They say that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That pretty much sums up me and superhero movies; I keep going to see the damn things, attracted by the latest tantalizing hook, only to wind up feeling like Dr. Doom has trapped me in some fiendishly Sisyphean loop of space and time, where I'm cursed to watch the same story for all eternity.
They've snared me with great actors — George Clooney, Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Spacey — and raised my hopes with innovative directors — Sam Raimi, Christopher Nolan, Bryan Singer. They've played them straight, they've tried all dark and serious, and they've even gone meta with the almost-but-not-quite parody, "Kick-Ass." And yet every last one of them evokes nothing but a depressing sense of deja vu, as — yawn — the misunderstood uber- nerd/millionaire playboy yet again beats the crap out of some logorrheic bad guy with worse fashion sense than Cher.
But wait! Here's quirky indie director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), and he's remaking the deliciously retro-crap "Green Hornet!" (Originally a radio series in the 1930s, it's perhaps best known for its '60s TV version, which had Bruce Lee as The Hornet's sidekick Kato.) Gondry's got the completely nonheroic comedian Seth Rogen in the lead, and Quentin Tarantino's latest find, Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds"), as the villain. Surely this will be the superhero film that's different, all ironic and camp to rectify the ponderous pretentiousness of stuff like "The Dark Knight" or "Watchmen," right?