The Green Hornet 3D proves that a film can be good and not actually be good. Just to clarify, this is a film that has been in development for over ten years in various forms. At one point George Clooney was attached as the Hornet slash publishing heir Britt Reed. Different directors also came on board including Kevin Smith and the current helmer Michel Gondry. As far as Gondry goes, I doubt the people going to see Hornet are the type to say; yeah I’m a fan of Science of Sleep or even Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Regarding Green Hornet I liked the part where I laughed but otherwise it was a 3D film that was shot with attention to its spatial environment, but after a while the actual narrative looked like the best hits of a season of some television show about a freak crime fighter. This version stars Seth Rogen who (along with Evan Goldberg) also wrote the only very intermittently witty script. But there are asides that make it unique. Say that Kato (Jay Chou) plays up the fact that Reed’s a bit of a racist and promptly kicks his (boss’s) ass. Or, that the hottie secretary is a cougar (Cameron Diaz) and that Kato and Reed fight over her too. When Kato and Cameron hook up they drink white wine with ice cubes; Green Hornet 3D is a classy film about classy people. There’re even bad guys played by James Franco and Christoph Waltz, basically good actors slumming it up.
Green Hornet 3D does employ a cool visual scheme, and for me it’s the saving grace of the film. Someone remarked while walking out that sequels like this always really get going around the second or third sequel. Brother, I told him, Green Hornet is a one-time deal. We’re talking the Billy Zane Phantom, or the Alec Baldwin Shadow.

Green Hornet was, to my eye, shot for 3D. There are some films that are last-minute-processed for 3D but not actually lit and shot that way; think Clash of the Tightwads and The Last Airbender. GH on the other hand has the look of 3D, which is to say the scenes are both shaded and accentuated with bright areas. Plenty of rack focuses to guide us where to look. This is filmmaking in the 21^st century.

- Michael Bergeron