The Hulk Review
by Josh Gilchrist (joshgilch AT aol DOT com)June 26th, 2003
Film Critic Josh Gilchrist gives The Hulk 2.5 out of 4 stars.
Well, Shrek is back on the big screen again. The problem is that it seems that he used all of the money he made from his first self-titled film on steroids.
That pretty much sums up how the CGI Hulk looks much of the time. He's a cartoon stuck in the real world, decreasing the effectiveness of what could've been a very thought-provoking motion picture. The problem is that whenever "The Hulk" starts getting interesting, a beast that goes by the name of absurdity crashes the party. Director Ang Lee obviously had a great vision that he wanted to work with here. There are different techniques used to
give the film a more comic book feel, including using numerous split screens at
once. This is intriguing enough and it's apparent that Lee set out to create an art film instead of your typical comic book adaptation.
But, quicker than Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) can transform into the Incredible Hulk the film resorts to the same sort of cheesy and unnecessarily showy tactics which plague other films of this genre. I was never a huge comic book fanatic but I know that they are stories based on whimsical creativity and zest instead of fake melodrama and asinine circumstances which surround a film like "Hulk." The biggest problem may be that what comes across as creative in comics is overdone and overhyped for the cinema.
I really wanted to like this film. I can't remember a summer movie season which has disappointed me as much as this one and I was hoping that "Hulk" would rise above the fluff and failures. The film's backstory has very engaging aspects. Bruce's father, David (Paul Kersey as young David, Nick Nolte
as old), is a dangerous scientific genius who used to work for the military. His obsession is changing the human immune system. He experiences changes only after experimenting on himself. These genetic changes arepassed down to his young son Bruce.
Thirty years later and Bruce is a hot shot scientist trying to make changes of his own. After a lab accident gives off gamma rays into Bruce's body, he's able to now turn into the Hulk. Still, he's only able to turn into this demon when he becomes angry, an interesting concept since Bruce used to be so unemotional that he lost his love, Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), because of it.
Once the Hulk is unleashed it's only Betty who understands what he's going through, and is prepared to risk her own life to get close to him. David has returned to visit his son, trying to learn more about Bruce's awesome powers. What's missing from this plot is some mystery and sense of humor. I can't remember a comic book adaptation which was less playful. It just seems odd for a film about a man who can change into a twenty foot tall beast to take itself seriously. This is where I believe that maybe Ang Lee was not the best director
for the film since humor is not something we associate with him.
"The Hulk" has "King Kong" and "Frankenstein" written all over it except that this film seems more emotionally distant. We like Bruce Banner but only to the point that we are fascinated by his outbursts and the trauma which has affected him. The screenplay by John Turman, Michael France, and James Schamus places Bruce front and center, refusing to give any other character proper attention. Jennifer Connelly is a terrific actress but she's wasted scene after scene here. In fact, the film doesn't supply a decent villain. We feel too sorry for Nick Nolte's character to completely hate him, so there's no real ideal matchup for The Hulk. He just constantly takes on the U.S. Military, which is intent on destroying him at any cost.
Another problem with the script is that it sometimes seems to be using dialogue
straight out of a comic, dry and hokey. This doesn't stop Ang Lee from peppering almost the entire first 45 minutes with only dialogue and no real look at the beast. An adult can handle this, but there were numerous children in the screening that I attended and all were constantly asking the same questions, "Where is Hulk?" and "Is that man the Hulk?"
This really isn't a kids movie at all though. It's way too violent for them. Of course children are going to be begging over and over to be taken to the film based on the ads and the exciting toys they see. Once they get into the theater, I'm sure many will have the same reaction as some of the children I saw. Whining to be taken home once the wrath of Hulk begins.
Now, the question remains, how many adults will buy it? I for one was not impressed. No matter how clever some of the filming techniques are, any film whose main character is supposed to be horrifying but looks more like a Disney character with a temper is bound to fail.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
