If you go into The Hulk expecting Spider-Man, you’ll be surprised. With only a few action scenes, and more drama than you can shake a stick at, it’s clearly the best comic book movie to date, and, so far, the best summer movie. I’m actually surprised that Ang Lee would risk losing the teen demographic for this, but the movie turns out better for it. The Hulk has a perfect mix of action and drama, and, although I don’t read comic books, has the feel of a comic book.
Kudos goes out to Lee for turning in an excellent directing job. With more split-screens than The Thomas Crowne Affair, it may get annoying for some people, but to me, I really liked it. Also, Lee didn’t always have the whole screen covered up by the movie. Although the split-screen wasn’t always necessary, it added to the unique look of the movie. Lee wasn’t a Hulk fan before he signed on to direct this movie, but the whole thing looks like a giant comic book…you’ll have to see it to understand what I mean.
The plot is actually THERE; it’s involving and has depth. Scientist Bruce Krenzler (Eric Bana) is working on the same project his father David Banner (Nick Nolte) worked on years earlier, a human regeneration project. David tested it on himself, and passed it on to Bruce. However, they become separated, and Bruce moves into the Krenzler’s house. However, he is reunited with David, but an explosion in the lab causes Bruce to become a giant, green, CGI Hulk every time he becomes angry.
If a movie this far-fetched can seem so real and plausible, then that can only mean one thing: everyone involved with this movie deserves a raise. Usually Universal movies have cheesy special effects (U-571 for instance), and the Hulk in no way looked real, but for a CGI dude in a live action world, it worked well. When the Hulk interacted with humans, I was in awe. However, at the end, when the Hulk was fighting another CGI monster, that looked like it was a sigh of relief for the crew.
Bana proves that not every superhero has to have a bad actor play him (i.e. George Clooney in Batman and Robin), in fact, he’s a great actor, and now that he’s sort of well known here in the States, he’ll probably get better roles (the same is happening to Tobey Maguire after his role in Spider-Man). Jennifer Connelly, for the first half, shows that yes, she is a good supporting actress, but in the third act, makes the Academy wonder what they were thinking when they gave out her best supporting actress for A Beautiful Mind. “Let me talk to him, Dad.” “Dad, let me talk to him.” Sam Elliott, who plays Betty’s (Connelly) over-bearing, military father who has something against the Banners, does what he’s supposed to do. The real standout, however, is Nolte, yet again. After his somewhat lackluster work in The Good Thief, he’s back again, stronger than ever.
Many people won’t like The Hulk because they want it to be what it isn’t: another mindless action movie for the summer. It’s actually one of the most intelligent movies of the summer, and, dare I say, the year, so far, and expect it to be on my top ten list for the year.
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some disturbing images and brief partial nudity.