Talented director Ang Lee tries to modernize and bring added complexity to this big-budget adaptation of the iconic green-skinned giant, best known from his long-running Marvel comic book and the rather cheesey TV series. However, while Lee's intentions are good he bogs down the character with an overly convoluted, plodding, and revisionist origin.
In Lee's version orphan Bruce Banner is adopted as a child and grows up to become emotionally pent-up scientist Bruce Krensler (Eric Bana). While working with his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) on a process to increase human strength and healing using gamma rays and "nanomeds", Bruce is accidentally exposed to a potentially fatal dose of both. Instead of killing him though, they react with a genetic mutation Bruce inherited from his long-lost geneticist father David Banner (Nick Nolte) and psychological trauma caused by repressed childhood memories to transform him into the monstrous Hulk when angry. Bruce is then hunted by Betty's estranged father, General "Thunderbolt" Ross (Sam Elliot), greedy soldier turned entrepreneur Glen Talbot (Josh Lucas), and his own dad, recently released from a mental institution. Each wants to exploit the Hulk's powers for their own ends.
As originally created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Hulk was always a tragic monster inspired by "Frankenstein", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and "King Kong" rather than a conventional super-hero. Fittingly, Ang Lee's "Hulk" resembles a sci-fi creature feature more than it does "Spider-Man". However, the story by James Schamus makes the rather straightforward character much more complicated than he needs to be and drags on for about a half-hour too long. Lee doesn't help things by overindulging in distracting cinematic trickery like split-screens, zooms, and wipes and the hoary old narrative devices of dream sequences and flashbacks (and sometimes dream sequences within flashbacks!).
As many people have already commented, the CGI Hulk created by ILM is not entirely convincing. As for myself, I was able to suspend my disbelief while the leaping, super-strong Hulk was battling the U.S. military or a pack of mutated dogs. However, the filmmakers make the mistake of portraying the Hulk as too powerful. Like Superman without Kryptonite, an invincible hero quickly becomes boring.
I thought the picture was well cast up until Nolte goes off the deep end and turns into a knock-off of the old comic book villain the Absorbing Man. Ironically, while Lee and Schamus strive to give the Hulk more depth, they end up stripping him of his personality. In the comic book, the Hulk had the mind of a five-year old, the grammar of a caveman (sample dialogue: "Hulk smash!"), and sympathy towards children, animals, and other helpless innocents. In the movie, the Hulk only speaks in a dream sequence, outwits the army, and is just a big angry guy who trashes everything until the presence of Betty calms him down. And while I'm glad that "Hulk" avoids the campiness of some comic book-to-movie adaptations, it is so deadly serious it lacks all sense of humour or fun. Instead the laughs are unintentional, like when a logical explanation is provided for the ever-changing size of the Hulk, but not the ever-changing size of his shorts.
All in all, "Hulk" is better than most comic book movies, but it is too flawed to be a fully satisfying moviegoing experience.
6 out of 10.
In Lee's version orphan Bruce Banner is adopted as a child and grows up to become emotionally pent-up scientist Bruce Krensler (Eric Bana). While working with his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) on a process to increase human strength and healing using gamma rays and "nanomeds", Bruce is accidentally exposed to a potentially fatal dose of both. Instead of killing him though, they react with a genetic mutation Bruce inherited from his long-lost geneticist father David Banner (Nick Nolte) and psychological trauma caused by repressed childhood memories to transform him into the monstrous Hulk when angry. Bruce is then hunted by Betty's estranged father, General "Thunderbolt" Ross (Sam Elliot), greedy soldier turned entrepreneur Glen Talbot (Josh Lucas), and his own dad, recently released from a mental institution. Each wants to exploit the Hulk's powers for their own ends.
As originally created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Hulk was always a tragic monster inspired by "Frankenstein", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and "King Kong" rather than a conventional super-hero. Fittingly, Ang Lee's "Hulk" resembles a sci-fi creature feature more than it does "Spider-Man". However, the story by James Schamus makes the rather straightforward character much more complicated than he needs to be and drags on for about a half-hour too long. Lee doesn't help things by overindulging in distracting cinematic trickery like split-screens, zooms, and wipes and the hoary old narrative devices of dream sequences and flashbacks (and sometimes dream sequences within flashbacks!).
As many people have already commented, the CGI Hulk created by ILM is not entirely convincing. As for myself, I was able to suspend my disbelief while the leaping, super-strong Hulk was battling the U.S. military or a pack of mutated dogs. However, the filmmakers make the mistake of portraying the Hulk as too powerful. Like Superman without Kryptonite, an invincible hero quickly becomes boring.
I thought the picture was well cast up until Nolte goes off the deep end and turns into a knock-off of the old comic book villain the Absorbing Man. Ironically, while Lee and Schamus strive to give the Hulk more depth, they end up stripping him of his personality. In the comic book, the Hulk had the mind of a five-year old, the grammar of a caveman (sample dialogue: "Hulk smash!"), and sympathy towards children, animals, and other helpless innocents. In the movie, the Hulk only speaks in a dream sequence, outwits the army, and is just a big angry guy who trashes everything until the presence of Betty calms him down. And while I'm glad that "Hulk" avoids the campiness of some comic book-to-movie adaptations, it is so deadly serious it lacks all sense of humour or fun. Instead the laughs are unintentional, like when a logical explanation is provided for the ever-changing size of the Hulk, but not the ever-changing size of his shorts.
All in all, "Hulk" is better than most comic book movies, but it is too flawed to be a fully satisfying moviegoing experience.
6 out of 10.