Hulk *spoilers*

[42]

So I went and saw the Hulk. It was a lot more cerebral than I was expecting, so I enjoyed it. They also seemed to have cleaned up a lot of the FXs.

The mutant poodle was just a little too banail for me.
The pacing is a little slow, but the dramatic music helps the audience et through some of them.
The over-all acting was good, though I found the rival scientist guy to be sort of annoying.

And finally, comic-book style Russian Montage sequences. Funky.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

(incidentally, I'm turning a lot of this into the review, so if you read my review, it might be redundant)

Ok, I saw it yesterday. And it was pretty darn good.

Though I agree. The directing is phenomenal. Ang Lee uses shots to communicate so much more than is being shown, and using multiple shots or multiple angles really help. Plus, he used trasitions in very unusual ways, often ways that communicate as much as the content of the shots do.

One of the shots that stands out best to me is when Bruce and Betty are in Bruce's childhood home, and he looks at the door where "it happened." The shot disolves to the door in a way that suggests a flashback. But instead of the flashback, he just shows the door as Bruce is seeing it right there. Which did two things at least for me. One, it forces you to remember that there is a violent flashback to recall so you anticipate the revelation. Two, it shows that there ISN'T anything being recalled (or is there?) as Bruce claims not to remember the details of his mother's death at that time (though you may suspect he's lying about it). If I remember right, we don't find out that her murder was accidental until a few scenes later, but we certainly know that David killed her, and we know that the Hulk form, at least, remembers this.

The acting I felt was only fairly interesting, with Eric Bana beign the only one that really stood out. Everyone else was just passable: good enough not to hate, but nto good enough to remark on. I do wish that I'd gotten to hear "HULK SMASH!" a couple times, or "Puny Human" more than once.

However, as impressed as I was with the directing, I felt that the story was week. Ang Lee sets up three or four conflicts, resolves them sequentially, and then tacks on one more so we can have the Hulk "disappear" at the end. I didn't really think about how linear and predictable it was (after all, I pretty much knew the elements of what would happen for everything except Bruce's mother's death -- being a reader of Marvel comics-- so I didn't worry about predictability.) until the end, where we get a final Supervillain, it seems mostly thrown in for good measure. It was far from developed enough,and didn't even make a lot of sense to people who are into comics.

But once I saw the end, I started thinking about everything else. And yeah, it seems to me that you'd be able to predict everything even if you didn't know much about the Hulk. And yeah, the rival scientist is pretty much one-dimensional. And ALL the characters besides Bruce and Betty seem like such morons. "He can take continuous high-caliber machine gun fire from multiple sources, so... let's keep doing that. That's a good idea." Ironically, the evil scientist's approach to non-lethal containment would have been best if he hadn't tried to shove a drill into Hulk's eye.

However, yeah, I really enjoyed it. I think the best reasons to watch it are because you're a) a fan of Ang Lee, or b) a fan of the Hulk character. Because despite predictability and occassional flatness, the film does an amazing job of capturing the Hulk's character and the themes. In fact, I was impressed by the themes -- the freedom and power that anger brings us, how we ENJOY that destructive and uncontrollable power -- in a way that I never did with the comic book, and especially not with the Lou Feregno series.  Those themes are brought in powerfully. And that alone balances out poor plotting. The excellent directing and cinematography only enhances the film. So yeah, I liked this movie a lot, much more than I can complain about it.

I just have one question. WTF was with that frog on Bruce's hat at the end?

[42]

Ya, the story is kinda weak. The super-villian thing doesn't really fit in, though I like Banners dad, just not the super-villian version. The greatest strength is the character exploration of the hulk concept.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Saw it tonight and I really liked it.  I thought the characters showed surprising depth and overall thought it was well acted.  The super villain bit did seem tacked on...especially the Absorbing Man schtick, but it was okay.  

This is definitely something I'll buy when it come out.

[EUOL]

I saw it as well, and I enjoyed it too.  I do have one prediction, however.  I think this movie is going to be less successful than many hope.  While I enjoyed it, and thought the filming techniques were quite brilliant, it doesn't have the mass-appeal of other recent comic book movies.  

People aren't going to get what they expect from this movie.  It's slow-moving, dramatic, filmed oddly, and really doesn't have that much action.  The ending is a bit inexplicable (most of the reviews I've read are really bothered by this fact.)  

I went to a large theater, and while the 3 and 5 showings were sold out, my 7 showing and the later ones were not.  My theater was about 20% empty, and as I left, a large number of people were talking about how stupid they thought the movie was.  Several groups burst out into sarcastic laughter during the movie, especially the Hulk 'jump' scenes.

The critics seem moderately warm to the movie, but I think its too artsy (especially for the expectations) to be considered a big success, especially considering its 150 mil price tag.  It will make its money back--hopefully--and will have a big, but not huge, weekend.  It won't be the Spiderman, or even X-2, that the company is hoping for.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Wow! We're all in agreement.

