The Sweetest Sting
THE GREEN HORNET
By Clarence L. Donowitz
The dominant color in last week’s review was blue, this week we move on to green. For green is the color of the Hornet that wreaks havoc upon villains and the superhero genre alike. At least that's what the filmmakers told the press over stale Danish and lukewarm coffee and for the most part, they are right. This film is a decidedly different take on genre convention, and if I'm not entirely convinced that it is a step in the right direction, maybe my (advanced) age plays a factor in that opinion. After all, how many of the tweeting youngsters have seen the original television series on which this film is based?
“The Green Hornet” was filmed in 2D and later converted to 3D and there has been much hoopla on internet blogs (I do keep up with these things) about whether seeing the film in 3D is worth the price of admission (having only one fully functional eye, I did not face this decision). Like many superheroes, the Green Hornet is molded by childhood trauma. This is almost canonical in films of this type: Bruce Wayne’s/Batman’s father is killed in front of his eyes and Peter Parker/Spiderman loses his beloved uncle. “The Green Hornet” adds a (literal) comic twist to the obligatory "Urszene". Young Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is stung for life when, as a boy, his father James Reid (Tom Wilkinson) rips off the head of his favorite action figurine. Fast-forward 20 years. Reid is a party animal who inhabits lavish hotel rooms with a half a dozen gorgeous women and spray paints the walls (not everyone can be a rock star, but if you're rich, you can act like one). All that juvenile fun comes to an end, however, when Reid's father dies unexpectedly. Getting the right tone for a superhero movie is the banana peel that has caused the fall of many filmmakers. It briefly claimed Joel Schumacher’s career and brought the Batman franchise to its rubber-suited knees in the 90s. Almost a decade later, Christopher Nolan stepped in and saved it by re-envisioning it as a darker tale. Indeed, if I may be allowed a moment of indulgence, my single conversation with Nolan centered around his vision for Batman. He told me was going to refrain from "winking" at the audience, by which he meant communicating through silly jokes and gestures that what they are seeing is not to be taken too seriously. Nothing destroys the filmmaker-audience bond quicker than the filmmaker not taking his or her film seriously. Films are serious business, comedies even more so.
Kato’s origin is worth mentioning; whereas most sidekicks have their own deep seated angst about crime or justice, Kato's initial qualifications are that he can brew the perfect cup of cappuccino. The fact that he is a martial arts expert is only revealed later in well-coordinated fight scenes that combine live action with special effects in a dazzling way. (Mostly) independent director Michel Gondry proves that he can do extroverted mayhem as well as introspective fare. Rogen and Chou share great chemistry; Rogen said he envisioned the film as a twisted version of the "buddy cop" formula. The movie channels Neil Simon along with "Lethal Weapon", as the partners bicker like an old odd couple.
One major measure of a superhero films success is the array of weaponry that is meant to stun, maim and kill and in this regard, "The Green Hornet" does not disappoint. The Hornet's Black Beauty is a vehicle even Batman would love to get his hands on.
The stylish weapons are used to bring down a crime syndicate and Edward James Olmos (of Miami Vice and Battleship Galactica fame) turns in a convincing, if drab performance, as the newspaper patriarch and executive confidant, while Cameron Diaz plays the straight woman to the Green Hornet’s slapstick.
If "The Green Hornet" succeeds, and I use that term lightly, it is because it doesn't try too hard to prove itself. Every time the Hollywood dream factory re-spins an old tale, be it "Robin Hood", or the life of a Roman gladiator, their publicity machine grinds into overtime in an effort to position this film as different from its predecessors. Sometimes, in an effort to be unique, elements that made the old film popular or enduring are tossed aside, or cannibalized beyond recognition.
"The Green Hornet" does not have to contend with any of that, simply because it does not take itself very seriously. It seems that when you make a superhero movie, you can either go light or dark. "The Dark Knight" went one way, but "The Green Hornet" has plenty of honey in its sting.
One humble piece of advice to Hollywood: Why not remake fairy tales as live action movies? The beauty about fairy tales is that they were never meant to be realistic in the first place, so they never have to be reinterpreted.
Unless you're Sigmund Freud.
Or a film critic.