I'm not sure what everyone is on about when they describe this as the worst film of the year (or ever)--it's every bit as good as, if not better than, last year's Spiderman. It would appear there's something of a culture clash when an art house, albeit populist, filmmaker aims for a summer blockbuster. The only thing wrong with Hulk is the packaging as it seems to have misled the target audience into thinking it was going to be the same old/same old, though why people used to a reheated tv dinner would object to a gourmet meal is beyond me. Hulk isn't your typical summer fare but at a time when Hollywood would seem to be choking on the fumes of completely exhausted formulaic full throttled sequels, one would think this kind of originality, flair and quality storytelling in a mainstream film would be more welcome. I guess those who flock to the multiplex prefer their beans on toast.
Visually stunning, well written with excellent performances, Hulk's special effects are closely tied to the main character's journey of self-discovery--meaning they appear when necessary and when integral to the plot. Most blockbusters are probably constructed in opposition to that credo. Sam Elliot and Nick Nolte give terrific performances as fathers locked in a duel to the death while dealing emotional damage to their children (Connolly and Bana). Connolly gives a respectable performance--which is more than can be said of her work in A Beautiful Mind--and is well cast as the feminine influence that calms the Hulk. Lee gives her character, Betty Ross, far more dignified material than Fay Wray or Jessica Lange ever got in their beauty and the beast vehicles. Bana is obviously working to his director's very strict brief for his character, Bruce Banner, giving a very controlled, restrained performance. It is some credit to Bana and Lee that the three actors who play Banner throughout the film all seem to be cut from the same cloth--Bana's Bruce is very much the adult we would expect such a muted, tormented child to become. Bana, though not responsible for the cgi performance of his alter-ego, Hulk, serves this material well by serving the story--that's really all an actor is supposed to do. (How can you grandstand when you're playng the Hulk?) Lee paces Banner's trajectory from an emotionally controlled stick figure to a raging hulk with masterful assurance--I mean, what did people expect? Banner would bust out of his shorts right after the opening credits? Hulk is necessarily a slow burn, folks, leaving Lee and company some distance to travel.
There are memorable, nail-biting sequences galore. The derision that has greeted the cgi effects is just misplaced and goes to show how some initial bad word of mouth can easily sway the masses. Frankly, I'm not sure what more people would expect--when the Hulk appears he seems every bit a product of genetic engineering, of scientific experiment gone wrong and yet somehow soulful. The sequence with the genetically modified dogs is as terrifying as anything I've ever seen at a multiplex (and that would include the patrons). When Hulk breaks out of his military prison and is pursued relentlessly across the desert as he tries to make his way back to Betty, it is completely engrossing as we discover the full extent of his endurance--by this point the film is in full flow. I was sobbing by the end of the sequence as Connolly makes her way toward the Hulk and we see them both collapse into each other's arms--I mean, it's just a movie, folks. What more do you want? How about watching the Hulk being flown into the outer atmosphere and dropped from a staggering height? It certainly left my mouth gaping. Throughout, Lee's meticulous homage to Marvel Comic's framing puts the material--especially the script--in the perfect context. It's like the film is bowing to it's origins throughout--it doesn't pretend to be realistic, it's about images and framing that immediately and economically communicate motion and pathos to the reader. (I mean, cinema goer.) Characters speak with the economy of the thought bubbles or narration one would find in a comic book--it's refreshing to see this material transferred to another medium without losing the unique narrative of a comic book or graphic novel. Lee is very faithful to the style of his source--as anyone who's actually read a Marvel comic would tell you. Like all the great Marvel heroes, Hulk is about duality, about the shadow that is a part of all our characters. By the time we arrive to the final showdown between Bruce Banner and his mad scientist father, David, Lee reveals the jewel in his crown: Papa Banner, mercilessly winding up his freak of a son, says, "The more I GET to you--the more you GIVE to me!" It certainly sounded like the crux of a father/son relationship to me. It's a moment that equals if not surpasses the "with great power comes great responsibility" ethos of Spiderman (an ethos that, rather ironically, has apparently gone ignored by Americans in their quest to remake the world in their own image) and acknowledges the darkness and depth of humanity that a comic book can reveal.
