Review – The Incredible Hulk
- Ethan Cole
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David Bruce Banner has been the Hulk for a while; on the run – in hiding; somewhere in Latin America he’s learning the ways of controlling his emotions.
Unlike the previous Hulk abortion (seldom known as Ang Lee’s big ‘fuck you to Hollywood’) this isn’t a clusterfuck or a pretentious take on ‘comic books’. This is a monster movie; similar in feel to the likes of King Kong and Godzilla, particularly capturing the odd looking comic-book style miniatures.
It’s nice to see a comic book movie with an opening credit sequence (that isn’t Spider-man). Similarly though; the sequence informs the audience to The Hulk’s origin – which is slightly different with an additional cool re-take added. Furthermore there’s a nod to Stark Industries. The intro is very reminiscent of the Hulk TV series; it’s one of many (cameo aside) – the riff off the series music provided some light amusement (outside of this; the music is serviceable – nothing that stands out).
Some may expect ‘You’re making angry puny human. I know this, because Tyler knows this’. Not quite. Here Bruce Banner is more fragile and afraid – and not quite as insane; appropriately paranoid; searching for a cure. The depth to which he wishes rid The Hulk from his system is well established and solidified in the second act; as is his pain of the struggle.
I am The Hulk’s shrinking pants. Dealt with and explained – the jokes work, but generally the comedy is hit and miss. When it comes to dialog based gags they tend to be solid – such as the riff on “You’re making me angry”. However the physical and in-your-face jokes don’t work so well. One in particular involving a taxi driver from GTA; all to get an anger v patience joke – effectively too goofy and over the top in the most retarded fashion that breaks the ‘reality’. But there are still idiots who laughed.
One of the biggest flaws with this movie is the tone, leaping all over the place; switching from scene to scene at times arch comedy to subtle gags to intense melodrama. Part of this is a result of the editing; an attempt to keep the duration down. Resulting in a fast pace, but a disjointed feel where the movie is more a series of scenes spliced together. The whole first act is practically a series of interconnected montages; it’s more ridiculous than informative.
There are a few great locations present in the movie, but they’re not quite well utilized. Whilst most look great, they are featured in typical summer-blockbuster-Hollywood second unit shots; punching in from a master to a medium – the usual junk.
The action is for the most part decent; despite too much slow-mo being used – but from this director it’s not surprising. The best action are the Hulk battles, particularly in the third act; the showdown featuring The Hulk v Abomination; CG on CG pummeling – whilst not quite up to the satisfaction of Transformers or Blade, it’s a proper comic-book brawl. Sadly there’s a lame attempt at creating ‘threat’ through the trapped puny humans, but it’s a good enough setup to get the Hulk clap in.
Much like the comedy, the visual effects were hit and miss. A lot of the misses were the choppers and aerial related elements and a few issues with The Hulk/Abomination fitting into the scene – such as Betty holding Hulks hand it seemed off. However, where it really counts is the battle sequences and the expressions/emotions of the two characters. The Hulk is surprisingly expressive; conveying pain and sadness – looks good and works well to add threat to what would otherwise be a bunch of digital masses wrestling.
Assisting in this battle department is the sound effects; loud and hard hitting there are a number of instances where the sound saves the day. Additionally the sound works to great effect for both dramatic and comedic effect in regards to heart rate monitor. It’s a good gimmick and audio cue for the audience; complete with the obligatory ‘excitement’ joke.
The Hulk transformation is effective; like some uber-steroid instant rush – there isn’t much screen time wasted until the first Hulk-out – despite being hidden in the shadows to begin with. The ‘monster’ nature of The Hulk is hinted at in a number of scenes, such as one where he’s roaring – standing on the edge of a cliff; followed by an inner-humanity moment. There’s a certain King Kong/Frankenstein’s monster vibe evident, but it’s lacking a deeper context here; in order for the required emotional high notes to resonate a greater degree of information needs to be established.
Given the disjointed editing, the melodrama comes off almost like a Mexican soap opera (one of the ‘better ones’); way too over the top – at some points its laughable; however there is enough evidence that if it were in an appropriate context it would work.
Another issue stemming from this abridged cut; the shrink that’s with Betty Ross – seems to have a good take on Banner, even though they’ve seemingly never met. However some will know that they did have a sit down – evidenced in one of the trailers.
Featured herein; perhaps the best Stan Lee cameo in a Marvel movie. At first it was almost annoying to see him but then [spoiler] he dies [/spoiler] so all is acceptable. Now if his Punisher cameo could be something like this there may be something nice to say about it.
Strangely, Tim Roth’s character almost has more importance than Banner; much akin to the last generation Batman movies – focusing on the villains more than the ‘hero’; although giving the sense that there’s a phantom movie before this one. Blonsky is a fun character mostly because he’s a psychotic-whackjob who’s initially a one-man-army stuck in the body of an aging man. This makes for the first suped-up battle vs The Hulk a cool sequence, despite being totally inane; seemingly some sort of gun wielding ‘Project Ninja’ badass. I’d rather have seen a whole movie with a powered up Blonsky like this running about a war zone – that would be entertainment. This leads into establishing his addiction to this super soldier serum ad his raging disdain for The Hulk – so wonderfully psychotic its fun. Eventually becoming The Abomination; some of this factors into its animalistic nature; though he seems to have more control than The Hulk. It’s also great to see him just whacking the shit out of stupid nearby civilians. However, it’s not made clear as to his motive/intent; why would he want to become Hulked out as opposed to just juicing extra on the serum. Again, this is something that the execs would’ve just dumped; maybe in an extended cut this will be clear.
The two Ross’ don’t fair so well, with General Ross seeming like a victim of heavy editing and constantly changing scripts and/or re-shoots; going from over the top to serious. At times it almost seems like he’d rather be somewhere else. As for Betty; Liv Tyler seems stoned most of the time; though no where near as junkie-comatose as Kirsten Dunst in Spider-man (though in her defense you’d have to be a drug addict to deal with an emo-wb-pussy like Spider-man). Betty Ross is mostly a soft-speaking lost girl who mostly makes sad-faces amidst the assorted mayhem.
Then there’s the scientist guy, starts of mildly amusing; somewhat whacky but eventually spirals into fucking annoying; looked forward to his death or at least some grievous bodily harm. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) there’s a possible setup for next flick.
One of the most dumfounded stupid moments comes by way of a CG information sequence informing us (the stupid audience) that Banner’s e-mail was flagged by the SHIELD echelon system. The graphics were weak and it’s a waste of screen time – dialog would have sufficed; and they could work the SHIELD logo in some other way.
The showdown in the third act was good, something Iron Man was lacking, in some ways it would be amusing if the two were edited together excising the weaker elements from both. The most jarring however, was the scene with Tony Stark (whether this was just a local edit is unclear) just popping in before the credits rather than mid/post credits where it should have been. The last shot w/ Norton prior to this was a typical/perfect ‘cut to credits’ device; effectively wasted.
This movie in its current state is somewhat forgettable; it’s in flux and disjointed at the expense of keeping down the runtime, as such a extended cut of this movie is warranted, mostly because the editing here (like most of this director’s movies) is so shoddy it throws off the pacing and the tone.
Rating: 6.1/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 8.0/10
(ratings explained)
ADDENDUM
In light of an extended cut:
The Incredible Hulk: The Truth About Edward Norton vs. Marvel [slashfilm]
Cheers Magnus for the heads up.