Green Initiative
This Hulk is big, mean and uncomplicated.
Recommended
; "CRUSH HOUR: Hulk experiences road rage in the Big Apple.")
CRUSH HOUR: Hulk experiences road rage in the Big Apple. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION) |
Give Ang Lee's hulk a break. Yes, the notoriously reviled 2003 adaptation failed to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle appeal of Stan Lee's green machine. But the movie, in retrospect, is less an overindulgent mess than a screw-up in studio judgment — they basically asked a bunch of high school theater geeks to organize a mixed martial arts tournament. Lee, Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Nick Nolte should not be held responsible. (OK, maybe Nolte a little.)
Louis Letterier's stab at the Marvel icon is less a reboot of the Hulk's filmic mythology than it is a high-gloss episode of the classic TV series, which reveled in gamma-afflicted scientist Bruce Banner's on-the-run lifestyle by tearing through locations with adolescent glee. Leterrier makes the most of the approach, sprinting from Brazil to California to New York without so much as a single passport-stamping transition.The opening credits take care of the heavy lifting, establishing the trembly Banner (Ed Norton) as the tortured-genius hero, fellow egghead Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) as his test-tube Tammy Wynette and her father, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt), as the power-hungry military suit who wants to convert Banner's demons into super-soldier juice. People will groan about the lack of character development, but is there really anything new to absorb in the first place? Directors have been pulling these 2-D archetypes off smudgy paper and resculpting them for the screen since the dawn of Superman.
One of Lee's biggest mistakes was attempting to convince us that his Hulk was a complex emotional entity — the director's team must've spent thousands of man-hours twisting that CGI face into tentative expressions to properly convey the man inside the monster. But dammit, when Banner turns green, HE IS THE HULK. He's so pissed! This is not a Sofia Coppola film! We want to see him throw a tank at a helicopter!
Letterier seems to get this, granting his acceptably rendered beast two moods — angry and veryveryvery angry. The primary bee in his bonnet is the one-note Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a Special Ops baddie who eventually transforms into the spiky-spined Abomination. Some may find their climactic NYC street clash, the cache of fanboy nods or the crowd-pleasing conclusion egregious, but they're in place to remind you what you're doing: watching a superhero movie.
The Incredible Hulk | Directed by Louis Leterrier | A Universal Pictures release
Also In This Week's Movies Section
Not only an Incredible Hulk review that recognizes it for what it is, (the BIG Summer Action Adventure Monster Smashfest we all NEED) but an even rarer creature:
A Philadephia Movie Review that is neither snyde, cynical, dismissive, or jaded.
Thank you.
I'm seeing it Midnight Thursday at the Bridge.
And the following night, at the Riverview w/ my non-hulk fan friends.
THIS Hulk will Smash all box office expectations, if I have anything to say about it!
When Tyler jumps on top of Banner-Hulk inside the lab while he's mid change... that's awesome. She's got the fire we've been missing from comic book women on screen.