The Film Library

The Incredible Hulk

Ang Lee's 2003 version of the Hulk ranks as one of the most underrated movies of the past decade. Too arty and cerbral for most fans wanting a 'hulk smash!' film, and too rooted in comic book imagery to appeal to the arthouse crowd that would follow Lee anywhere, the movie tried to straddle two worlds and only ended up impaling itself. But to me, it's one of the best comic book movies out there, and i find it much more enriching than even the superb Spiderman, Batman or Superman movies. The film was not what I initially wanted, but by the end I was saying 'I never knew I wanted this in a Hulk movie'.

And so I'm a bit disappointed to see them doing The Incredible Hulk, completely disregarding everything set up in the first film for a more standard reboot, albeit with some pretty good talent involved. I enjoy Edward Norton's work as an actor and I'm sure he won't be able to keep some hefty emotional weight out of the film, but Liv Tyler is one of the worst actresses we have. She's no Jennifer Connelly. And I'm a bit worried about director Louis Leterrier. The Transporter movies are fun, but really goofy and dumb. Unleashed was a bit better, but was still pretty sordid pulp material. But then, we do have William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson & Tim Roth to look forward to.

I have to admit this has stayed off my radar a bit. I've been aware of it for about a year, but I haven't gone out and looked up any info on it, aside from the bare-bones IMDB page. Anyone got any info that makes this one worth looking forward to?

Re:The Incredible Hulk

You seriously liked The Hulk that much?

One of the most ridiculous things was that the Hulk is this bulky musclebound character yet somehow he can jump so high and nimblely that he's essentially flying.

But the most absurd thing of all just had to have been Nick Nolte's character.  That's really one of the most absurd characters I've ever seen in a film.  He basically becomes some kind of deranged God.  I mean a lot of these comic book movies just make and break rules whenever they want, it's so hard for me to get invested.

Re:Re:The Incredible Hulk

Seriously, I liked the Hulk that much. But then, I'm a big fan of comics, both in general and of the Hulk. And, i think we can agree, you aren't(yet). The Hulk is a movie I never went to in a theatre because everyone I know, everyone I trust, told me it was horrible. Watching it on video just made me angry at everyone who told me it wasn't good.

I should clarify; I don't think Hulk is the greatest movie of the last ten years(although I do love it), but in terms of quality vs. recognition, I think it's unjustly ignored. It's a bit faulty to complain about the physics of the movie, since the comic book it's based on has even crazier aspects; in the comics the Hulk is constantly mutating, so his strength is almost always growing, and he has a healing capability stronger than even Wolverine's. At one point he harnassed a whale and his lungs adapted to filter the air out of water. So clearly the fact that he jumps really high in the movie is not that big a deal. In fact, as poor as the effects might be, I find them fairly expressive and often lyrical in the way he jumps around, as unbelievable as it may be.

But beyond that, I think the movie's angst and drama is both more stylized and deeper than even that of Spider-man with his endless guilt. Spider-man just seems like a whiner, but Banner has to deal with the fact that, as the Hulk, he is completely out of control. Also the psychological aspects are a bit deeper, with the Jekyll/Hyde aspect being obvious, but well played. And from a comic book standpoint, the direction is awesome. I love all the comic book transitions, when the camera pulls out to show the various 'panels' and zooms back in on a new scene.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about comic book movies making and breaking rules. Are you referring to the rules of physics? Because to me the only rules that matter in a film are the internal ones. As long as a film sticks to it's own internal logic I dont care how outlandish it gets.

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TheWorkingDead:

I'm not quite sure what you mean about comic book movies making and breaking rules. Are you referring to the rules of physics? Because to me the only rules that matter in a film are the internal ones. As long as a film sticks to it's own internal logic I dont care how outlandish it gets.

I'm saying most comic book movies do not stick to their own internal logic.  Or else they never define how it's different from what you would inherently expect until they want to suddenly change it.  And a lot of times things are changed for no apparent reason other than just for some effect which to me has no interest.

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Sorry this took so long to reply to, I've been a bit preoccupied.

In the end, of course, it's going to fall into the realm of personal taste, but I think I'm a bit more forgiving than you. I guess when confronted with a movie whose entire premise is getting caught in a radioactive explosion gives you superpowers instead of supercancer, I find it easy to accept whatever laws of physics they want to bend. And who knows, I mean, we can't really say what a 10 foot tall behemoth would look like when trying to jump.

I don't mean to sound flippant, or insulting, because this question is one I want an actual answer to and I want to continue this discussion, but do you have any examples of where a comic book movie has ignored it's own internal logic? It's quite possible that after a lifetime of reading comic books I'm blind to certain flaws that most people seeing these movies would pick up on immediately.

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TheWorkingDead:

Sorry this took so long to reply to, I've been a bit preoccupied.In the end, of course, it's going to fall into the realm of personal taste, but I think I'm a bit more forgiving than you. I guess when confronted with a movie whose entire premise is getting caught in a radioactive explosion gives you superpowers instead of supercancer, I find it easy to accept whatever laws of physics they want to bend. And who knows, I mean, we can't really say what a 10 foot tall behemoth would look like when trying to jump.

I'm not even talking about stuff like that really.  If the logic of the movie is that a radioactive explosion does give you superpowers in one part of the movie, but then in another part later it gives you cancer, that would be a contradiction.

TheWorkingDead:

I don't mean to sound flippant, or insulting, because this question is one I want an actual answer to and I want to continue this discussion, but do you have any examples of where a comic book movie has ignored it's own internal logic? It's quite possible that after a lifetime of reading comic books I'm blind to certain flaws that most people seeing these movies would pick up on immediately.

Although I can't remember the movies specifically enough to say all of the moments, but both of the first two X-Men movies had parts like this.  For instance they would make it clear what the limits or extent of a certain character's powers were in one scene, and then in another scene the rules would be broken!

Re:The Incredible Hulk

Ok, well, I just went to see this last night, and I can't say I was surprised. In the end I liked it, enjoyed it even, but it was less of just about everything the first movie offered. Less drama, less style, less originality, less emotion, less talent, less ambition. Even the music was bland in comparison to Danny Elfman's music, which had a great mad scientist vibe to it. The only thing this film had more of was action. A whole bunch of stuff blowed up real good in this film.

But, it wasn't bad. It wasn't The Fantastic Four, or Spider-Man 3, or X-Men 3. But I did enjoy myself. And I got a bit of a geeky thrill when I realized who the villain for the next film would be.

Now, obviously they're setting this all up for the big Avengers movie in 2010. They've set up the Mandarin as the next Iron Man villain, and they've set up the villain for the next Hulk movie. I'm wondering if they might actually be setting up the story for the Avengers, if it will be a huge catastrophic event masterminded by all of the individual villains.