Thursday, January 20, 2011

With Envy, But Little Sting

Super-hero movies are big business in Hollywood. Big, ultra mega business. Put it this way: last year Disney bought Marvel comics for four BILLION dollars. That's a lot of money to ensure that the company has one of the key spots in the super-hero game.

Batman, Iron Man and Spider-Man are all worth millions at the box office. And when merchandise, action figures, animated series and other by-products are factored in to the equation, the value of the characters is phenomenal.

And the amazing thing is that Iron Man proved that the character doesn't have to be a household name with built-in brand recognition. Tony Stark was an unknown commodity for most moviegoers, but through the strong casting of Robert Downey, Jr. and a powerful introductory film, Iron Man is now a major box office figure. And like his other super-hero cohorts and the pinnacle of success that is the James Bond series, there is no reason that the Iron Man movies cannot continue for a long, profitable time.

But for every Iron Man there is a Jonah Hex, for every Ghost Rider there is a Scott Pilgrim and for every Daredevil there is an Elektra. Making a big budget comic book movie does not guarantee that an audience is going to pay their money for the show. Director Zach Snyder learned that painful lesson when he followed up the surprise hit 300 with the disappointing Watchmen.

Which brings us to The Green Hornet, a character that has a most unusual pedigree.

The Green Hornet is not truly a "comic book hero" because he didn't debut in comic books. He started as a radio show character more than 70 years ago. Like his contemporaries, The Lone Ranger and The Shadow, The Green Hornet then made the journey from one medium to another. Movies and comic books came after the character was established in radio.

The premise for the original radio series was simple but brilliant: Britt Reid, who by day is a wealthy newspaper publisher, fights crime (with his trusty sidekick Kato) as he pretends to be a mysterious criminal mastermind. He works outside the law by posing as a villain and then turn the tables on the true criminals. He was the ultimate one-man 'good cop, bad cop' crime fighter.

For almost 20 years this big budget adaptation of the character has been slowly making its way to the silver screen. Creators attached to the project in the past two decades have included Mark Wahlberg, Nicholas Cage, Jet Li, Kevin Smith, Stephen Chow and (once upon a time) George Clooney.

But the film never came together. That is, until Seth Rogen arrived.

Rogen is a most unusual choice for the main character. Best known for his comic roles as the rude man-child in 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, the chunky, curly-haired actor is not the usual muscular, spandex-clad, strong-chinned choice for a super-hero.

But Rogen slimmed down for the role (or perhaps merely because his box office success allowed him to hire a chef, personal trainer and wardrobe consultant) and became the project's savior after many others had let it languish.

Rogen is not only the star of The Green Hornet, he is also the one of the film's executive producers and its co-writer. And it's because of his involvement with the writing that the movie has such a strange tone.

Most comic book movies have a heavy, almost melodramatic weight to the character. Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered so he becomes Batman; Peter Parker's uncle is murdered so he becomes Spider-Man; Bruce Banner is injured in an experiment and turns into The Hulk. The heroes have their background in basic childhood fears of loss and abandonment and this is one of the reasons why the characters resonate so strongly with all ages.

As a child at the beginning of The Green Hornet young Britt Reid is intimidated and bullied by his father who is the publisher of a major newspaper. As an adult Britt is a rich slacker who defies his father by wasting his days away.

But all of that changes when his father is killed and Britt decides to change his life. But he doesn't do it to avenge his father or because he wants to make his city safer. He does it because he gets drunk and decides to mock his father and, more to the point, because it would be kind of a cool thing to do because his man servant Kato is really good at creating really amazing gadgets. Hence the Green Hornet is drunkenly born.

It is a rather feeble reason to become a hero. It's like a parody of a secret origin but it's supposed to be taken seriously. This strange mish-mash of comedy, parody and drama makes for an awkward hero. Unfortunately the problems don't end there.

Every good comic book movie needs a good comic book villain and this film is truly lacking in that department. Christoph Waltz, who was brilliant in Inglorious Basterds and won an Academy Award for his performance, is wasted as he attempts to find the right tone in a film that is not truly an action movie, but not a comedy either.

Cameron Diaz is also at a loss in her role as Britt Reid's secretary. She is supposed to be smart and have insights to both the city's crime situation and the challenges that a modern newspaper faces, but she is mostly there so Rogen's character can hit on her and say wildly inappropriate things, and then get jealous when Kato takes her on a date. It's not that Diaz can't play the role, it's that the part merely seems to be "sexy but smart secretary who plays hard to get".

The only character who emerges unscathed from this mess is Kato. Taiwanese actor Jay Chou brings a quiet, steady charm to the character and seems to be operating on a different level than the rest of the film. His calm, grounded nature is essential next to the crazed, unfocused Green Hornet but there is the sense that the film could have been great had Kato's character been used as its inspiration.

Watching the film it becomes apparent that the filmmakers are very uncomfortable with the idea of nobility and making a sacrifice for the good of society. Unlike Bruce Wayne who puts on a show as a drunken playboy to mask his crime fighting identity, Britt Reid never develops beyond his frat boy persona. He is always swearing, constantly hitting on his co-workers and never seems to realize that people are in danger. For Seth Rogen's version of The Green Hornet, it's all a big drunken joke.

There film has a handful of strong action sequences and at times some of the humour works. Early in the film there is an action scene with Kato that is spectacular in all its 3D glory, but the film peaks too early and simply goes on too long. Seth Rogen overstays his welcome in the role and the film grows tiresome because of it.

If the movie is successful enough to spawn a sequel, Seth Rogen will hopefully allow the character to develop and grow. A comic book movie doesn't have to be deadly serious, but if this series continues to be the adventures of a frat boy dressing up in a costume, it's a sequel no one will want to see.



No comments:

Post a Comment