When Louis Letterier's The Incredible Hulk was coming out in 2008, I was tasked with writing a review for Ang Lee's much-debated 2003 Hulk film for GoD. It became more of a deprogramming than a film review; my ultimate statement on a movie which I still consider one of the best of its genre (regardless of what genre you think it belongs to). In light of the news of ABC's new Hulk TV series, and after seeing yet another discussion about this movie pop up on one of the message boards I frequent, I figured it would make for a quick, easy, and hopefully interesting Cheat Week alternative while I'm dealing with the restructuring of my schedule for the new job.
Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!
Movie Review: Hulk (2003) - A RetrospectiveRead the full article here!
Imagine a high concept science fiction story. Imagine heavy psychological drama. Imagine an intensely personal exploration of identity, family, and destiny. Imagine all of these elements wrapped up in an extremely bare-bones, classical-style film. And finally… perhaps most importantly… imagine that that film is not based on a comic book.
When Ang Lee signed on to direct the feature film adaptation of one of Marvel Comics’ most beloved characters in 2003, it was only because he saw something special in the material. Something deeper. Something buried beneath years and years of comic mythology and fan expectations. He saw to the heart of the Hulk.
Now, five years later, Hulk is still the most heavily debated comic book film among fans of comics and film alike. The lovers hail it for its cerebral depth and emotional complexity. The haters boo it for its meandering narrative and questionable performances and effects.
“You can’t have a summer blockbuster that takes 42 minutes for the action to start!” was the general consensus among the naysayers, and they were not entirely wrong! The movie was released in June of ‘03, when the summer movie season was just getting started. It featured a character whose entire reputation was built on a very simple concept: He gets angry, he gets big, and he destroys everything in his path. People walked into that theater expecting a Michael Bay-sized action extravaganza and instead they were met with long, contemplative close-ups of desert flowers, flashbacks within flashbacks, and, yes, a 42-minute wait before any of the anticipated destruction began.
That an audience revved up in such a way might have been thrown by this, is not at all unreasonable. If you go to the movies wanting Transformers and you end up getting No Country For Old Men, it doesn’t matter how good the latter was, you’re still disappointed it wasn’t the former. Your expectations kill your ability to just enjoy what’s in front of you.
Let’s take the film out of that context, though. Let’s imagine that the movie was released at a less-onerous time, and wasn’t billed so heavily as an “action adventure.” How might audiences have reacted then? Well, in that scenario, you still have the reputation of the character to contend with. So, as I suggested earlier, let’s eliminate that factor. There was never any comic called The Incredible Hulk. No TV show. No previous knowledge of a frail scientist who turns into an emerald giant when he gets angry.
Let’s strip the experience down to its absolute barest elements. What do we find?
Even with the lack of action in the first 42 minutes I still liked the 2003 Hulk more then the 2008. Not saying the 2008 wasn’t a good movie because it was a very adaptation of the Hulk from more of the television series I thought. The 2003 stays on top I think because of what other people didn’t like about, the complicated story that grows as the movie does and the eventual realization that everything comes full circle. Eric Bana played Bruce Banner even better the Ed Norton did, but I can understand why they changed the actor because the whole story changed. My wife and I were debating these movies the other day, and apparently my coworkers at DISH agree with her that the 2008 was better then the 2003, but when I asked her about the actual story in the 2003 Hulk she couldn’t remember any of it. Apparently all people remember is “HULK SMASH!”. So I did what any person that wants to at least win one battle with his wife would do, I logged onto my blockbuster @home account, and saw if I could find both of the movies streaming on demand, found the 2003 only. So I rented both of them using the DVD by mail side of the @home, and tomorrow night after they come. Battle Hulk 2012, and Eric Bana will win.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I'd love to hear how that battle turns out.
DeleteI'm with you in that I enjoyed The Incredible Hulk, but still vastly prefer Ang Lee's Hulk.
When I learned that The Avengers would have ILM doing the Hulk FX, I was thrilled. Their Hulk is still one of my favorite CGI characters.