Rating of
0.5/4
Review - Hulk (2003)
Delorted - wrote on 03/22/08
Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) never knew his parents, but he knew there was something hidden in his past. After he is exposed to radiation and survives, he realizes that he has a genetic ability that will change his life forever in “Hulk.”
Director Ang Lee had before been recognized for works such as “Wo hu cang long” (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and “The Ice Storm,” and I guess he decided the best route to take was to make a crappy psychological drama about one of the most action-packed superheroes ever concocted by the immortal Stan Lee. I honestly can’t understand how such a powerhouse as The Incredible Hulk got handed to such a stylistic, overrated director.
The first thing you notice with this movie is that the title character doesn’t even come in until forty-two minutes in. And he doesn’t even do anything interesting until an hour and a half in. He has a total of, if I remember correctly, four scenes, and in only three of those he actually fights people. The rest of the movie (a good 90% of it) is spent developing his character with a story that really could have been told in a half hour less than the 140 minute total.
The thing that bothered me the most is the comic book form of story telling. I never read the comic myself, which is even more a reason to make “Hulk” be a movie as itself. “Spider-Man” the year before was a movie adaptation. The later “Batman Begins” was an even more cinematic experience. “Hulk” was just a comic book, only it’s moving and live-action. We don’t need to see five things at once. That only takes away from the rest of the movie. Movies were not meant to be seen in little boxes on each side of the screen. Just film the thing and show it to us straight through. But enough of that rant.
Hulk himself took a total of two and a half years to animate, and I really feel sorry for the people at Industrial Light & Magic, because the end result was horrible. His movements were all wrong if they were going for realism (you really can’t tell with this movie), and he was too bulky and blobby, even with all that muscle. From what I’ve seen of the comics, they made him look nothing like he should have, thus I’m sure true fans of the comic were even more peeved with Lee for this.
“Hulk” is an absolute mess of a comic book movie that could have been handled much better in the hands of somebody who actually knew what they were doing. I’m just curious about Ang Lee’s sexual affiliation after going straight from this to “Brokeback Mountain.”
Acting: 2/10
Writing: 0/10
Video/Editing: 3/10
Audio/Music: 3/10
Entertainment: 0/10
Final Score: 1.6/10
