Ang Lee attempted a different approach in his direction in Hulk. The recipe for superhero comic book movie was not followed and for that, it failed in entertaining the mainstream audience. It is more off-beat, more difficult. The music score by Danny Elfman is much heavier than on the average Spider-Man film. The character is not a hero--nor is he a villain. It is a dark story of a pretty dark character. I believe that this is its essentially biggest problem: it is humourless to the core and when featuring a dark character like the Hulk, you need some serious light-hearted comic relief to counter it.
I barely even recalled the plot after having watched Hulk, but I remember that it was paper-thin. It's mostly Eric Bana as Bruce Banner coming to terms with his new green identity and the conflicts that this curse this brings. While Bana acts with more conviction and skill than any of the superhero actors (Tobey Maguire, Brandon Routh, even Christian Bale), he is only ever used for acting that varies between the extremes sad or confused in the film. It is not fair that this fantastically talented man is overshadowed by the alter ego of his character.
The action scenes are also sub-par and rare. When they are attempted, Lee makes them too overblown to emphasize the sheer strength of the Hulk--and we have a green CGI monster in purple pants spiraling up in the sky--a Shrek on steroids. This may sound like the comic relief that was needed, but it isn't funny -- it's mostly bizarre. Some well-placed and traditional action scenes could and should have been included, in my opinion. It's not "selling out" so much as it's balancing the dark Hulk with light entertainment. If you make everything dark, then the character is not going to look dark or stand out.
Still, I prefer Hulk to either of the Spider-Man films any day, probably because it has an interesting approach to it. Just..sometimes a little too difficult. 6/10
I barely even recalled the plot after having watched Hulk, but I remember that it was paper-thin. It's mostly Eric Bana as Bruce Banner coming to terms with his new green identity and the conflicts that this curse this brings. While Bana acts with more conviction and skill than any of the superhero actors (Tobey Maguire, Brandon Routh, even Christian Bale), he is only ever used for acting that varies between the extremes sad or confused in the film. It is not fair that this fantastically talented man is overshadowed by the alter ego of his character.
The action scenes are also sub-par and rare. When they are attempted, Lee makes them too overblown to emphasize the sheer strength of the Hulk--and we have a green CGI monster in purple pants spiraling up in the sky--a Shrek on steroids. This may sound like the comic relief that was needed, but it isn't funny -- it's mostly bizarre. Some well-placed and traditional action scenes could and should have been included, in my opinion. It's not "selling out" so much as it's balancing the dark Hulk with light entertainment. If you make everything dark, then the character is not going to look dark or stand out.
Still, I prefer Hulk to either of the Spider-Man films any day, probably because it has an interesting approach to it. Just..sometimes a little too difficult. 6/10