Hulk Review
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From: Kent
Friends,
Let me begin by saying that if you want to go and see the HULK and make your own decision, that's great, but I could not let another day go by without letting you all know my opinion of the movie. I consider this anger therapy at it's best (the irony is not lost on me), and if you would rather not hear my opinion before seeing the movie, stop reading now.
I don't remember ever being more disappointed with a motion picture in my entire life (O.K., Godzilla. Maybe.).
Ang Lee and James Schamus's attempt to bring the "Incredible" Hulk to the screen fails on almost every level. I cannot think of a single thing that they got right. From the story to the script to the CGI, the movie is flat. They try desperately to bring the character to new heights by pushing the envelope and attempting to make the character interesting, but in doing so, complicate things so much as to be maddening and frustrating to the viewer. The build up and anticipation for this movie literally drains from your very being in the first 30 minutes. Director Ang Lee seems to feel that if you shoot boring, uninteresting scenes at interesting angles in comic-book like multiple-panels, you'll somehow fool the audience into thinking that the dialogue your listening to is profound. There is no clarity in this movie, no distinct narrative of any kind and most of all no emotional attachment to the characters.
This movie simply takes itself too seriously. For the love of God! We don't even get a glimpse at the poor retch of a creature until forty-five minutes into the story! Not only do we need to wait that long, but we need to wait while the director and screenwriter flex their film-school muscles and attempt to show us how introspective they can be by building the back story with inarticulate, confusing and often times just downright dumb flashbacks and metaphorical references to mold growing on rocks!
I understand that the Origins of the character are important in the first chapter of any good superhero franchise, but from what I remember from the comic books, the Hulks alter-ego Bruce Banner was exposed to radiation at some point, it changed the cell structure in his body, and from then on when his eggs don't come out the consistency that he desired, he turns into the raging, chest beating abberation we know as the "Incredible" Hulk. It takes the filmmakers almost an hour to work through that in this version of the story, and by the time they do, you just don't care anymore. What the hell are nanomeds anyway?
The film then attempts to tell us of Bruce's childhood in a series of flashbacks that are so confusing and downright unnecessary that the crowd I saw it with (A midnight show on Friday morning) were actually booing and laughing at the juxtaposition that was attempted. Yes, we care that Bruce had a tough childhood, yes, we care that his father was a bit of a wacko, but can you just show us that without trying to mask everything in dreary fades and wipes that simply extend the scenes instead of enhancing them? This is not high art, Ang. This is The Hulk!
The biggest complaint I have about the editing of the movie is the director's attempt to make uninteresting scenes (as I touched on above) interesting. By the mid-point of the movie, I was swearing if I saw one more close-up of an eye-ball I was going to scream! Jennifer Connelly is interesting to look at to say the least, but I certainly don't want to feel like I know her better than ther optometrist, like I did after walking out of this movie. It seemed as though Ang was attempting to distract you from what he surely saw as a weak script with creative close-ups, green blood-cells flowing through what can only be guessed at as pre-Hulk veins and lots and lots of crying on the part of J. Connelly.
O.K., O.K., enough about the story (I won't even go into the wretched portrayal of Bruce Banner's father by Nick Nolte, for fear I will throw my computer out the window in a fit of Hulk-like rage).
So, you may ask, should I see it for the special effects? These surely must steal the show, right? I mean, if I can sit through an hour or so of droll story-telling, I will be rewarded with some awesome special effects, right? Right? Please?
No. The Hulk has expression, he does show emotion when he is not smashing things. I give the filmmakers that. But everything else. Inexcusable. This movie should not have been released after the director saw what the special effects crew had achieved with the Hulk. He is not once believable. I was never pulled into the movie and made to believe that the Hulk was part of the scene. He was always a sort of blob of green clay that had been meticulously crafted into a super-hero. There are almost two movies here. The serious, dialogue-driven live action part, and the laughable, and if you suspend belief just a bit, fun Hulk smashing part. As long as the two do not come together, which thankfully, doesn't happen much the special effects work. It is, I must admit, fun to watch the Hulk bring down helicopters with his bare hands, put the smack down on the "Hulk Dogs" and jump three miles at a time. But this only works when he is not interacting with a human character, and only when the effect is on the screen with another effect. As soon as a human or real-life background is introduced, the effect is sadly lost.
So, there you have it. You can consider this a review or a rant, or a little bit of both, but I had to say write it. To cleanse my soul of the wretchedness that is the Hulk. Although I can't really put my finger on a single element that drove this motion picture to it's lowly level of mediocrity, I had read for years on-line that the script for the Hulk was written, re-written, approved, re-written, approved, and then re-written again. It shows. The movie is bad on so many levels. Most of which I touched upon above, and this is the only reason I can think of as to why. You know what they say, too many cooks.....
In closing, I can only quote Randal Graves when he spoke to George Lucas in reference to Episode I: "I want my eight bucks back".
Thanks for listening (and allowing me to avoid another costly therapy session),
-Vincent
Let me begin by saying that if you want to go and see the HULK and make your own decision, that's great, but I could not let another day go by without letting you all know my opinion of the movie. I consider this anger therapy at it's best (the irony is not lost on me), and if you would rather not hear my opinion before seeing the movie, stop reading now.
