The Hulk
HULK SMAAASH!
In this age of cinema cartoon superhero conversions, there’ve been multiple genres of comic films. We have ‘kiddy-flick’ Spider-man, ‘slightly more adult action thrillers’ – I like to think of this as a sort of ‘Die Hard’ – in X-Men / X-2; and now, with Hulk, we have something quite different altogether: the arty action-adventure. Indeed you could go so far as to say that it’s a unique category outside of the comic-book species of film too – the only film that springs to mind to liken it to is, in fact, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon- a thoughtful, almost meditative type of story to which the action is almost more of an emotional expression as opposed to something to show off the expensive effects. Whilst Ang Lee has had his training in action films through the aforementioned epic, he is a great teller of ‘character-based’ stories, too. We know from the history of the comic that the main character, like many others, is actually a bit of an emotional mongoloid (anyone who’s seen Mallrats can begin to explain why), which makes for some interesting viewing outside of the usual summer blockbuster frame.
Most people, however, will not want to see Banner (any of the banners, it doesn’t matter which) being sulky and sticking his bottom lip out. Most people will not want to think about the big green guy being an extension of the normal boring geeky scientist’s emotions. They won’t want 45 minutes of character development, explaining how and why it might be likely for Bruce Banner to go ape (green-stylee) on the world, or the reasons that will get him to calm down again; essentially, what makes the hulk tick. Most people will want a summer blockbuster to be an excellently rip-roaring rollercoaster ride through the green-tinted fires of hell, watching a huge monster smash the poo out of tanks and helicopters and other such vehicles.
Unfortunately for most people, the hulk is, in fact, a bit of both. There is a lot of character development in this film which, granted, is going to be far too much for the majority of small kids (and adults). There is some fantastic action in here, the CGI is another good step forward for completely generated characters, although many will be put off by the overly-fantastic look he has (e.g. he might look “too cartoony”; and that the jumping hundreds of meters into the sky like a frickin’ rubber ball is a bit off in the physics department), and this probably because of the exceptionally down-to-earth explanations they give for the how’s and why’s that he got to that ‘stage’.
Basically, the main problem this film has is that nobody expects a superhero film to be a ‘thinker’. It plays out in a mood like the quiet before the storm, where people want it to be, well, a superhero movie. In my opinion, while it tries to do a lot of things in the space it is given (which is a long time) it actually does them quite successfully. The acting could be better, granted, but I like the childhood-trauma-driven Bruce Banner, Nolte’s supersized father character, and the other antagonistic science-guy. They’re comic book characters. That’s the point. Most people just tend to forget that this is essentially a film from a shadowy (yet colourful) side of Stan Lee’s mind, and not the fucking Beano. If you ask me, through all their emotional, filmic and technical prowess, Ang & Stan have pulled it off.
8.4
MD 16:36 1/08/2003