Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on Earth who genuinely enjoyed Ang Lee's Hulk. Every once in awhile I'll meet someone who liked it's thoughtful take on Marvel's premiere lunkheaded tough-guy, but for the most part people seem outright disgusted by the film, disappointed to an alarming degree. I haven't seen Ang's film in a long time, so before I can properly compare it to this latest incarnation I'll have to view it a second time, but I will say this about 2008's The Incredible Hulk: it's good--Iron Man good.
Take note, Mark Steven Johnson, movies about second-tier super-heroes don't have to suck. When you have a good screenplay, top-tier actors will agree to star in your film, therefore ensuring that people will gladly pay $9.00 to see your picture. See how that works? You got to give the people a heartfelt story to go along with those special-effects.Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner, a brilliant scientist who shoots himself with some kind of green beam (gamma rays, presumably) and becomes an angry, green hulk. After trashing his lab and injuring his girlfriend, Betty, played by Liv Tyler, he disappears, determined to master the beast within him or find a cure to make his transformations cease forever. He is finally discovered in Brazil and the film takes off from there. Norton is great as the conflicted Dr. Banner, Liv Tyler is strikingly beautiful to look at, and Tim Roth is at his scariest as the man who will in the end become Hulk's equal, Abomination. Comic book fans will be happy to know that Abomination does NOT look like this in the film:
In some ways the Incredible Hulk is Marvel's answer to Superman. He's invincible, he maintains a mild-mannered alter-ego, and he's got a cute girlfriend. Superman, though, is insufferably boring, while the Hulk is quite an interesting, conflicted little fellow. The Hulk in the early comic books comes to the aid of mankind, but repeatedly expresses his disgust with the puny humans he fights to protect. Bruce Banner craves the power he feels as the Hulk, but also worries that he'll lose too much of himself in the process, making each decision to become the Hulk take on all kinds of meaning you can think about for yourself (this is a movie review after all). Plus, a hulking green behemoth who smashes the crap out of every obstacle put in his way is ten times cooler than a nerdy space-alien in blue tights.
GEP's Grade: B+
