(Originally posted December 6th, 2017)
Today, I got angry. I got really angry. I saw it coming; I'd heard about this one, but that doesn't mean anything anymore. This is Hulk (2003), directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, Sam Elliott as General Thunderbolt Ross, Josh Lucas as Major Glenn Talbot and Nick Nolte as Dr. David Banner/The Father.
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| Hulk (2003) |
Having watched the entire MCU, of course I'm familiar with the Hulk. I consider 'The Incredible Hulk' starring Edward Norton to be one of the under-rated gems of the MCU (nothing amazing, but pretty great), and I of course love Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, especially how they used the character in Thor: Ragnarok. Having watch those films first, and now coming back to this, you might have some idea why I got so angry watching this.
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| The Incredible Hulk (2008) |
This movie has such an awkward pace. At one point, I realised that I was watching the first fight scene with the Hulk, and then I checked the timer. I was an hour in to the movie. It was an hour until they gave us the first Hulk fight scene! I get that we need to establish character motivations and backstory, but an HOUR? There must have been a better way to do this. Not to mention, the majority of the main cast look so bored throughout that it doesn't help the pacing at all. Jennifer Connelly occasionally gives a good performance, but looks like she forgot how to act the majority of the time, Sam Elliott basically just showed up, and Nick Nolte's all over the place, but not in an entertaining way; more like he didn't know what he was doing.
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| Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross |
The editing is a mess. You can tell what Ang Lee's tried to do here, and in some ways, I see where he's coming from. The constant transitions and picture-in-picture make it seem like a comic book, but that kind of style doesn't translate to this medium. A comic book is drawn the way it is because it needs to draw the eye from panel to panel, attempting to immerse the reader in the story, since it's made up of static images. But a motion picture, by definition, moves, so using comic book techniques ironically only works in distracting the viewer and taking them out of the experience. Instead of sucking you in, it's constantly reminding you that what you're watching isn't real, which is the exact opposite effect that they were going for.
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| Sam Elliott as Thunderbolt Ross |
The movie tries to weave in this mystery arc involving Bruce Banner's father and what happened with his mother. Throughout in the film, We see Bruce struggling to remember what happened when he was four, and this plays an important role in the emotional climax, and even the climax itself. The problem with this is that in the opening montage, the audience is outright shown what happened, so there's no build-up or pay-off at all. Even if you didn't know the backstory from the comics, the opening montage kills all tension surrounding Nick Nolte's character, and as a result, the final battle between father and son feels incredibly lacklustre. You could have ended the movie in San Francisco and it would have just been better, but they try to make Nick Nolte a threatening and mysterious character, and it just fails.
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| Nick Nolte as David Banner |
Alright, what's good about this movie? Well, a few things. The effects of the Hulk himself are pretty solid. It's not the Hulk from the Avengers, but for 2003 it's decent enough, and it never dragged me out of the film. Also, Eric Bana gives a pretty great performance here, at least when he's not given horrible lines of dialogue to read, which is only on occasion. Whenever he needs to have an emotional moment, or let something sink in, or even begin the process of Hulking out, he does a great job. It's not as good as Mark Ruffalo or Edward Norton, but it's good. Finally, once the Hulk finally starts doing his thing, it actually gets pretty entertaining. Everything from when he escapes the military base to the confrontation in San Francisco is done very well, at least in the action department. It's a shame we had to sit through 90 minutes of movie to get to that point, maybe longer.
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| Eric Bana as Bruce Banner |
All in all, Hulk (2003) was awful. Just awful. Don't watch this movie. Or, if you're going to, at least do yourself a favour and watch Edward Norton's Incredible Hulk movie afterwards. True, it's not cinematic brilliance, but it's far and away better than this hulking mess. 2.5/10.
Tomorrow: Batman returns in Batman Returns.
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