Jun
14
The Unremarkable “Hulk”
Filed Under Blockbusters, Comics, Movies
Color me unimpressed. Leading up to last night, I’d read plenty of mixed-positive reviews of “The Incredible Hulk” to set my expectations. It’s no “Iron Man,” but it’s not the Freudian franchise non-starter that the Ang Lee version is, either. That was the general consensus. It’s a gamma-irradiated riff on “The Fugitive,” like the television series. But this is a chase film that limps along, a superhero movie without much in the way of superheroics, a series of loosely connected episodes pretending to be a story.
I didn’t hate the movie. I just couldn’t get into it. The characters are all cyphers. I’d never been this bored with Edward Norton. Where Robert Downey Jr. made Tony Stark a thousand times more interesting than his comic book counterpart, Norton’s just content playing the guy who turns into the Hulk. As such, I desperately kept wanting him to go into the change so Norton could enjoy his nice air-conditioned trailer while the Jade Giant wrecked shop.
But even the Hulk’s a bit undercooked — or under-irradiated, rather. Early on he proves to be capable of speech, but in a later scene with Banner’s estranged girlfriend, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler, whose saucer eyes and beestung lips make her look like she came straight from the pencil of Hulk artist John Romita Jr.), he doesn’t say anything to her. As silly as it may sound, I wanted to see a dialogue scene with the Hulk. What’s on the Green Meanie’s mind? He talks in the comics. And since there’s no chemistry between Norton and Tyler, maybe there’d be a spark between her and some computer pixels.
The Hulk is interesting to me as a character because he and his alter-ego absolutely hate each other. Bruce Wayne/Batman and Peter Parker/Spider-Man are more or less the same person whether or not they’re in costume. However, Bruce Banner and Hulk are two very different personalities that are constantly at odds with one another. Banner’s trying to cure himself of being the Hulk; Hulk is very much aware of this, and more than a little angry with the situation. They’re two mutually exclusive personas trapped in the same metamorphosing shell. Only one personality can be dominant, and neither wants the other to be in the driver’s seat. They’re the atomic age’s answer to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by way of Marvel Comics.
All that said, Hulk is still a superhero, more or less. And that’s something the film finally figures out in its last reel. Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky has O.D.’d on Super Soldier Serum — the same steroid that made Captain America a WWII hero — mixed with a sample of Banner’s blood. He goes on a rampage in NYC as the Abomination, a beastie with vomit green skin and an exo-skeleton of jutting bone. Banner jumps out of a helicopter to force a transformation into the Hulk, and what follows is the best and only reason to see the film during its theatrical run.
I was impressed with how director Louis Leterrier created a competent and coherent monster mash at the climax. Where most filmmakers today resign themselves to an almost formalistic montage of butting heads — something straight from the Sergei Eisenstein school of “collision theory,” but with computer graphics and too many close-ups — Leterrier allows the audience to actually follow what’s going on. It’s too bad there weren’t a couple more setpieces like this dropped into earlier sections of the film. Hulk battling U.S. troops over and over is terribly dull and one-sided.
I may have to see “The Incredible Hulk” again. Sometimes this happens, sometimes I’ll see a film that leaves me cold upon the first viewing, but suddenly starts working for me the second time around. I have such a fondness for the character, yet I get my Hulk fix almost exclusively from the TV show, not the films or the comics. He’s not an easy character to pull off, evidently. The new movie eventually gets it right. It just takes almost two hours to arrive at that point where Hulk admittedly does smash.
-Brad Lohan
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[…] a shrinking violet and threw in a villain or two that could knock Supes for a loop. Trouble is, Leterrier’s take on the Hulk doesn’t have much going for it beyond not being as heady and dull as Ang Lee’s version. Simply removing the pain points from […]
[…] It was enough to make me wish I had a slingshot, a bag of marbles and deadly accuracy. What crucial bit of information absolutely had to be conveyed via text that couldn’t have waited until the credits started to roll? I mean, I’d really appreciate it if people lined up their drug buys and booty calls on their own time, not while I’m trying desperately to squeeze some entertainment value out of “The Incredible Hulk.” […]
[…] “The Incredible Hulk” is an improvement upon Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” but that’s like saying “Attack of the Clones” is better than “The Phantom Menace.” Being less misguided, less boring, and less sucky isn’t really much of an improvement upon anything. It’s a movie I tried to like — twice. I love the Hulk more than I probably should. But as far as I’m concerned, “The Incredible Hulk” TV series is the best adaptation of the character. I don’t need any more reboots or soft sequels to remind me, thank you. […]