The Green Hornet has had a slow and wobbly route to cinema screens, based upon a 1930s radio serial, which in the 40s became a number of film serials and a comic book, and then, most famously, a 60s TV series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee.

In the 90s development began to create a contemporary film version with George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee attached and Michel Gondry directing. Later, Jet Li was brought on before the film rights moved to Miramax ,who began work with Kevin Smith (Clerks) on developing a screenplay.

In 2008 the rights moved to Columbia pictures and Seth Rogen, and his Superbad writing partner Evan Goldberg, penned the script with Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow down to direct and play sidekick Kato. Finally, Chow left the project, Michel Gondry was brought back on as director and Taiwanese pop-star Jay Chou was cast as Kato.

But even with all these key elements finally in place things weren't too smooth for the film. Firstly there was fanboy uproar about the casting of Seth Rogen as the film's hero, millionaire newspaper publisher Britt Reid. Rogen was chastised for being a poor choice for an action hero, despite his vows that he would be getting into shape for the role. His career to date had consisted primarily of lovable, goofy slackers - not exactly the Britt Reid fans would have envisaged. Meanwhile Nicolas Cage was cast as the villain, but left after some creative differences.

As production continued the release date was announced as June 26, 2010, but bumped to July 9 and then December 22, before finally settling on January 14, 2011 to allow for the film's 3D conversion process to be completed. Additionally, the early trailers for the film had an awkward mix of Rogen's typical slacker humour and scrappy action sequences that left viewers unaware of the film's tone and caused many to start flagging this up as a disaster in waiting.

So, were the naysayers right? Is Rogen miscast, does the film show signs of a protracted, awkward development and were all the delays worthwhile?

First up, whilst Rogen isn't miscast, the role has been re-styled to fit his personality - but this also lends the film much of its heart. An early scene between the young Britt and his father (Tom Wilkinson) establishes very succinctly a dynamic that runs through the film, selling you on both Britt's initial playboy lifestyle and the weight placed on his shoulders by his father's death.

It also ties into the event that acts as a catalyst for Reid and Kato's vigilantism, in a sequence that buzzes with prankster adrenaline followed by the giddy excitement of having done something a little wild and ultimately good. This is contrasted nicely by a scene where they first go out to confront some minor thugs and Reid's jabbering nervousness is one of the most genuine depictions of an 'ordinary' guy attempting to be a superhero that I've yet seen on film.

These two early scenes are buoyed heavily by Gondry's delightfully wacky Kato-vision set-pieces, where we see the world through the slow-motion eyes of the martial arts expert with some quite dazzling uses of camera-trickery and bullet-time.

Elsewhere there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments of comedy, including a delightfully silly scrap between our two heroes that occasionally recalls the other Kato (from The Pink Panther series) and in the skewed dynamic between our two heroes. Much like cult-film Big Trouble In Little China, there is a deliberately distorted relationship here, with Reid the bumbling clutz usually reserved for comic relief (i.e. the duties of a sidekick) and Kato the quick-thinking, physically able character (the hero), despite how they are billed - both on the posters and within the context of the film - with Hornet as the hero and Kato his sidekick. This, and the presence of Cameron Diaz as researcher Lenore Case, provides some friction, but unfortunately this feels more like by-the-numbers plot machinations that anything that genuinely resonates with the audience.

In fact, whilst the film has a genuinely enjoyable laidback charm that occasionally builds up a sweat in some diverting action sequences, it is the plot and narrative drive that are definitely the film's weakest elements. Despite Christoph Waltz making a very game villain, revelling in his character's concerns over his perceived scariness, he's sadly not given much to do and there is no ticking clock hanging over our heroes, and they genuinely act as their own instigators, pursuing crime rather than preventing it; which is noble and all, but doesn't really power the film, instead it strings events together.

But, despite this lack of tension the film works surprisingly well, it's scrappy and silly, often very entertaining, though occasionally trudges through some dry patches. It's peppered with a few flourishes of visual invention and a handful of scenes that are quite wonderful, and for a film that is clearly gunning for a crowd-pleasing, casual, popcorn munching vibe it's far more successful than most recent summer blockbusters. It is a shame, in some strange way, that this film was pushed back for its 3D conversion, as the added dimension adds very little to the film and occasionally it's barely noticeable. But then 3D, to me, has always felt like pointless garnish - once you get past any initial 'ooo' factor it's always the story and characters that linger longest in the memory and fortunately for The Green Hornet it has a lead pairing that are good fun to hang around for a couple of hours and you wouldn't begrudge them a sequel to iron out the kinks.

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