The plot, which updates the story of the Green Hornet character created for a 1930s radio serial, revolves around the relationship between Rogen’s spoiled-schlub-turned-vigilante Britt Reid and his crafty chauffeur, Kato (played by Taiwanese martial arts whiz Jay Chou). The buddy-flick dynamic mostly consigns Cameron Diaz to third-wheel status.

In the movie’s guy-centric world, Reid, vain heir to a family newspaper fortune who’s hung up on the way he’s been treated by his media maven father (Tom Wilkinson), generates some solid laughs grounded in Rogen’s hapless superhero routine and the clearly superior talents of his sidekick.

But while sight gags and juvenile jokes score some laughs, the movie’s most arresting moments come from the interplay between the individuals, including a knock-down, drag-out fight between Kato and Reid that draws on the pair’s clashing egos. It’s an elaborate fight scene similar to the classic comedic battles between Inspector Clouseau and his manservant Cato in the original Pink Panther movies, only this time juiced by Gondry’s time-warp visuals. Here, the comedy-action cocktail goes down easy and packs a punch.

Still, the on-screen antics in the PG-13 flick grow tiresome by the time Britt kicks his pal Kato in the groin. And that’s part of the problem with The Green Hornet: You’d never see Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne slug Michael Caine in the nuts.

There’s also the sad case of the underutilized villain. Coming off his once-in-a-lifetime role as Inglourious Basterds’ nightmare Nazi, Christoph Waltz is good but not great as Los Angeles crime boss Benjamin Chudnofsky.

His outrageously excessive two-barreled gun looks pretty amusing, but the film’s running gag about Chudnofsky’s desire to be perceived as a scary dude wears thin. You know Waltz could bring unbridled hilarity to the celluloid party, but somehow Gondry fails to extract the kind of performance that could have livened up the bad guy’s scenes. Instead of gut-busting black humor, we get a watered-down psycho.

The constant friction between the movie’s quest for laughs and its seeming thirst for balls-out action leaves Green Hornet dangling in its final third. The movie gets an A for effort but a C for execution in this a delicate cinematic balancing act — often tried, rarely perfected — that points toward an interesting evolution in superhero movies, as measured by three distinct epochs in the genre’s rapidly changing landscape.

The Earnest Hero Era: The villains got the laugh lines during the first wave of superhero blockbusters. Superman (Christopher Reeve), Batman (Michael Keaton), Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) and the Incredible Hulk (Eric Bana and later Edward Norton) played it straight as somber crime-fighters harboring secret obsessions.

The Age of Wit: Armed with minds every bit as sharp as their weaponry, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Heath Ledger’s Joker elevated Iron Man and The Dark Knight from standard superhero spectacle into the realm of well-rounded entertainment. Both movies did boffo box office by appealing to general audiences in addition to comic book fans. Lesson learned: Character arcs gain traction when the serious stuff is leavened with clever dialog.

The Post-Modern Superhero: Pioneered by 2010’s Kick-Ass, the new model features ordinary losers who favor punch lines over actual punches. Like last year’s cult hit, about a comic book fan who orders his costume online, Green Hornet follows the transformation of a self-conscious dork into an actual crime-fighter.

What’s Next for Superhero Flicks?

The upcoming year in superhero movies draws from all three templates. Thor does not look to be a barrel of laughs, while Super, featuring Rainn Wilson (The Office), seems rooted in the weird misadventures of a depressed fanboy. X-Men: First Class, with Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn at the helm, might pull off the deft combo of action and humor. Further out, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers could become the gold standard of comic superhero movies in 2012.

Blunted though Green Hornet’s sting may be, the movie — as the latest entry in the Kick-Ass School of Post-Modern Superheroism — represents a promising new direction for a genre that only now seems to be catching up with the “dramedy” concept that TV auteurs have been practicing for decades in shows like The X-Files, Firefly and Fringe.

“Funny” and “heroic” need not be mutually exclusive concepts. But, like the formula for the knockout gas in the Green Hornet’s gun, it can prove difficult to find the right mix.

WIRED Goofy guns, ingenious monster car and surreal fight scenes offer plenty of 3-D eye candy.

TIRED Comedy is hard, and star Seth Rogen plays the schlub/superhero card for laughs a few times too many.

Rating:

Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide. Follow us on Twitter: @hughhart and @theunderwire.

See Also:

• Rating Green Hornet's Guns and Gadgets
• Seth Rogen Talks Green Hornet's Fast Cars, 3-D Secrets
• First Look: Green Hornet's Black Beauty Is a Killer Car
• Photos: See Classic Cars, Green Hornet Gear in Britt Reid's Garage

Authors: Hugh Hart

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