Hulk Good

Sorry for the lack of posts. It’s been pretty thin, especially from me. We’ll make up for it with fat posts.

Well, Hulk indeed smashed the weekend box office. It made a cool $62.6 million. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had all the elements – cinematography, editing, acting, action, direction, etc. And it nailed most of those right on the head. It’s not the best movie ever, probably wouldn’t be in my top 20, but it’s the best comic book adaptation movie since Batman. Hopefully Christopher Nolan’s Batman comes out soon. The original’s starting to look aged compared to all these new comic book movies. After all, it is 12 years old!

What I liked most about the Hulk was that it had depth and feeling, a lot more than the other comic book movies to come out recently. It centered on Bruce and the traumatic experience he went through as a child which was repressed deep inside. A loving Betty Ross coaxed Bruce to search through his mind to help remember what happened. It wasn’t until the end, when his own father related to him that fateful occurrence, that he learned of it. I loved how the tension and awkwardness between Bruce and his father played out. Nolte provided an outstanding performance for that role.

The Hulk himself was partly a manifestation of the rage resulting from his childhood trauma. Many people had gripes about the CGI representation of the Hulk, but it was appropriate and well done. You can’t please everyone. Especially outstanding was Hulk’s facial expressions. The CGI team went through a lot of painstaking work to get Hulk to be an Oscar caliber actor. And with his performance, he rightly could be. He was rage and anger, but just wanted to be left alone. He also meant no harm. It’s a notable mention that Hulk did not kill anyone. After 40+ years of the Hulk, I can’t believe people still have problems with his pants staying on. It has nothing to do with the physicality of it, it’s simply for decency and that’s that. Imagine having to do every drawing or every movie shot strategically just to avoid his “area.” Obviously it’s easier for the pants to just stay on.

Hulk had its weak moments – mostly the slow pace of the beginning and the countless sequences of microscopic close-ups. Overall, however, it was well done with characters and a story you could feel for. I’d give it **** out of five.

FAVORITE COMIC BOOK ADAPTATION MOVIES
1. Batman
2. Hulk
3. Spider-Man/Daredevil (Daredevil may beat out Spidey. I need to see DD again to know for sure.)
4. X-Men 2
5. Batman II

The more I see Spider-Man the less I like it. It seems like I’ve overlooked all the eye-candy. In fact, I think it’s 75% eye-candy and 25% story. It’s very flashy and kidsy. I still like it overall, though. It does hold a number three spot (for now).