Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
If you haven’t read Kirk Huneycutt’s rave over at THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, allow me to paraphrase: the boy lost his damn fool mind.
Me, I’ve got 12 tickets for the Cinerama Dome, opening night, and I’m going with a great group of friends. It should be a blast, and I’m looking forward to the experience. In the meantime, I’m getting a lot of these in, reviews from folks lucky enough to get invited to one of the many press screenings going on at the moment. Check this guy out... but BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!!
Hey Guys,
Went to a screening of Ang Lee's HULK at Mazza Gallerie Thursday night and saw you have not yet posted a reader review of the film. So here's one I whipped up. It's lengthy and has spoilers, so use it however you deem fit.
HULK
dir. Ang Lee, PG-13
The Hulk was not one of the superheroes that I was raised on through my childhood upbringing of comic books and cartoons. My early interests were focused primarily on Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman. Later on, as my field of preference expanded, I was introduced to what comic book readers refer to as “second-tier” heroes such as Daredevil, The Hulk and The Punisher. So I don’t have quite the attachment and emotional baggage when it comes to the green-colored goliath and others might, but I can more than appreciate his roots. And I even have taken to reading the latest run of The Incredible Hulk, penned by Bruce Jones (latest issue is 25 cents, so buy it!).
My first introduction to The Hulk was actually from the old Bill Bixby show; the same time I gather many caught their first glimpse of a man-sized, green painted Hulk. Its premise was sound and some of the personal analysis aspects of the show are golden, but its execution was flawed and generic. Bill Bixby would show up at a new place each week, stop some bumbling criminals, get upset because someone stole his milkshake and go postal. And run. Not necessarily the greatest comic book adaptation.
So here it is, the inevitable Hulk movie. With the current flood of comic book movies, we knew that after X-Men and Spider-Man, it would be race between The Punisher, The Fantastic Four, Captain America and The Hulk to see which one would hit the big screen first. Hulk wins. And as so, Marvel has followed its formula of pairing a talented, ambitious director not of the Spielberg-ian marquee value with one if its distinct licensed properties; here tagging Ang Lee with The Hulk. And how does it work out? For the most part, the film is a lot of fun. And I think many will be surprised how enjoyable this film really is.
For those bitching about the changes from the origin story in the comics or television show and the movie adaptation, I’ll address you first. Yes, the origin is very much different. But if I was a movie-goer going to see Hulk, I don’t want to see the same story I’ve read or seen twenty different times. Ang Lee’s take on Hulk is very swank up until the end where it struggles a bit with blending fantasy and reality.
The film chronicles Bruce Banner’s childhood trauma to his rise as a young, successful scientist. Of course, this all goes wrong when he is hit by gamma radiation. Unlike the comic book counterpart, the radiation is just a trigger for his mutation and not really the actually cause for his Hulk mutation.
What ensues is Banner’s manifestation of The Hulk rampaging from scene to scene as he fights selfish captors leaving Bruce to deal with the wreckage. Betty Ross finds out her connection (well, her father’s actually) to the Banner family and tries to help Bruce deal with his repressed emotions. The backstory with his father was a ballsy move and I dug it. Up until the end. This next part is spoilers.
*SPOILER* Bruce Banner’s father, David Banner, an homage to the television Hulk, is indeed The Absorbing Man. His DNA gets passed down to Bruce, who for some reason is able to keep his molecules stable unlike his father. David Banner loses it and fights Bruce Banner at the end – and yes! – by biting into some kind of electrical cord. The scene is kind of sudden, but not as dumb as I first thought. I won’t spoil the fight that continues, but it gets just CRAZY and it’ll probably require another viewing to understand what was going on. *SPOILER*
Obviously, the film is left open for a sequel and the ending is just priceless. It was probably the first time in a Marvel film where the ending was memorable and had me leaving with a smile/chuckle on my face.
Eric Bana just rocks as Bruce Banner. Simply rocks. He’s got the demeanor, the emotional baggage and everything just right. He delivers his lines flawlessly and he is just golden in his role.
That said, pretty much everyone else ranges from satisfactory to solid. Jennifer Connelly seemed kind of underused in her role. Sam Elliot was great as Ross, but the guy who played him during his early 20s delivered his lines in full-out groaner style. Ugh.
