The Incredible Hulk (2008)

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Yup

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=414924


so uh i love ed nortons work and have always said he needs more roles.  However this isnt exactly the direction i was thinking. 

[Pak-Man]

I love The Hulk. I even dug the movie. They say this one is gonna fix everything that was wrong with the first and it's gonna be the kind of action-packed slugfest befitting of a Hulk movie. I'm actually looking forward to it. :^)

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

which is EXACTLY what a hulk movie is supposed to be.  what the hell was ang lee thinking?  mutant dogs my ass. 

[ScottotD]

Mutant dogs almost ruined the movie for me but I LOOOOOOOOOVED Ang's take on it.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

really?  please elaborate.  Your literally (no joke) the first person i have heard say that.  Why did you like it? 

ps although i hated the movie for its boredom and its attempt to make something really silly into something really serious, i did really like HOW ang lees attempted it.  the camera work was very interesting.

[ScottotD]

The fact it took the concept seriously and tried to be a comic book visually in a way nobody else had tried before.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

True ill give it that, but do you think it was a successful at it and also an interesting movie?  While i agree with your points and do seriously give it props for that, i think it failed at the interesting part.  Especially the ending.

[mrbasehart]

While I did like the original, I was disappointed by the lack of quality destruction and a truly anti-climatic ending.  Norton is a good choice for the new Bruce Banner, and it signals Marvels intent to make a high budget movie, not some quick cash-in sequel.  I wonder if Connelly will be back as Betty?

[Cibernético II]

yeah, everybody in my posse says opposite.
Hulk dogs good. Ang Lee bad.

Edward Norton is a much better choice for Bruce Banner. I remember reading that Ang Lee said they picked some one athletic and good looking because the audience wouldn't care for or connect with a nerdy scientist character


I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ang Lee's movies, much like the Chinese government, have little reguard for human rights

[SmilinJackRoss]

I also thought that Ang Lee's concept was great...until Sin City came along, it was the closest a movie had ever come to looking like a comic book.  But I agree that the movie was a pretty tedious anti-climactic snorefest.  Should've been been much better than it was.

I wonder who they'll get to direct this one?

[mrbasehart]

I wonder who they'll get to direct this one?

Probably a director who's well respected for his earlier, independent work, who's decided to take on the "mythology" of the Hulk.   

Failing that, I'd like to see someone like John McTiernan get it.  If he's out of jail yet.

[Trufire]

While it will be intersting to see what they do with this movie, I feel that it is nessicary for me to post an article. Basically it is an opinion piece but he does make sense as well. Whether you agree or not is up to you but it is always good to see different angles to views.

Ang Lee's Hulk by Charlie Martin

One of the more common questions that people have asked me is my opinion on the Hulk film that came out in June of 2003. The actual film, directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana as Bruce Banner (and, in a way, the Hulk), received mixed reviews and mixed results at the box office. Some people liked it for being a cerebral comic book movie, while others ripped it for not being fun enough. At the box office, it set records for an opening week in June, but dropped off quickly in sales. It netted $250 million worldwide, but had a budget exceeding $120 million.
I would guess that one of the reasons that folks have asked me is that I've made it no secret on my page that I am obsessed with the Hulk. That does not mean that I will blindly enjoy any crap with that name on it. I hated the most recent video game, abhor most of the cartoons that have featured him, and only recently started reading the actual comic again. I'm also not obsessed with nailing every aspect of the character. The television series starring Bill Bixby is an excellent example of something that screwed up every detail of the comic, including changing Bruce Banner's name to David. However, it did a very good job with the basic concept of the character and had some excellent acting in it. So while I am probably biased toward the movie, I like to think that I'm a pretty well-balanced fanboy.

The first thing that jumps out as the film gets going is Ang Lee's style in directing it. The film physically looks like a comic book. The most obvious aspect of this similarity is when the screen breaks into different panels, but it can also be seen often in more subtle ways. During a closeup of a character, for instance, the camera will switch angles without breaking away, changing the way you see the character. If two people are having an intense conversation from across the room, the camera will give us a closeup of both of them at once, so we see the people rather than the scenery. Many people consider this style of camerawork to be gimmicky, and in a way it is. However, it also sets the tone of the movie. This is a comic book film; the characters and the action all have that larger than life aspect to them. When you see the Hulk swat missiles away later on, don't be too surprised.

There are also several key points during the film where the comic-style transitions work particularly well. When Edith Banner is giving birth to Bruce, the scene swells and bursts through the middle of the screen, emphasizing the pain of childbirth. When Bruce meets Glenn Talbot, a former lover of his own beloved Betty Ross, the screen splits to give us a view of how each of them reacts within the love triangle. When Banner is finally captured by the military, the multiple panels give us a quick layout of the desert base where he is brought, showing us exactly how securely Bruce is kept.

The acting is also a major strength of the movie. Nick Nolte plays Bruce's villainous father David, and presents him in a surprisingly human light. David Banner is a man who most consider to be a raving lunatic, and it would be extremely easy to dismiss him as such. Instead, Nolte brings out a very human quality to him, showing the character's motives and how they spawn from a twisted desire to help Bruce. Sam Elliot plays the other father character, General "Thunderbolt" Ross. Ross is seeking to keep his daughter safe from the Hulk, but at the same time must accept that she loves Bruce Banner, and as such he must try to help the menace rather than simply destroy him. Elliot manages to convey his character's feelings mostly through body language and facial expressions, and does a terrific job of it. As an added bonus, he is the spitting image of the comic book Thunderbolt Ross as well.

