There are two types of Hulk movies you could make: 90 minutes of the Hulk destroying NYC for pure eye candy OR a two hour movie that balances action with the psychological aspects of the character.
And then there's the latest iteration of the Hulk.
Just to throw it out there, there's nothing after the credits. Unless you count the splash screen to visit Universal Studios. The rumors of a Captain America apperance are rumors.
Spoiler.
Overall: ** out of ****I was one of the 24 people in the US and 45 people in the world that liked the Ang Lee version of the Hulk. But that aside, I went to this sequel/reboot (seqoot? requel?) with an open mind.
Things that worked:
Ed Norton
Skipping the origin story
The first half of the movie while Banner's on the run
Introduction and origin of Dr. Samuel "The Leader" Sterns.
Cameo by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno
Avengers continue to assemble
Things that didn't work:
The actual movement of the Hulk. He kind of just walks around really slowly. Ang Lee's Hulk, FWIW at least had the Hulk bouncing around chucking tanks. This Hulk just absorbs a crapload of bullets. Sure, he uses a car as boxing gloves, but that's all the way at the end. For much of his screentime, he just wanders around making a meanface while being shot at
Lou Ferrigno doing the voice of the Hulk. I thought they would have done better using Ed Norton's voice through some effects.
Replacing Sam Elliot as Thunderbold Ross. It isn't that Hurt does a bad job at the role, its just that Elliot was pretty much perfect for it. He couldn't have been busy. I'm sure if you gave him a new cowboy hat he would have done it.
Liv Tyler. She sucks at everything she's in. Can't convey emotions that well, not really good at acting, and she only has a job because she was in a few of Daddy's videos almost 20 years ago.
Abomination. I know the Hulk's villain gallery is either horrifically out of date or lame, but Abomination really sucks. The best Hulk villain is the Hulk. Its the conflict between Banner and his unchecked Hulk. Hulk beating the **** out of tard-Hulk is stupid.
Overall, it felt like they made an edgier version of that crappy TV show that nobody here's old enough to remember. It reduces the Ang Lee-explored psychological stuff to pretty much turn the Hulk into a glorified Werewolf. I'd almost have more respect if this movie were two hours of HULK SMASH EVERYTHING, but it isn't. The Hulk scenes are still far between. Here's the basic summary of what's going on in Banner's head: I want the Hulk out of me. Sure, that's fine. Its true to character. But they left unexplored what the Hulk actually is (repressed anger, Id, etc). They started to open up Banner gaining control over the Hulk, or the actual humanization of the Hulk in the movie, but they left this thread dangling right after they started it.
They do have a tossout to Captain America fans, but its really brief and focuses on the extraction of some deep-frozen super-soldier formula out of the deep-freeze. There was no cameo of CA as was rumored. No Nick Fury either. Tony Stark made an appearance, but 90% of that was spoiled by dumping his scene into a trailer (to capitalize on Iron Man's kickass box office appeal). And even that inclusion of Stark makes me wonder: if he's floating around, why didn't he float down and blast Abomination.
Ang Lee's version took flack for getting lost in itself. This version avoids the biggest hurdles by fast-forwarding 5 years from the origin. You get a montague in the opening credits showing you how the Hulk happened and Banner going on the run and then you're dropped in Brazil. But even avoiding the trap of spending 1/2 of the movie setting up an origin, and 3/4 explaining it, the new Hulk got lost in which direction it was taking itself. Keep running? Cure himself? Human Hulk? Did the cure work? Supersoldier-backfires? And the constant dropbacks to the 80s show was really corny. There still wasn't enough Hulk-time on the screen, and I wasn't a fan of the Hulk-time they did put in. He moved more like the Juggernaut than the Hulk.
Maybe the Hulk isn't strong enough to stand out on his own. He's a good second character or prime focus for other heroes. On his own? If you try to get into psych-issues, people bitch and complain about it being over their heads or too talking-not enough smashy. If you go into too much action, you make something that's better off released as a direct-to-dvd animated featuer. And if you go in the middle and pull all elements, you still don't produce the desired effect.
But what do I know, people are probably going to eat this **** up.
Things that worked:
Ed Norton
Skipping the origin story
The first half of the movie while Banner's on the run
Introduction and origin of Dr. Samuel "The Leader" Sterns.
Cameo by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno
Avengers continue to assemble
Things that didn't work:
The actual movement of the Hulk. He kind of just walks around really slowly. Ang Lee's Hulk, FWIW at least had the Hulk bouncing around chucking tanks. This Hulk just absorbs a crapload of bullets. Sure, he uses a car as boxing gloves, but that's all the way at the end. For much of his screentime, he just wanders around making a meanface while being shot at
Lou Ferrigno doing the voice of the Hulk. I thought they would have done better using Ed Norton's voice through some effects.
Replacing Sam Elliot as Thunderbold Ross. It isn't that Hurt does a bad job at the role, its just that Elliot was pretty much perfect for it. He couldn't have been busy. I'm sure if you gave him a new cowboy hat he would have done it.
Liv Tyler. She sucks at everything she's in. Can't convey emotions that well, not really good at acting, and she only has a job because she was in a few of Daddy's videos almost 20 years ago.
Abomination. I know the Hulk's villain gallery is either horrifically out of date or lame, but Abomination really sucks. The best Hulk villain is the Hulk. Its the conflict between Banner and his unchecked Hulk. Hulk beating the **** out of tard-Hulk is stupid.
Overall, it felt like they made an edgier version of that crappy TV show that nobody here's old enough to remember. It reduces the Ang Lee-explored psychological stuff to pretty much turn the Hulk into a glorified Werewolf. I'd almost have more respect if this movie were two hours of HULK SMASH EVERYTHING, but it isn't. The Hulk scenes are still far between. Here's the basic summary of what's going on in Banner's head: I want the Hulk out of me. Sure, that's fine. Its true to character. But they left unexplored what the Hulk actually is (repressed anger, Id, etc). They started to open up Banner gaining control over the Hulk, or the actual humanization of the Hulk in the movie, but they left this thread dangling right after they started it.
They do have a tossout to Captain America fans, but its really brief and focuses on the extraction of some deep-frozen super-soldier formula out of the deep-freeze. There was no cameo of CA as was rumored. No Nick Fury either. Tony Stark made an appearance, but 90% of that was spoiled by dumping his scene into a trailer (to capitalize on Iron Man's kickass box office appeal). And even that inclusion of Stark makes me wonder: if he's floating around, why didn't he float down and blast Abomination.
Ang Lee's version took flack for getting lost in itself. This version avoids the biggest hurdles by fast-forwarding 5 years from the origin. You get a montague in the opening credits showing you how the Hulk happened and Banner going on the run and then you're dropped in Brazil. But even avoiding the trap of spending 1/2 of the movie setting up an origin, and 3/4 explaining it, the new Hulk got lost in which direction it was taking itself. Keep running? Cure himself? Human Hulk? Did the cure work? Supersoldier-backfires? And the constant dropbacks to the 80s show was really corny. There still wasn't enough Hulk-time on the screen, and I wasn't a fan of the Hulk-time they did put in. He moved more like the Juggernaut than the Hulk.
Maybe the Hulk isn't strong enough to stand out on his own. He's a good second character or prime focus for other heroes. On his own? If you try to get into psych-issues, people bitch and complain about it being over their heads or too talking-not enough smashy. If you go into too much action, you make something that's better off released as a direct-to-dvd animated featuer. And if you go in the middle and pull all elements, you still don't produce the desired effect.
But what do I know, people are probably going to eat this **** up.
