This just goes to prove my theory that Germans love David Hasselhoff.
wait, wrong theory.
My theory that set expectations largely determine how entertaining a movie is. If you go into the Hulk with no expectations whatsoever but like good cinema, you'll probably like it. If, however, you have a preconceived notion of what the Hulk (or the film) is supposed to be like, and it doesnt' conform to Ang Lee's, well then, you're probably going to be disappointed.
I'm glad it wasn't just "Hulk smash puny humans!" (though I wanted to hear him say that). Because I don't particularly enjoy those movies in the long run. the way it is, I can enjoy the movie and look forward to enjoying it again in the future. Yes, this is definitely on my DVDs to buy list.
But my theory above is why I don't read reviews or allow myself to believe I know exactly what a movie will be like once I've made a decision to see it beyond the basics. Usually the basics are enough. Like, the essentially idea behind Dumb and Dumberer is slapstick and gross jokes. While that will make me laugh while I'm seeing it, I won't feel it was worth my $7 and I will have rather seen something else. So I won't go see it, I don't need to know how well the pratfalls are executed. The only things that would entice me to see it now is if a) i was sitting around bored and someone had a copy of it with them and popped it in my player, or b) I find out that they did actually have a meaningful story attached to it (and not one that contains a message that could be contained in 1 line at the end of a saturday morning cartoon.
Naturally, there are contradictions and some hypocrisy attached to this attitude. In some ways, I'm taking "first impression" of the advertising and letting that determine if I go or not. But mostly I'm just trying to keep my mind open that there are different ways to like a movie, the visual effects, the action, the comedy, the directing, the acting, the plot, et al. Liking a movie for one reason isn't inherantly superior to liking another, except for your personal tastes for how important those elements are to you.
I guess my problem with Slant's "nothing cool happens for the first hour" is that what are you saying is cool? Hulk beating up on a monster? No that doesn't happen. But the characters and themes that the movie explores before that were pretty cool to me, so I liked it.