*SPOILER* Nick Nolte is hit and miss. There are sometimes when his character is generally believable as a guy who has just lost it. His conversation with Betty Ross and his son initially carry a lot of weight. However, in the last sequence, he just goes over-the-top in such a manner where it takes people out of movie. It’s obvious he didn’t take the scene seriously, which is fine, and even though it delivers a chuckle, it probably could’ve been handled better. *SPOILER*
Fuck you. That’s right. Fuck you. All the haters can stick a bowling trophy up your ass. In no point in the movie was the CG bad. It ranges from okay to the point of suspension of disbelief. That’s the only bad point is that it seems like some parts had greater emphasis on detail than others. And some of the dark shots could benefit from some light.
The whole number of action sequences that take place after The Hulk escapes from a military installation is just plain awesome and was a immense crowd-pleaser. The Hulk ripping the part of a tank that shoots shells and using it as a lead pipe and hitting it in the palm of his hands in full-out badass mode was fucking awesome. He does other equally as cool shit and it’s a shame that people that can’t get over the fact that he doesn’t look photorealistic won’t appreciate that.
That’s the other thing. When viewing the movie, you can’t realize how hard it is to make a 10-foot bright (emphasis on bright there, buddy) green monster with bright purple pants. Next to sand and military installations it definitely is a big contrast. But it’s faithful to the comic book vision, the animation for the most part is rock-solid and the sound effects are great. So, I’m not really going to complain.
Another thing, the interaction with the environment was very impressive, because as you can imagine, The Hulk wrecks a lot of stuff. And it doesn’t look like some cut ‘n paste CGI character moving around explosions, it geniunely looks like he’s causing the wreckage. Overall, the CG didn’t detract from the experience, created fun moments and was definitely cool at parts (like the end), but it won’t change the minds of many critics.
The next part is spoilers, but must be read if you care about special effects!
*SPOILER* When his father becomes The Absorming Man, the following sequence of events are probably some of the most convincing and cool CG effects ever seen on screen. Muren and his guys at ILM have taken the stuff they did with the T-1000 in Terminator 2 to a whole fuckin’ new level. It is simply awesome. How the animation and the sound effects match up make this scene just gorgeous eye candy and one I can recommend to people who even dislike The Hulk model.*SPOILER*
I’ll make this quick, but it’s important. The origin story is different, but it’s good and it makes it virtually impossible to do a similar 20-minute Benniffer-voiced recap as seen in Daredevil. If you get hung up on that, then sit out this film and a dozen other in the pipelines. Hardcore comic geeks suck in generally, though.
The references to the comic, the model of the character, the references to the television show and actually somewhat realistic science-fiction explanation make this film shine. The next part is also spoilers…
*SPOILER* The move to make his father The Absorbing Man was ballsy, but again, it paid off even though the sequence before the climatic end battle was kind of awkward and sudden. It setup a villain though, one comparable to The Hulk and pretty much pushed the film over the top for me in the second half. *SPOILER*
And the ending was just spank-tacular.
I walked in with a lot of doubt and I walked out with a lot of anticipation for the next installment. The sequel is setup beautifully, the ending was great and Ang Lee did a solid job with an origin story that is not known for its ease to pull of. He’s hit by gamma radiation and becomes The Hulk! Why? Why didn’t he just get cancer and die instead? Ang Lee does a pretty solid job of explaining that.
The first half struggles a bit, but is not dull and the second half explodes at a furious pace and doesn’t let up until the end. It’s fun. The film is beautiful. Hell, at one point during the climatic battle at the end, a sequence of it looks ripped from something out of an art gallery. It’s hella cool and hella beautiful. I can’t say it enough – this film is colorful and gorgeous.
The comic book panel layout referenced by some of our esteemed pirate posters is indeed featured throughout the film, but most will tag it as an evolution of the direction used by “24”. It works out great and totally dug it since it’s dealing with a very comic book character. You don’t get more comic-booky than the Hulk with his rogue gallery of DOC SAMSON and THE LEADER.
I took my best-friend who was on the verge of not seeing it and was probably more ecstatic about seeing Legally Blonde 2. He too, walked out wanting a sequel and admitting he had a lot of fun. We both agreed and so did the audience – this was much more a crowd pleaser than Matrix Reloaded. Clapping, “woo-hooing” and such was rampant throughout the film. Certain people you wanted to get fuckin’ hit in the face got fuckin’ hit in the face. Or worse.
Simply put, this is not a classic. But it is however a lot of fun. It was lighter on some of the repressed emotions and tragedy I’d thought Ang Lee would push heavily, but it balanced everything out. There are a few groaners and the CG is not seamless, but if you can’t walk into a theater with a group of friends and walk out satisfied with a smile on your face, you either a jaded Internet pirate or ‘tarded.
Go have fun and thank me later.
-- Lord Federman
Wait a minute... there’s piracy on the Internet?!
"Moriarty" out.
