cardboard cutout—including in “The Green Hornet.” Chou and Rogan both beat up bad guys, they both need each other, they have pride and want company.

By comparison, one could look at last summer’s kick-off superhero film, “Iron Man 2.” In that film, everybody was an extra to Robert Downy Jr.’s Tony Stark. There were no less than three villains and none EVER got the upper hand on Stark. In “The Green Hornet,” Christopher Waltz plays a bad guy whose insecurity is more fun to watch than his near-disinterested dangerousness. Indeed, his insanity is not one of entertainment, wealth or vengeance, but of practicality. He is bad because it’s easier than being good—a sentiment the heroes act out, though don’t condone. On the opposite side, and representing about one-fourth of the audience, is the female lead, played by Cameron Diaz. For me, Diaz walking onto the screen was like somebody walking into a room with a grenade. Whoa. What’s going on? Are you crazy? This could be a show-stopper, I feared. But no, true to form, Diaz’s character Lenore Case is given a real personality with real strengths, desires and opinions. She is no Pepper Potts-esque trophy for the heroes nor a wet towel, ball buster or other annoying archetype.

The film has a death count, which is something, and characters feel a small amount of remorse for the collateral damage, which is something too. But the film is simply not intellectually or dramatically patient enough to give any scene nuance or weight. The movie is a mid-winter popcorn flick and a solid one at that. Unfortunately, even within this realm, of fun--though not mindless--entertainment, director Gondry fails to trust the audience much at all. A prologue scene involving Britt is reiterated to the audience twenty minutes later. Why? No reason, just filler. Fodder, even. Similarly, Britt pieces together the criminal mastermind plot with the grace of a drunken lumberjack. Neither of these sequences are inspiring and even drive the actual characters to implicitly ask, “why are these scenes here?”

Lastly, I hope 3D technology doesn't have to warrant a complaint after every movie, but for now it does. This film was an example of post-production conversion and it showed. During the film, I was distracted by every camera movement motion blur. Other times I felt depth perception actually getting skewed. Rather than being more immersed in the film, as 3D theoretically does to an audience, I was kicked out of the movie experience. Instead of wondering about thematic issues (as artists intend) or being flatly amused (as roller coaster designers intend), I was left wondering about the production itself. It’s like wondering what paints Van Gogh used rather than wondering what his paintings meant. It’s like wondering what paints they used on the Kingda Ka at Six Flags rather than just screaming with my hands in the air. No, to me, no feature film has benefited from 3D and all of them have cost $3 more than the normally outrageous ticket price.

While “The Green Hornet” is lackluster in its worst moments, there is nothing wholly objectionable about the film. The film takes its characters seriously but never itself. And this goes a long ways in making it one of the most consistently funny films I’ve seen in months.