Rating of
2/4
"The Incredible Hulk" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/30/12
Ang Lee's version of The Hulk was met with a lot of criticism but I thought it was a brave if flawed attempt to make a more cerebral superhero film. The fact is, a character whose catchphrase is "Hulk smash!" wasn't the best choice for that approach (although I think Lee would've made a great Daredevil film. Que sera sera...) The studio obviously tried to address the situation by making a much more formulaic action film for the sequel, which is understandable. But they overcompensated. The plot to this film can be summed up by: Evil general sends the troops after Ed. He runs away trying to keep his temper but can't. Hulk smash. He escapes. Evil general sends the troops after Ed. He runs away trying to keep his temper but can't. Hulk smash. Evil general creates another monster to fight Hulk. Hulk smash. The end. All the characters are similarly formulaic, Banner spending all his time trying to save lovely Liv, the evil general doing the old military wanting to turn science into a weapon schtick and Liv doing her best Beauty & The Beast/Fay Wray impression. And I literally could not give a crap about any of them. The finale is nothing more than a WWF smackdown between two cartoon characters; the CGI is fancy but at the end of the day CGI images are created by animators. Cartoons cannot act and so are never convincing as characters you are supposed to "care" about, and watching a bunch of cars get thrown around a lot just doesn't impress me any more. As unpopular an opinion as it might be, I actually think I prefer the Ang Lee film myself; at least it was done with a little imagination.
