In 2003, a movie came out simply called Hulk. It had Eric Bana (as Bruce Banner, he also
played Nero in the Star Trek Reboot), Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, and Nick
Nolte (as David Banner, who is Bruce’s father). There’s a convoluted plot about Bruce’s father killing his wife
and experiments on Bruce as a child that turns him into The Hulk. Also David has a crew of dogs (that include
a Poodle) hanging out with him throughout the beginning of the movie. There were a lot of things wrong with this
movie. I haven’t seen it in a while,
but I’ll try to give it to you in a nutshell.
The best part is when Hulk fights the military. One fight scene that was done pretty well…
that’s it.
Eric Bana isn’t a bad actor, and none of the others are bad
either, it’s the way to movie is put together combined with the script. There is a lot of transition in the
beginning until Bruce turns into the Hulk.
There are scenes that are shown together in multiple comic panels, which
I guess is supposed to make it like a comic book, I guess. There are movies that use quick shots and
scattered editing that I think makes it feel more like a comic book more than
this method… which I don’t think I’ve seen since or before.
Other than the military, he fights hulked out dogs (yes…
even the poodle), and his Absorbing Man-esque father for literally 5
seconds. He throws the gas mass of his
dad into a lake… and he dies. Wow… that
was epic… well not really. This movie
was supposed to be the next big thing after Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man came out the
year before. It wasn’t… Hulk’s
appearance wasn’t bad really. He was
really green, but if the plot had better structure and better fight sequences,
then the Shrek-esque Hulk would be a footnote in the movie.
There was talk of a sequel (the beginning of Incredible
reflects this a little bit), or making the Hulk grey like in the earlier comics
(as if that were the main problem with Ang Lee’s Hulk). Then the talk of creating a new continuity
that fit into the new Marvel Cinematic Universe that was in the works was put
into motion.
The Incredible Hulk came out in 2008. It is sort of a companion piece to Iron
Man. They came out really close to each
other and the credits sequence has Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in it (check
out my Review of Iron Man earlier in this blog). Also, this movie has been out for four years… I’m going to just
delve into spoiler territory, but I won’t do the same for the Avengers Review on
Friday.
The movie starts out in Brazil, which is reminiscent of the
end of Hulk, but this is a different continuity. There is an introductory credits sequence that shows how Bruce
Banner (Edward Norton) became the Hulk.
This sequence is so similar to the 1970’s series of TIH (of who’s theme
music and co-star Lou Ferigno show up in the movie in a cameo and plays the
Hulk’s voice). William Hurt is
introduced as Thunderbolt Ross and Liv
Tyler is his daughter Betty Ross (who is revealed to be related to each other later
on in the movie… surprise!).
So Bruce is found out by the military, who wants to use him
as a weapon or recreate The Hulk in someone else. Bruce hulks out during his attempted escape from Brazil and takes
the military team on, led by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, who is English… but who’s
family was from Russia). His team
didn’t know anything about the Hulk and after almost getting killed Blonsky
wants in on the information. They
allude to Captain America’s super soldier serum, and inject Blonsky with an
attempted reproduction of the serum… but it isn’t quite the same. There are adverse physical and mental side
affects that become more and more appartent throughout the movie.
Bruce tries to get to a professor that might be able to cure
him (Samuel Sterns, who turned into The Leader in the comics). He runs into Betty, another more badass
fight takes place at a university with a sound cannon vs. The Hulk. Then Blonsky who is super soldiered out
takes on the Hulk. He does okay, but
gets smashed by the Hulk in a nearly gruesome scene.
After some other events I’ll not get into, they try to cure
Banner, then Blonsky with his imperfect super soldier serum gets a dose of
gamma radiation (which turned Banner into The Hulk) and turns into what Sterns
calls ‘An Abomination’.
Now to this point, the two military fights were a lot better
than anything in 2003’s Hulk. The gas
monster fight and the shortness of the battle was at the forefront of everyone’s mind when this movie came
out. The fight between Hulk and
Abomination is really long… and it’s awesome.
Just… wow. The fight starts out
with them just beating the crap out of each other. Blonsky still has his mind (more or less), so he goes after Ross
to spite the Hulk, then they get into another massive fight on top of a
building.
This movie makes up for the 2003 movie in spades. I don’t know if anyone talks about it now,
but when this came out, that’s the only thing anyone ever thought about. The acting is done well. Thunderbolt Ross is a jerk, but you
understand his motivations. Norton does
a great job as Bruce Banner. His inner
turmoil is believable and part of you wants to see him cured (a small part… I
mean come on, the Hulk being cured… no thanks). Liv Tyler is fine in her role. She’s a bit more nurturing than Connelly was in the role, but she
had a way better script to work with mind you.
Tim Roth is awesome in all sections of this movie. Once he starts losing it, you feel this guy,
if given the Hulk’s power would be really dangerous and you see your suspicions
come on in spades at the end of the movie.
Then there’s The Hulk himself. I said the 2003 one didn’t look bad. The 2008 Hulk looks awesome.
You see sweat, cuts, burns, and everything to make you believe that he
is really there. I’ve heard that The
Avengers’ Hulk is better, but I’ll have to see it to believe it. The CG work is done really well and you just
need to see it to know what I’m talking about.
This movie doesn’t get as much credit as Iron Man, but I
think it’s just as good. This may be
the pattern with the MCU, but there isn’t a bad movie in the bunch to be
honest. It gives you a true Hulk story
with everything you would want as a fan of the comic or the past series.
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