Being a marvel comic collector all of my childhood, I was eager to see this film when I first heard about it. And then, over the course of many months, we were fed trailers that revealed more and more of the Hulk's rendering with each subsequent trailer. If you were like me, you cringed at each of these trailers, as it seemed apparent, even in what little they showed of the Hulk, that the computer generated results were terrible. But after all, realism isn't everything, especially in a fantastic and fictional storyline. After all, King Kong is still a highly entertaining classic with a good storyline, and nobody would ever mistake the stop motion in that film for a real gorilla. So I decided to shrug off the less than satisfying animation that was briefly revealed in the trailers and go see the film anyway. I'm sorry I did.
The first half of the film was fairly engaging, as the plot started to unfold and you're left wondering where it will lead to (other than the obvious and eventual transformation). But then you wait...and wait...and wait..., and finally we get the first transformation, aka the emergence of the title character. And then it's obvious, without a shadow of a doubt, that the animation is terrible. (anyone who's impressed with the visuals must think Gumby's a masterpiece of animation as well). The movement isn't fluid, and I've seen better work in Playstation games. Fine, if that's the way it's gonna be then at least we have some good acting and a good plot to carry it along, right? Wrong. While I did enjoy Sam Elliot's and Nick Nolte's performances, the leads are incredibly stiff with no chemistry at all. And the plot doesn't go anywhere, except for a last minute after thought to inject an arch villian into the climax, which ends up being just about the most anti-climactic finale I've seen in along time.
About the only positive comment I can make about the film is that it appears that Ang Lee at least tried to do a different kind of superhero film, and while many have stated that the multiple split screen shooting style was annoying, I at least found it an interesting and unique way to show a scene. Problem is, do we really need to see 5 multiple camera angles of a scene when there's nothing going on in the first place?
IMO, the worst offering in the Marvel film series yet.
The first half of the film was fairly engaging, as the plot started to unfold and you're left wondering where it will lead to (other than the obvious and eventual transformation). But then you wait...and wait...and wait..., and finally we get the first transformation, aka the emergence of the title character. And then it's obvious, without a shadow of a doubt, that the animation is terrible. (anyone who's impressed with the visuals must think Gumby's a masterpiece of animation as well). The movement isn't fluid, and I've seen better work in Playstation games. Fine, if that's the way it's gonna be then at least we have some good acting and a good plot to carry it along, right? Wrong. While I did enjoy Sam Elliot's and Nick Nolte's performances, the leads are incredibly stiff with no chemistry at all. And the plot doesn't go anywhere, except for a last minute after thought to inject an arch villian into the climax, which ends up being just about the most anti-climactic finale I've seen in along time.
About the only positive comment I can make about the film is that it appears that Ang Lee at least tried to do a different kind of superhero film, and while many have stated that the multiple split screen shooting style was annoying, I at least found it an interesting and unique way to show a scene. Problem is, do we really need to see 5 multiple camera angles of a scene when there's nothing going on in the first place?
IMO, the worst offering in the Marvel film series yet.