the hulk
I'm a comic book guy.
I've been reading them since I could read, that's over two decades between the panels.
They're still my entertainment medium of choice.
And yet...
I know almost nothing about the Hulk.
Yeah, Bruce Banner, doused with Gamma radiation gets mad and turns all big and green. For a time the Hulk was grey, and for another time he could no longer turn back into Bruce but he was big, green, and smart all the time.
And that's about it. I can't say that I've ever read more than a few issues of the Hulk. I can't say that I remember much about the t.v. series, save that Bruce Banner became David Banner, the Hulk looked like a weightlifter (and could match B.A. Baracus in the tossing suckas department) and the show was pretty much the Fugitive on steroids ("sure looks like you could use some help around here...").
That said, this movie, well, it IS the Hulk. This is the new epitome of what the Hulk is and should be, for me at least. And though I know it may only take inspiration from what has come before it, that's okay, because, hey, if even a hardened comic book geek like me doesn't know the Hulk story, who's really going to quibble if they change it?
There's so much going on in this movie, that it's really hard to know what to start raving about.
First, there's the opening sequence, for which seems to fit in both theme and tone with previous Marvel adaptations X-Men and Spiderman (that sort of inside the science/brain/body vibe... like the Fight Club opener). Immediately the score starts thudding, and as it really amps up the tension and foreboding, Danny Elfman's name pops up. This, I have to say, is his best theme score yet, and damn has he had some good ones.
Within those opening credits, we begin to find out that there's some... genetic manipulation going on. Sceintific experiments involving starfish's regenerative capabilities and unsuspecting test monkeys (nooo, not the monkeys!) The sequence is very thick as the credits interpserse with the imagery - which, to coin a phrase, is all over the page.
Yeah, this was just the beginning of what is probably one of the most tremendously put together films I've ever seen. The split screens and the panelling, the multiple angles, the forcing and tweaking of perspectives, the screen-wipes and melts and bubbles in transitions... this is the ultimate in comic-book movie making. Stunning, at first distracting, then awe inspiring.
Elfman's score really carries you through the first five minutes, in which we're introduced to David Banner in the mid-1960's, as well as General Ross. Banner is doing experimentations, eventually ending on himself. Then he conceives Bruce. Four years later, he realizes his son isn't normal and he needs to cure him, but before he can, he's tossed off the project once Ross discovers his self experimentation. Then David goes nuts, sabotages the base, and something happens. Suddenly Bruce is alone, and traumatized and put up for adoption.
Years later, with his girlfriend Betty, Bruce, now a nanobiologist or somesuch at Berkley, is attempting to create self repairing cells with Gamma radiation, but they're hyperactive and they only wind up exploding their subject. When one of his coworkers botches a repair job, Bruce runs in to save him, only to get a should-be lethal dose of radiation. Only he's fine, but somethings different.
We all know what that is. Then Daddy reappears on the scene... only David's a little...off. His son isn't his baby boy. No, his son is his creation, and like any scientist, he wants to see what his creation can do.
And what can he do? Well, let's see. Two words.
Hulk. Smash.
Forget what you've heard. The cgi is fantastic. This character really takes you away, making you stop looking for the flaws and instead enjoy the flow.
The Hulk smashes the Berkley lab he was born in, the Hulk is pitted against his father's Hulking animal experiments. The Hulk is captured by the military. The Hulk escapes, and the Hulk smashes, and smashes, and smashes, in such a gloriously enjoyable fashion.
It's thrilling, perhaps even cathartic watching the big green machine take a tank by the nozzle and start twirling with it like a hammer throw. It's breathtaking following alongside the Hulk as he leaps through what I assume to be (but correct me if I'm wrong) the New Mexico desert. It's giddily, pulse pounding when the Hulk wrestles with a helicopter in mid air. And it's fascinating the Hulk's response to a jet fighter that's about to crash into the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Hulk, you will notice, for all his wanton destruction is actually still quite reserved. It's a fascinating character touch, as though Banner gets so aggrivated he doesn't smash the people (well, at first he does), he shudders and kicks things and smashes the walls. It's like a little bit of Bruce begins to take control.
Another nice touch is the madder Hulk gets, the bigger, and greener he gets, as when he first get's mad, he's a yellowish-green, changing to an almost grannysmith apple green.
The acting is quite well done for what it is. Unlike Spiderman, Ang Lee takes care to have an absence of cheese, remove a lot of the cliche. And what he doesn't remove, it's made up for with great actors.
Jennifer Connelly as Betty is Bruce's centre, she is what calms him down and reverts the big green menace into a purple-pantsed puddle of man (as she would to any man, no doubt.) Though sort of relegated to the crying girlfriend role, she still has a meaty and necessary part to play, and she does it very well.
Nick Nolte plays as big a mess on screen as I'm sure he is in real life. Kooky as all hell, and rather sinister to boot, his eyebrows have been called the most animate object in the movie. His gravelly throat and menacing presence is a good one, and his eventual... transformation will be a shock to all fans of the comic.
Sam Elliott as General Ross and Betty's father is quite well done... you're never sure whether to like the character or loath him. He seems to redeem himself as often as he shows his bastard nature. Such is military leadership I guess.
There's also Josh Lucas, Betty's college flame and general all round token corporate asshole. When he sees Banner turn green, he thinks money and not much else. He's the guy you know's going to get it, and does he ever in grand fashion.
Finally, there's Eric Bana as Bruce and, through some truly spectacular and innovative new cgi tech, the Hulk as well. When the Hulk turns green, there Bana, bubbling up and out, his face still well grounded in the titular character. It's amazing the expressiveness that they're getting in cgi characters these days. I did, for a time, believe the big green fella was real. And as much as he looked angry, he also looked releived and, well, happy (which is I know exactly what they were going for). Try getting half the actors in Hollywood to do that. As Bruce, Bana plays it low key, trying to mimic the gravelly voice of Nolte, and does it well. He also has the eyes for a role like this... it's the eyes that tell you when someone's getting angry. Like Hugh Jackman before him, here's another Australian who's going to make it big from his comic-book role.
I hesitate to say though, that this is the perfect movie. It isn't, but it's a leap and a bound above Matrix Reloaded or X-Men 2. It's got more craft, as I'm sure there was as much time put in to assbling the "layout" of the film as there was constructing the giant. And the cinematography, especially in the desert scenes will make you wonder why you sat through two hours of Van Sant's "Gerry" when you could see a giant green monster bouncing through it.
Where it falls short is in the execution of the story. It falls a little flat and becomes a little tedious at times. But now that I think about it, I'm sure the depth that it actually goes in to will serve it well in giving it longevity. There's not the mythology that there is in say, the Matrix, but the Hulk isn't about a prophecy, it's about the characters.
While most of the effects were great, I had a little difficulty determining what exactly was going on during the hulk-dog fight. I also didn't really care for the one head on shrinking-to-banner scene... it was just awkward.
The other area where it falls short is its finale, as it's a smidge anticlimactic compared to the military scene. It's a lot more abstract, and even a little hard to follow. There is probably a better way to end it, not even necessarily story wise, just visually. I personally just wanted to see more punching, and more superpowers. But then, I'm a comic book junkie.
This is the movie of the summer, no contest. Ang Lee wins again.