[Review] The Hulk

[Mistwell]

I just saw it. Overally I enjoyed it, but not as much as either X-men or Spiderman or Daredevil. I missed there being a consistent element of humor (other than Stan Lee and Lou Farigno talking briefly, which was just an inside joke). Ang went with a much more serious version of the Hulk, and yet increased the feeling that it was a comic book on screen. I liked the comicbookiness of it, but not the elimination of humor.

In addition, I never felt for Bruce Banner. He just wasn't a sympathetic character to me, nor did I believe he was in love with Betty, though I believed she was in love with him.

I loved Nick Nolte, and thought all of the acting was fairly good to solidly good. The scene where father and son are talking, with just two chairs being most of the backdrop, was excellent. Very intense acting.

Overall, I would recommend it, though again I felt like I wanted more humor, and a more sympathetic rendition of Bruce Banner.

PS: I thought the fight with the dogs was excellent. Oh, and I *am* a comic book nerd, and other than dragging on, I didn't have a problem with the origin.

 

[Default Name Player]

stevelabny - You're finally making some points. I'm sorry if I was "mangling" what you were saying, but to be honest, you were raving like a rabid comic book fanboy before.

I'm not trying to convince you to like the movie - hey, different movies affect different people. This just wasn't a movie for you.

 

[Tewligan]

I thought it was pretty good, once it finally got going. It could have stood to have about 30 minutes trimmed out of it, mostly from the "pre-hulking" part of the film. I didn't mind the mutant dogs, but I agree with whoever complained about the lighting during the father/son fight - I'll bet that would have looked kinda cool if I could have actually seen it. But, the CGI looked good, and it was overall a fairly entertaining film. Plus, I was hoping to hear Bruce Banner's famous warning, and was delighted that it made it into the movie. I'd say this is weaker than the other recent big superhero movies, but it beats the hell outta Howard the Duck and Dolph Lundgren's Punisher.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Ang went with a much more serious version of the Hulk, and yet increased the feeling that it was a comic book on screen. I liked the comicbookiness of it, but not the elimination of humor.

I agree that Hulk is more serious then Spidermen, Daredevil, and X-men. However, it is not entirely without humor.

- Hulk biting a "gama dog"
- Hulk throwing and spitting missiles
- The gunners on the last tank giving up when the Hulk gives them a dirty look.
- Hulk bending the tank barrel to point at the tank drivers head.

Anyway, I can say that I was somewhat disappointed that they made the movie PG. And though I dont mind the altered origin, I think that they could have cut it down. I would have liked to see Banner feeling guilty about injuring people while rampaging.

Im a bit torn on the decision to have Bannser Sr. be the Absorbing man though, but on the whole, I like the movie.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[DanMcS]

there is no way a person who "wouldnt be caught dead at a comic book movie" would 1> go see HULK in the first place and there is no way that they OR the regular non-comicgeek moviegoer would be able to sit through the goofiness of the dogs and the blob. i think hulks "caveman-talk" is less goofy than either of these.

and to make my review clear: if youre not a comic/scifi geek you will not like this movie...dont bother. if you ARE a comic/scifi geek you will still NOT like this movie, but you should see it because it comes with the job description, and you have a better chance of at least appreciating SOME of it.

I just saw this movie with three people who have never read a comic book between them. All four of us liked it just fine, and so did the rest of the sold-out theater. You're verging on deranged ranting, man.

 

[Chain Lightning]

Its friday night, and I just got back from seeing "The Hulk".


- - - Some Spoilers - - -

Let me preface my review with some indications as to what kind of reviewer I am and from what perspective I'm coming from.

I am a comic book reader, but not a die hard fanatic. In other words, I didn't get upset that Peter Parker generated his own webbing from his wrist rather than invent the 'web formula' from his home science lab. I'm not upset that Hugh Jackman is taller than the comic book version of Wolverine. I found both "Spiderman" and "X-Men 2" to be excellent super hero comic book movies. I found "Daredevil" to be just a slightly below average comic book movie.

Okay, now for my review.

"The Hulk" (in my opinion & of my entire group of friends I saw it with) was a piece of crud. Very surprisingly bad considered this director is the same man that gave us "Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon" and "The Icestorm".

I could try to write a lengthy blow by blow as to all the aspects that made this movie score so low (for me), but I'm short on time at the moment so I'll keep it semi-brief. Plus, after this post, I'm sure others that like the movie will retort and then perhaps then I'll elaborate further.

The editing style in this movie is the most glaringly bad artistic decision recognizable right off the start. Not sure who to blame for this, is it Ang , or the producer who told him to do it like this, or the editor doing it for the producer behind Ang's back....who knows. But it is just plain bad.

