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Title: Hulk
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As a famous frog once said "It's not easy being green." Okay, chances are you heard every movie critic use that line at least once in their reviews of this movie, but there is a reason everyone had to use that line; they use it because in Hulk's case, this is especially true. Hulk has not had an easy life, in more ways then one. When he premiered in the very first issue of "The Incredible Hulk" by Stan Lee, at first he was colored grey, however due to a printing problem his color had to be changed to green. Why is this a bad thing for him you ask? Because now he's stuck with that stupid phrase to tease him in all his movie reviews. Another problem Hulk had was that his series got canceled after six issue's, and he was reduced to doing cameo appearances in other Marvel titles until he got his own title back. I'll get to his comic book issue's later on in the review, but needless to say Hulk's career has not been an easy one. However in the long run, Hulk did overcome all his obstacles to become on of the most recognizable characters on the face of the planet. Due to the success of the "Spider-Man" and "Daredevil" movies, a feature about The Incredible Hulk had to be made.
So the producers got Ang Lee of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fame to direct the project, pretty boy Eric Bana to play the mean green machine, and Hollywood beauty (as well as Academy Award winner) Jennifer Connelly to play Bruce Banner's love interest. With these guys, plus a $160 budget, "Hulk" seemed like it was going to be the next big thing for superhero movies. However, it wasn't. Audiences went to see the movie expecting lots of explosions, action, and a movie that was generally about a big green monster destroying everything in site. If this is the movie you are expecting, then you are better off seeing the wretched movie "Godzilla," because the movie I've just described is not what "Hulk" is like, not even close. The movie is about young scientist Bruce Banner. Everyday he gets up in the morning, shaves, and goes to work to work on his science projects. Currently he is working on a "self-healing" project, which if successful could make all of our US soldiers practically invincible since their wounds would start healing the second they get hurt.
However underneath Bruce's work-a-holic additude is a deeply disturbed and scarred human being. When Bruce was a child his father was doing some experiments on him, and thus Bruce has always felt very different from everyone else. Not only that, but he witnessed a horrific event that scarred him for life, and he has since suppressed that horrible memory and moved on in life disturbed by what he saw as a child. As if things couldn't have been any worse in the past, in the present he has just broken up with his girlfriend Betty Ross, but still has to work with her on their science project. One night Bruce, Betty, and a third guy (who's name escapes me at the moment), are working on their little science project when the whole thing just blows up in their faces. The machine goes haywire, and it looks like nameless guy is about to get killed by the nuclear gamma rays, but then Bruce bravely jumps in front of him and ends up taking the blast himself (got to have at least ONE self-conscious good deed I guess)! In any normal movie Bruce would have died, but in this case he survives, seemingly without a scratch and more healthy then ever before. Could it be that the experiment was a success after all? Who knows, either way at least Bruce is still breathing.
So for the time being Bruce is okay right? Wrong. Shortly after Bruce gets zapped by his own experiment a strange old guy named David Banner (played brilliantly by Nick Nolte) shows up at Bruce's doorstep, claims to be his real father, and tells him that he has something living inside him that needs to be exploited. And what is Bruce's response to this? Why he tells the old man to get out of his life! Of course, the old man's words turn out to be true as shortly afterwards Bruce lets his emotions get the hold of him, and he turns into a giant green monster that the government nicknames "The Hulk!" So what will this mean for Bruce's future? Will he get the girl? What is he going to do about the man who claims to be his father? And why does all of his cloths tear off except his pants? Guess we'll have to see the movie to find out. Now I'm going to have to take this moment to admit that I wasn't looking forward to seeing this movie for a number of different reasons:
1. The 30 second teaser trailer wasn't that impressive.
2. The 2 minute trailer wasn't that impressive.
3. The Hulk looked just so phoney in the previews.
4. The Hulk was never one of my favorite superheros.
5. Why go see "Hulk" when "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Finding Nemo" were in theaters?
I must say though, after seeing "Hulk" I walked away with it being one of my favorite superhero movies out there (although my Aunt Mary will disagree with me in a second). I never was a big fan of Hulk when I was a kid. To me, Hulk was not really a "hero" at all, but instead was a guy with a temper tantrum. He spent years running away from the law, turning all green near death, and then he would "conveniently" destroy the bad guys but never the good guys! The whole thing just got too boring for me, especially since Hulk himself was never that interesting since he didn't do much except get mad (although to some credit, some of the writers in certain issue's made Hulk intelligent, but when they did that they caused a problem because they just made Hulk look like a big baby that way). And then when Hulk went back to being Bruce...well then Bruce either would be interesting or he wouldn't be! In my mind the Hulk comic has had issue's for years, and I was afraid these issue's would be brought over into the movie (from what I saw in the previews, the film makers seemed to be taking the easy route and making a pure action film). However they weren't.
In fact, "Hulk" turned out to be a completely different movie then what they advertised. This movie is scarce on action and heavy on story. The story described above actually becomes much deeper and more involving then you would think it would be. Not only that, but the movie smartly focus's more on the characters, their past sins, and their relationships then it does on the green booger himself. Heck, the Hulk is only in this movie for less then an hour, and this is a two and a half hour long movie!? Yes you heard me; Hulk isn't even the main focus of the movie! Some of you may be reading this and thinking "Foul!" or something like that, but I really believe that this was a wise move. Like I was saying above, Hulk has never been a very interesting character since all he does is turn green and smash things, so by focusing on Bruce Banner over Hulk the viewers are given a better opportunity to relate to the character. Not only is Bruce Banner a much deeper and interesting character in the movie then he is in most of the comics, but the supporting cast are just as deep and complicated as he is.
Although I would like to make a special mention of Nick Nolte's character David Banner. David Banner is quite simply one of the most complicated villains in any superhero movie, and he is someone you love to hate. He has no power, and he's not very strong, but what he loses in strength he gains in personality. To put it bluntly, the guy is crazy, and watching him as he experiments on his son, himself, and how he twists the truth to get what he wants makes him a fascinating person to observe, and many people believe that Nolte owned this movie! I completely agree, and I believe that the performance was good enough that he could have been nominated for a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar! Another brilliant move by Ang Lee was the decision to film the movie in what I like to call "Comic Book Style Film." I say that because the whole movie looks like one big moving comic book. Split screens and little boxes are placed all over the place to give you the feel as if you are watching a live comic book at work, and I personally believe that it has a nice effect on the movie, although I'm sure others would disagree with me a little.
The low point in the movie is actually (surprise, surprise) the Hulk himself. The Hulk is made with some VERY underwhelming special effects and computer graphics, and to say that Hulk looks far from realistic would be an understatement, he looks likes a cheesy video game character when he's running around like crazy! Not only that, but only a couple of scene's with Hulk seem to contribute anything to the story, and at times it feels like Hulk actually becomes a road block to the story when he shows up. And of course, Hulk is NOT a very interesting character, so connecting with him on an emotional level is out of the question here! In the end "Hulk" may not be action driven enough for most of today's kids who demand an action sequence every five minutes, but for those of us who have wanted a superhero movie that we could take seriously, well these are the people that this movie was made for! "Hulk" may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I sure enjoyed the heck out of it. Since the movie was a bomb the chances of us getting a sequel are slim, but I'm that at least one of these superhero movies got the character complexities right! Highly recommended!
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -