Ang Lee's Grouchy Hulk, Sleeping Audience

Fox News Online ^ | 6/18/03 | Roger Friedman

[TheBigB]

Let's talk about the upside first: The computer-generated Hulk is indeed very realistic and convincing. In fact, all the special effects are good, very subtle and artfully done. There's rarely a time when the computer side of this movie doesn't pay off.

[weegee]

Misclicked post on that last one, comments meant as a response to #76, not #78

[Old Professer]

Google "spider silk" and enjoy.

[discostu]

I like Parker's grounding in the real world. But the boy genius never seemed to pan into anything, he made the webshooters, once in a blue moon he'd have an interesting talk with Reed Richards. As for his college it just seemed like he was a 5th year freshman, don't have to be a genius for that.

I don't see anything in the changes to Parker telling kids not to be smart, it's not like they had him decide to drop out of college to concentrate on his vigilantism. They just didn't dig into it.

[Lady Heron]

I am glad that someone else did not get the hype for both of those movies. I am begining not to trust any movie reviewers judgement. A Oscar usually means it was some piece of liberal dribble meant to teach me a moral liberal lesson.

[weegee]

I resisted Crouching Tiger for a long time but eventually went to see it because I heard it had great action sequences and I was familiar with Chow Yun Fat's movies (and yes he made some non-action films in HK).

It was a movie for those who had never watched Hong Kong cinema before. I got the same thing from Ju Dou about some lady who had an affair. The Chinese government hated it so some critics rallied behind it (this was 1991 I believe). They spoke of visual delights like tapestries blowing in the wind. Snore.

All Hong Kong films are visual and dreamlike. They also don't hold to established rules of Hollywood. A drama can have a slapstick scene of humor. A comedy can have great action sequences (or even deaths).

The critics need to get out more and stop being flaks for the studios.

I tried talking to a movie critic once (who also wrote a comic strip). He had absolutely no interest in movies in general, it was just a job to him.

[Lady Heron]

I rented Crouching Tiger twice (the 2nd time because my son wanted to see it). I thought that maybe I would like it better the 2nd time. It was still was a boring movie about a spoiled brat and the ending did not get any happier, no matter how nicely it was shot.

I have never brought myself to the point where I could give Titanic a 2nd shot. I am still hoping for the best for the Hulk, no matter what critics say.

[Conservative til I die]

Reviews of the Hulk basically break down into two camps: THe brainless idiots that want to see something more along the lines of Batman & Robin: loud music, ridiculous stunts that blow away the idea of suspension of disbelief, ubnoxious, unfunny one liners, and lots of martial arts fighting with cuts so fast and frequent they induce seizures. The other camp are those that understand a good story.

[scott7278]

Good movie! You gave me tagline inspiration.

[eddie willers]

I am unaware of any titilation sequences in the first 25 years of Spider-Man comics.

"Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot!"

[Skywalk]

Bingo!

I saw it today and quite enjoyed it. It's sad to say, but there are also a lot of people that get so attached to a film franchise they are unwilling to enjoy anything perceived as a "threat," hence a lot of Matrix fanboys pre-emptively hating on the Hulk.

[chance33_98]

She was also inhumanly beautiful in "Dark City", a great, underrated sci-fi film. Roger Ebert is on the wrong drugs more often than not these days, but his review of Dark City nails it.

He also does the commentary on the DVD for Dark City, one of my favorite movies.

[The Duke]

One of my very favorite movies, which happened to also star Connley and Nolte, is "Mulholland Falls", a murder mystery that I can highly recommend.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

But the science nerd aspect never got played well in Spidey, it's a good thing to drop. After he figured out the webshooter he did very little science, not like Reed Richards or Tony Stark.

That always bothered me - here's a high school student(!) who figures out how to make this liquid that instantly solidifies on contact and is strong enough to hold a rhino(or the Rhino), but dissolves in an hour and never clogs his webshooters. Sounds like he's sitting on a goldmine there!

[Bernard]

Yeah - the original Hulk was very dark and gloomy, and maybe that's why it only lasted 6 issues before it ended.

[Omegaman 308]

I got to the theatre to see the "HULK".Every seat in the place was taken except for some way up front.Watching the movie from right under the screen was strange at first,took a bit to adjust to the screen size.The first part of the movie was slow,but I enjoyed it .I especially liked the part when the "HULK' is escaping from the underground facility.The sleazebag that wanted to do experiments on him shot a grenade at the "HULK".The greande bounced of the "HULK" and blew up the sleazebag.

[LanPB01]

I watched it last night. I don't see what all the complaining is about. All the whiners on aintitcool.com that didn't like the movie are focusing on the fact that Hulk didn't look like Gollum from LOTR, or complaining about the lack of action. I felt there was plenty of action, and was glad to see the writers and directors actually spent some time on character development.

[discostu]

That's always the case with comic book scientists though. They're young and do things we've never done.

And now back to the main topic of the thread, Ang Lee's horrid version of Hulk. I was unfortunate enough to see it last night and here's my review (spoiler city):
The bulk of this movie can best be described as Ang Lee's homage to the golden rule of television. The golden rule of TV is: tell them what they're about to see, show them, tell them what they just saw. The vast majority of the movie is spent telling you that you're about to see a 4 year old Bruce Banner watch his father kill his mother. You are "treated" to repeated flashback that end just before the moment of truth, it's painfully obvious during the first time you see it (which becomes Bruce's nightmare and how you jump from backstory to present day) what is about to happen, but Lee "maintains the suspense" for another two hours.

During the course of all this Lee changes the basic character of the Hulk. In the comics Hulk is the product of Banner's innate heroism which causes Hulk to have a heroic core inspite of being a creature of pure rage. In this movie Hulk is a product of Banner's inner angst which causes Hulk to be confused and end his rages when confronted with attractive brunettes, with the bulk of the movie taking place in California land of the bleach blonde his rages go on a while. This is a good thing as the only parts of the movie that are actually interesting are when Hulk or General Ross (brilliantly played by Sam Elliot, again, the man can do no wrong) are on screen. Note the CGI is much better than what we saw in the trailer. When neither Ross nor Hulk are on screen Hulk is a Meryl Streep movie filled with monotonous dialogue about people's inner feelings and the importance of being in touch with your emotions.

Special mention must be made of Nick Nolte. Nolte plays Banner's psychotic also a super scientist father David. Nolte goes through the entire performance trying to be Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. Unfortunately it turns out there wasn't enough cocaine in all of San Fransisco to turn Nolte into Hopper, so instead he just runs around and acts like an idiot. The character serves no purpose other than to be transformed in the end into a super villain so Hulk can beat a real bad guy.

And finally there's the "comic book touches". Somewhere along the line Ang Lee decided to use odd wipe cuts and split screens to give the movie a comic book feel. The odd wipes get overdone before the opening credits finish and provide nothing but annoyance for the next 2 hours and change. There's a couple of times the split screen is really effective, but given how often it's used that technique only bats about 100.

Overall not as bad as Matrix Reloaded, but still a solid attempt at making the worst movie of the year.

[BradyLS]

All Hong Kong films are visual and dreamlike. They also don't hold to established rules of Hollywood. A drama can have a slapstick scene of humor. A comedy can have great action sequences (or even deaths).

The critics need to get out more and stop being flaks for the studios.

I tried talking to a movie critic once (who also wrote a comic strip). He had absolutely no interest in movies in general, it was just a job to him.

Great points. I've stopped listening to the hype and I rarely read reviews anymore. So when I see a film, it strikes me fresh without any expectations or preconceptions. HULK is a great movie. It is NOT, however, the sort of summer block-buster that people expect to walk into and buy collectibles for.

While watching HULK, I was amazed that, finally, a director is telling the whole story of a character's creation. It's not just exposition and vague flashbacks. We know what the Banners are working on and how their co-workers and anxious third-parties fit in. It sets the stage for all the action after the mid-point of the film.

The fuel of many converstations after the typical Hollywood blockbuster is specualtion about how the story came together, what other characters were thinking or doing. Ang eventually answers all the questions that most action films leave hanging. When you walk out of HULK, you won't walk away saying, "I guess they're saving that loose thread for the sequel." HULK is a closed loop that points towards a fresh one. You only have to pay to see this movie once.

The film has at least 4 smashing (ha-ha) action set-pieces, each topping the one before. And you'll be surprised at how well developed the love-interest is between the Connelly and Bana characters without a single wet T-shirt or cliched double-entendres. Attack of the Clones is steamier than HULK but infinitely less believable. I heartily recommend this movie.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

=========== SPOILER ! ! ! I saw the Hulk tonight and I thought it was better that what the critics have been saying, sure there were problems with the chemistry, or there lack of between Bana and Jennifer C and there were some bad plot holes.

But seeing the Hulk trash the mutant dogs and tanks was wel worth the money spent

[monkey]

Hulk to be confused and end his rages when confronted with attractive brunettes

Yeah. The great thing about comic-book Hulk was that he was never confused. He was the most self-assured guy around.