Scenes are often shown to us in little picture in picture like 'comic panels' and split screens that enter and travel into view upon the main image. Think of some older anime with big robots where suddenly the guy piloting the 'left leg' gets his own square at the bottom right hand corner to say his line. At first, this happens in the beginning back history part of the story so it isn't noticable. You think to yourself that they're using that editing presentation style in order shove as much exposition back story into the beginning as possible. But then the film goes into modern day with Bruce and that style is still going on. Its very distracting and very annoying.

The pinnacle of this bad multi-panel style comes when a character dies due to an explosion and flys toward screen but his form is frozen in mid air like the beginning jump pose Austin Powers does at the beginning of his first movie. That and he has a white outline around him.

Okay, I can only theorize what was going through their heads when they decided to employ this visual style. Maybe they thought, " oh...it will be like a comic book! Its got panels like a comic book. The comic book diehard fans will love it because they'll feel like they're reading a comic! Yeah! They'll feel right at home!"

Dumb idea. And even a worse execution of that idea.

The script is bad too. There is a mystery behind Bruce's past and it doesn't get revealed until around Act 3 of the movie. Well, I guess I'll respect that decision to string the audience along for that long...although they really shouldn't. But oh well. What was annoying however is all the dialogue scenes we hat to sit through of characters talking to Bruce about his past without actually really 'saying' what his past was. It was so annoying. Its like, " you're special , what happened to you is special but I'm not going to say what it is because the audience isn't suppose to know yet, so i'll be vague and dance around the issue for as long as I possibly can".

A lot of the dialogue these wonderful actors had to spit out was bad too. Nick Nolte's speech at the end....my goodness....I understood the Architect's speech in "Reloaded" better than that spittle spewing tyrade.

There's so much wrong with this movie its amazing. Not just the above mentioned points. There are more bad things I could talk about, but I'll cut my post shorter tonight.

I had no clue it was going to be this bad. I went it neutral, no expectations, and I walked away absolutely stunned at the poor quality of this interpretation of the Hulk to the big screen.

If I could give any advice to people who haven't seen it yet...it is to say this: Don't go see this movie. It is horrible. Its "Dreamcatcher" bad....that's how bad it is.

I felt bad contributing money to the folks that brought this piece of horrible cinema to the big screen. Normally I don't get that upset over movies that end up costing me to lose $9.50. If it was bad...oh well. But when movies are this bad, part of me feels mad for giving the makers any profit.

I urge other film watchers who have any level of decent taste in quality to NOT SEE THIS FILM.

Thankyou for you time.

 

[Kai Lord]

and WHY OH WHY did they go through the g.i.joe cartoon method of beating it our heads with sheer nonsense that NO SOLDIERS DIED during the entire movie.

I thought it was pretty obvious that some tank crew members died. One tank was flipped over while men sat on top and another was chucked 300 yards. You don't keep breathing after something like that happens.

Go check out Black Hawk Down. Helicopters don't usually go up in a huge fireball when they crash, and moving from a few guys dying in tanks to wholesale slaughter would have raised yet another moral quandry the film just didn't need.

The fights looked realistic, the Hulk was never characterized as someone who'd go the extra mile to "finish the job", and the sequences appeased our desire for stompin' comic book action. I saw no need for gratuitous on-screen deaths.

 

[stevelabny]

danmcs... where did u see the movie?
because at my theatre, the audience was pretty outspokenly AGAINST the movie.
i hadnt seen a theatre so against a movie since UNBREAKABLE. (which i absolutely loved, but the whole audience groaned at)

do crowds in you neck of the woods EVER not enjoy a movie?

just wondering

anyway, im reading harry potter now...everyone who liked it can jump on chain lightning, i thought he was even harsher than me...

 

[Mark Chance]

The script is bad too. There is a mystery behind Bruce's past and it doesn't get revealed until around Act 3 of the movie. Well, I guess I'll respect that decision to string the audience along for that long...although they really shouldn't.

You were actually strung along by the "mystery"? I thought it fairly obvious by the screams of terror from behind the closed door and the flash of David Sr. gripping the knife. Actually, by the time of the David-Jr.-Packs-for-College scene, rather early in the film, it was clear that David Sr. had killed his wife.

As far as mysteries go, it wasn't much of a melon-scratcher.

 

[Krug]

You were actually strong along by the "mystery"? I thought it fairly obvious by the screams of terror from behind the closed door and the flash of David Sr. gripping the knife. Actually, by the time of the David-Jr.-Packs-for-College scene, rather early in the film, it was clear that David Sr. had killed his wife.

As far as mysteries go, it wasn't much of a melon-scratcher.

Yah perhaps but it wasn't deliberate. Only in Act 3 did we know WHAT David Sr decided to do in the kitchen.