Review - Hulk (2003 - Dir. Ang Lee)

I'm becoming increasingly doubtful that Requiem For a Dream will ever come up as a random choice for Jennifer Connelly in this year's FA Cup. When Hulk cropped up I can't say I was that enamoured. I have seen it ages ago and all I can remember are some really stupid CGI dogs. Apart from that it made no impact on me.

Let's give it a try anyway. I actually found it more entertaining this time. I think that with low expectations it was a lot more fun. Well, kind of. It's by Ang Lee, so it's a really weird mixture of characters chatting about important stuff in a drama based fashion and then a portion of Hulk smash. Bizarre is not the word. But 'a bit of a mess' could be the phrase. Even so I couldn't help enjoying it.

Surely everyone knows the origin story of The Hulk so I won't bother going into it too much apart from there is a slight change in the form of Bruce Banner's dad, played by a wild haired Nick Nolte, who has been naughtily experimenting on himself and passing on his altered genes to his unborn son. It doesn't really add anything apart from giving the film its CG based villain for the final act. Regardless of the details, Bruce soon turns green (and not through a tequila binge) and hits things. Hard.

As a one off the comic book style employed is actually pretty non-irritating with some interesting transitions between scenes and it suits the smashy side of the film well. Split screen features at times and again is non-irritating in this context. It's a good thing that other superhero films haven't adapted this style though or it would have got very tired very quickly.

Iron Man, Superman and Captain America work well on film whereas other superheroes don't. Batman hasn't yet worked nearly as well, apart from in animated form (and yes that does include the vastly overrated The Dark Knight, I've just never been able to get over Bale's ridiculously stupid gravel voice and the fact that, despite having seen it recently, I can remember virtually nothing about it). Thor? Daredevil? Not really. The Hulk started off firmly in this camp. But he's not as bad as I originally thought in this version, although still nowhere near great. The Edward Norton version improves matters a tad but it's taken The Avengers to bring him into the A-list of screen superheroes. Still not convinced he can hold a full film on his own.

Jennifer Connelly is well cast as Betty Ross. I can completely believe that she would be able to do all of those scientifical things. She also makes the drama based scenes with Bruce (Eric Bana) bearable amidst all of the comic book mayhem. It's just a shame that Betty Ross doesn't go out on a date with Freddie Prinze, Jr so that the Hulk can have a good old rant about him and maybe cave his face in.

The Hulk himself looks a bit like he may take up flower pressing. They've obviously gone for the emotional approach but I couldn't really take this seriously when he's chinning a demented poodle. Things definitely improved in the 2008 version with him looking a lot more savage. The Avengers version goes back to being a tad more friendly looking but it keeps the olive green from Norton's version. Judge for yourself:

I still wish Requiem For a Dream had come up but never mind, it's not as painful as I remembered. I actually enjoyed it in an average kind of better than I was expecting kind of way. Connelly is up against Marc Singer in this round of the cup so what will he be able to pull out of the bag. I've got a suspicion that he may be out (unless by some miracle he randomly gets The Beastmaster).
5/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.