I don't remember ever being more disappointed with a motion picture in my entire life (O.K., Godzilla. Maybe.).
Ang Lee and James Schamus's attempt to bring the "Incredible" Hulk to the screen fails on almost every level. I cannot think of a single thing that they got right. From the story to the script to the CGI, the movie is flat. They try desperately to bring the character to new heights by pushing the envelope and attempting to make the character interesting, but in doing so, complicate things so much as to be maddening and frustrating to the viewer. The build up and anticipation for this movie literally drains from your very being in the first 30 minutes. Director Ang Lee seems to feel that if you shoot boring, uninteresting scenes at interesting angles in comic-book like multiple-panels, you'll somehow fool the audience into thinking that the dialogue your listening to is profound. There is no clarity in this movie, no distinct narrative of any kind and most of all no emotional attachment to the characters.
This movie simply takes itself too seriously. For the love of God! We don't even get a glimpse at the poor retch of a creature until forty-five minutes into the story! Not only do we need to wait that long, but we need to wait while the director and screenwriter flex their film-school muscles and attempt to show us how introspective they can be by building the back story with inarticulate, confusing and often times just downright dumb flashbacks and metaphorical references to mold growing on rocks!
I understand that the Origins of the character are important in the first chapter of any good superhero franchise, but from what I remember from the comic books, the Hulks alter-ego Bruce Banner was exposed to radiation at some point, it changed the cell structure in his body, and from then on when his eggs don't come out the consistency that he desired, he turns into the raging, chest beating abberation we know as the "Incredible" Hulk. It takes the filmmakers almost an hour to work through that in this version of the story, and by the time they do, you just don't care anymore. What the hell are nanomeds anyway?
The film then attempts to tell us of Bruce's childhood in a series of flashbacks that are so confusing and downright unnecessary that the crowd I saw it with (A midnight show on Friday morning) were actually booing and laughing at the juxtaposition that was attempted. Yes, we care that Bruce had a tough childhood, yes, we care that his father was a bit of a wacko, but can you just show us that without trying to mask everything in dreary fades and wipes that simply extend the scenes instead of enhancing them? This is not high art, Ang. This is The Hulk!
The biggest complaint I have about the editing of the movie is the director's attempt to make uninteresting scenes (as I touched on above) interesting. By the mid-point of the movie, I was swearing if I saw one more close-up of an eye-ball I was going to scream! Jennifer Connelly is interesting to look at to say the least, but I certainly don't want to feel like I know her better than ther optometrist, like I did after walking out of this movie. It seemed as though Ang was attempting to distract you from what he surely saw as a weak script with creative close-ups, green blood-cells flowing through what can only be guessed at as pre-Hulk veins and lots and lots of crying on the part of J. Connelly.
O.K., O.K., enough about the story (I won't even go into the wretched portrayal of Bruce Banner's father by Nick Nolte, for fear I will throw my computer out the window in a fit of Hulk-like rage).
So, you may ask, should I see it for the special effects? These surely must steal the show, right? I mean, if I can sit through an hour or so of droll story-telling, I will be rewarded with some awesome special effects, right? Right? Please?
No. The Hulk has expression, he does show emotion when he is not smashing things. I give the filmmakers that. But everything else. Inexcusable. This movie should not have been released after the director saw what the special effects crew had achieved with the Hulk. He is not once believable. I was never pulled into the movie and made to believe that the Hulk was part of the scene. He was always a sort of blob of green clay that had been meticulously crafted into a super-hero. There are almost two movies here. The serious, dialogue-driven live action part, and the laughable, and if you suspend belief just a bit, fun Hulk smashing part. As long as the two do not come together, which thankfully, doesn't happen much the special effects work. It is, I must admit, fun to watch the Hulk bring down helicopters with his bare hands, put the smack down on the "Hulk Dogs" and jump three miles at a time. But this only works when he is not interacting with a human character, and only when the effect is on the screen with another effect. As soon as a human or real-life background is introduced, the effect is sadly lost.
So, there you have it. You can consider this a review or a rant, or a little bit of both, but I had to say write it. To cleanse my soul of the wretchedness that is the Hulk. Although I can't really put my finger on a single element that drove this motion picture to it's lowly level of mediocrity, I had read for years on-line that the script for the Hulk was written, re-written, approved, re-written, approved, and then re-written again. It shows. The movie is bad on so many levels. Most of which I touched upon above, and this is the only reason I can think of as to why. You know what they say, too many cooks.....
In closing, I can only quote Randal Graves when he spoke to George Lucas in reference to Episode I: "I want my eight bucks back".
Thanks for listening (and allowing me to avoid another costly therapy session),
-Vincent
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,451
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From: Las Olas and Brickell, FL
great write up man.....based on what you've said i have to trust your taste on this one. I was just about to order tickets for this, but i'm gonna check out dumb and dumberer instead.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 938
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From: Bay Area
Yeah...i was disappointed in the movie as well. The plot development was all jumbled; some good points but way too many weak points. And the CGI was disappointing - I think maybe hollywood is getting too spoiled and overusing it. It was good in Spiderman but lacking in most others (Matrix II, Blade II, etc.). Definitely, the weakest of the "comicbook" movies to date by a significant margin. 
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