Given the complete inanity of the trailers that preceded the film (formulaic retreads like SWAT, from the makers of 2 Fast 2 Stupid and, heaven help us, XXX--can't wait!), I suspect that multiplex audiences have been conditioned to consume large doses of destruction without any subtext and certainly without caution. Hulk must have seriously disappointed those that just like their blockbusters to go BOOM! without questioning the nature of our destruction to ourselves and others. Although the sad, unspoken commentary throughout is the level to which audiences have been dumbed down when a simple parable of this nature is somehow classified as demanding. If nothing else, the response to Hulk exemplifies that audiences can no longer sit still and listen for longer than three minutes at a time.
Visually stunning, well written with excellent performances, Hulk's special effects are closely tied to the main character's journey of self-discovery--meaning they appear when necessary and when integral to the plot. Most blockbusters are probably constructed in opposition to that credo. Sam Elliot and Nick Nolte give terrific performances as fathers locked in a duel to the death while dealing emotional damage to their children (Connolly and Bana). Connolly gives a respectable performance--which is more than can be said of her work in A Beautiful Mind--and is well cast as the feminine influence that calms the Hulk. Lee gives her character, Betty Ross, far more dignified material than Fay Wray or Jessica Lange ever got in their beauty and the beast vehicles. Bana is obviously working to his director's very strict brief for his character, Bruce Banner, giving a very controlled, restrained performance. It is some credit to Bana and Lee that the three actors who play Banner throughout the film all seem to be cut from the same cloth--Bana's Bruce is very much the adult we would expect such a muted, tormented child to become. Bana, though not responsible for the cgi performance of his alter-ego, Hulk, serves this material well by serving the story--that's really all an actor is supposed to do. (How can you grandstand when you're playng the Hulk?) Lee paces Banner's trajectory from an emotionally controlled stick figure to a raging hulk with masterful assurance--I mean, what did people expect? Banner would bust out of his shorts right after the opening credits? Hulk is necessarily a slow burn, folks, leaving Lee and company some distance to travel.
There are memorable, nail-biting sequences galore. The derision that has greeted the cgi effects is just misplaced and goes to show how some initial bad word of mouth can easily sway the masses. Frankly, I'm not sure what more people would expect--when the Hulk appears he seems every bit a product of genetic engineering, of scientific experiment gone wrong and yet somehow soulful. The sequence with the genetically modified dogs is as terrifying as anything I've ever seen at a multiplex (and that would include the patrons). When Hulk breaks out of his military prison and is pursued relentlessly across the desert as he tries to make his way back to Betty, it is completely engrossing as we discover the full extent of his endurance--by this point the film is in full flow. I was sobbing by the end of the sequence as Connolly makes her way toward the Hulk and we see them both collapse into each other's arms--I mean, it's just a movie, folks. What more do you want? How about watching the Hulk being flown into the outer atmosphere and dropped from a staggering height? It certainly left my mouth gaping. Throughout, Lee's meticulous homage to Marvel Comic's framing puts the material--especially the script--in the perfect context. It's like the film is bowing to it's origins throughout--it doesn't pretend to be realistic, it's about images and framing that immediately and economically communicate motion and pathos to the reader. (I mean, cinema goer.) Characters speak with the economy of the thought bubbles or narration one would find in a comic book--it's refreshing to see this material transferred to another medium without losing the unique narrative of a comic book or graphic novel. Lee is very faithful to the style of his source--as anyone who's actually read a Marvel comic would tell you. Like all the great Marvel heroes, Hulk is about duality, about the shadow that is a part of all our characters. By the time we arrive to the final showdown between Bruce Banner and his mad scientist father, David, Lee reveals the jewel in his crown: Papa Banner, mercilessly winding up his freak of a son, says, "The more I GET to you--the more you GIVE to me!" It certainly sounded like the crux of a father/son relationship to me. It's a moment that equals if not surpasses the "with great power comes great responsibility" ethos of Spiderman (an ethos that, rather ironically, has apparently gone ignored by Americans in their quest to remake the world in their own image) and acknowledges the darkness and depth of humanity that a comic book can reveal.
Given the complete inanity of the trailers that preceded the film (formulaic retreads like SWAT, from the makers of 2 Fast 2 Stupid and, heaven help us, XXX--can't wait!), I suspect that multiplex audiences have been conditioned to consume large doses of destruction without any subtext and certainly without caution. Hulk must have seriously disappointed those that just like their blockbusters to go BOOM! without questioning the nature of our destruction to ourselves and others. Although the sad, unspoken commentary throughout is the level to which audiences have been dumbed down when a simple parable of this nature is somehow classified as demanding. If nothing else, the response to Hulk exemplifies that audiences can no longer sit still and listen for longer than three minutes at a time.