It takes about a third of the movie before the Hulk really shows up. He's there beforehand, but not in a physical sense. He shows up in Bruce's dreams, lurking in the shadows, and can be seen briefly during the accident that eventually unleashes him. However, the part many people are waiting for -- the actual smashing -- comes later in the film. The first 40 minutes focus on what has made Bruce Banner who he is. We know that he has repressed the memories of his childhood, due to some sort of family tragedy. We know that he dated Betty Ross (the General's daughter and fellow scientist) for a short while but that their relationship fell apart because he couldn't express his emotions. Everything about Banner is controlled, from his desert flowers that he mists every night to the careful strokes he takes when he's shaving. The formula here is similar to an old-fashioned monster movie. First we see life as it should be, ordered and neat. Then Godzilla shows up and starts smashing, or the Frankenstein monster comes to life. Without the prolonged period of calm, we have no sense of how quickly things unravel.

For Bruce Banner, things fall apart at an alarming rate. After receiving what should be a lethal dose of gamma radiation in a lab accident, he first discovers that his real father has been stalking him. Then he has to deal with a potential hostile takeover of his lab from Glenn Talbot. Finally, when Betty tries using her high-ranking general of a father to exert some pressure and get rid of Talbot, she instead finds out that he is more concerned about Bruce as a potential danger. Eventually, Banner loses his temper and turns into the Hulk, and the carnage begins.

The Hulk himself is a major controversy regarding the film. In the trailers, the CG wasn't finished, and as a result the creature was not fully defined, leading to many complaints about the special effects before the film was even released. The final product does have its flaws; the Hulk's body movements are occasionally jerky and he doesn't look 100% perfect in long shots. Of course, he is a 15-foot tall creature with emerald green skin, so realism isn't too much of an issue. The special effects do manage to make the Hulk look like he's a part of the environment. When he's in the desert, his skin gets dusty. He gets wet when exposed to water, and the environment around him changes based on how he interacts (or smashes) it.

I think I should note here one minor observation that I've made regarding Banner's pants. Many people have asked why the Hulk's pants don't fall off when he transforms. The simple answer is that no one wants to see a massive irradiated penis. But the film does explain this, in a way. When Banner first transforms, he isn't as big as he becomes later in the film, and so his pants are only torn. The next time he shows up, his pants do fall off when he transforms, and all the ladies get a nice shot of Eric Bana's ass. Later on, he's wearing stretchy pants, and in the fourth and final transformation we don't see how big the Hulk has become because he is fighting another monster. Just an observation on my part.

Anyway, the Hulk actually combines elements of several actors thanks to motion capture. For obvious reasons, he looks vaguely like Eric Bana. Jennifer Connelly was used for his facial expressions, allowing him to convey a great deal of emotion (which is important since he only speaks twice). Finally, Ang Lee himself did most of the Hulk's actions, which must have been physically exhausting considering how much carnage he causes. During the span of the film, the Hulk trashes Banner's lab, tangles with mutated dogs, takes on tanks, helicopters, and jet planes, and battles with the aforementioned other monster. There is a lot of action here, showcasing the Hulk's power. But while the Hulk is a creature of rage, he also has a human side. There is a surprisingly low body count, mainly because the Hulk shows enough control not to kill people. He also has several moments when he is alone in the desert or facing Betty where the gentle aspects of his nature show through. In short, the crew managed to create a monster with a soul very effectively.

Above you might have noticed that I mentioned mutated dogs. That's right, he does fight a bunch of gamma dogs, but the scene is no where near as lame as it sounds. The actual fight is awesome, and is probably the best battle in the film. The Hulk tangles with three gamma-irradiated dogs that are out to get Betty, and the fight is absolutely brutal. If you are a dog lover, you might want to close your eyes near the end of the battle.

The scene also allows for a good example of some of the humor in the film. One of the three dogs that the Hulk faces is a gamma poodle. While many people complained that the film lacked humor, I think that it is there, just not in the form of one-liners and insanely cackling supervillains in stupid costumes. The gamma poodle is one example. Other bits of humor can be found mostly in the battle scenes, such as when the Hulk grabs a missile, bites the head off, and spits it back at the copter that shot it at him. While the movie is mostly serious, I don't think that anyone who actually sits down and watches it will get through the entire two hours without laughing at a couple points.

Hulk does have its flaws. At certain points the script is a bit cumbersome and causes the actors to stumble through their lengthier lines. The lack of a body count is sometimes contrived, and as I mentioned before, the Hulk is not 100% realistic. However, the film is overall very powerful, working not just as a superhero and monster film but as a very good metaphor of rage, repression, and the long-term effects of those things. It is a very good movie, perhaps the best of the Marvel movies so far. I would recommend that everyone see it at least once. If you don't like it, then it might just not be your thing. But I think lots of people simply don't give this film the chance it deserves.

[Bob]

I wonder who they'll get to direct this one?

Maybe Uwe Boll is free?

[Cibernético II]

[
Maybe Uwe Boll is free?

he would make a movie based on the Hulk video game. And if he made a movie based on the video game that was based on the movie, the result would be perhaps the world's most powerful WMD

[Sharktopus]

I wonder who they'll get to direct this one?

It was announced a while ago that the director of The Transporter and Transporter 2, Louis Leterrier, is directing The Incredible Hulk. Sounds okay to me. The Transporter was supid, but entertainingly action-packed, as should a proper Hulk movie. And Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, much like Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, is brilliant casting.