I (basically) followed the ending. Though it's not like Ang Lee took great pains to ensure his audience understood. And it doesn't necessarily make sense, as I said before.

And no, it certainly won't be the hit Spidey or X-Men was. But I think it'll be a sleeper hit for comic fans for a long time. It should make a profit. What's disappointing about why the film won't smash the box office is that it's unusual. The things I liked about it are what will make it not do so well. *sigh*

And yeah, we had some laughers. But most of them were 10. Like Bruce's butt. These were the people expecting an action flick, not to see the darker side of the ultimate male power fantasy. My theater was about 2/3 full (not a good sign for opening weekend) at 4 on Sat afternoon. But I didn't hear sarcastic comments or derisive ones. In fact, I hear kids discussing it in the bathroom who were excited about it. Then, to be honest, the region is a bit more urbane than your typical Utah valley crowd...

[Spriggan]

EUOL saw it in Atlanta, Georga

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, well, Atlanta, while bigger than most towns, still isn't the cultural center it bills itself as. Not in competition with cities like DC, NY, or Boston

[EUOL]

The group I saw it with, and those who mocked it, didn't exactly appear to be the cream of the intellectual crop.

You're right.  The film won't do as well because it's different.  Actually, as good as the other comic book films were, I was refreshed by this one because it did such a good job of not following steriotypes.  As good as Spidy was, there wasn't a moment in that film where I didn't feel I was just being pulled through a formula.  The Hulk was different enough that I often had no idea where it was going, and when thought I did have an inkling--like the father's transformation--I turned out being mostly wrong.  

[42]

Well, Hulk did very well in the box office for its opening weekend. Any bets on how much it will drop this next week. The average for a movie is 50%.

[EUOL]

"Well" is a relative term.  USA Today noted that the intake was a good twenty million below expectations.  That's not a good sign.

And, I would point out that 50% isn't eactly an average.  As I understand it, half is something of a litmus test.  If a movie drops by more than half, it's a very bad sign.  If it drops by less than half, it's doing well.  I think an average is closer to forty or thirty percent, since a lot of the sources I've read give a movie a death-bell if it drops over fifty.

As for the Hulk, I'm guessing right around fifty.  Like the take from the first weekend, that won't be a terrible sign, but not a good one either.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

The only thought I have to add is that I think the movie was pretty good.

[42]

Hulk took a 70% drop at the box office. That's a big drop. It made 100,000,000 already, which means that it is technically a blockbuster and it will probably make all its money back. The studio just won't see a lot of profits.

So I'm saying that this film is probably headed into the cult classic genre.

[Slant]

I am going to go against the grain of everybody else on this post and say that I thought that Hulk was terrible.  I was a huge Hulk fan from way back and this film jut made a mockery of the whole series.  The story is weak and you have to sit through an hour of "blah-blah-blah" before anything cool happens.  The CGI Hulk looked like something that would have been done perhaps five years ago.  After Gollum, I really expect CGI characters to look really smooth.  Hulk, however, never looked like much more than a giant chunk of play-doh.  

I do have to admit that the actors were all top-notch.  Having seen the cult hit Chopper years ago, I was thoroughly unconvinced that Eric Bana could make a convincing Bruce Banner, but I was wrong.  Jennifer Connelly was, as always, very easy on the eyes.  The only character I had a major complaint about was Glen Talbot.  He went from being the stoic-but-misguided soldier that he'd been in the comic to a wackily evil, greedy corporate executive.  What was THAT all about??

The movie just failed to capture the tone of the comic that I loved as a child.  For me, Hulk was about the angry loner battling gigantic radiation-spawned monstrosities (and I DON'T mean poodles on steroids) while keeping one step ahead of the military.  The movie was far too talky when it should have focused on over-the-top action.  

Other things I disliked about Hulk:

Helicoptors crashing into the desert, but not exploding, with all crew members making it out okay.

Soldiers firing their weapons at Hulk, seeing that it doesn't work, then doing it some more.

Bruce's dad becoming the Absorbing Man for no real reason.

David Banner, a criminal in chains, being taken to see his son who is in Top Secret military custody, again for absolutely no real reason other than to set the stage for the Hulk/Absorbing Man brawl.

Two things I DID like:

"Don't make me angry.  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

"Puny human!"

Well, I am still keeping my hopes up for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[42]

I have to defend the helicopters not exploding when crashing. I have two brothers who use to design helicopter in both the military and private sectors. So I've heard a lot of talk about helicopter design. Modern helicopters are design to not exploded short of being hit by missile. Exploding on a crash landing is nearly impossible, particularly since it is a primary concern of aircraft designers that it not do so.

In fact it bothers me to no end that in many action flick, the vehicles explode if they hit a stop sign at 4 miles per hour. Fortunate for the movie industry most people are dumb enough to by into it.