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The best thing about Hulk would probably be that, among
the many comic book adaptations of late, it is definitely the
most mature. But it’s also the worst. Hulk feels
much too somber, dark and heavy to be as enjoyable as it might
have been.
First of all, Hulk spends way too much time on back story
– it’s a good hour before we get to see the green
monster. The back story tells us that David Banner, a fanatical
scientist, did some DNA manipulating experiments on himself because
the government wouldn’t let him test humans. Banner gets
locked away for thirty years, but not before passing his genetic
mutation on through his son, Bruce. Bruce (Eric Bana) grows up
to be a scientist in the same field as his father and, after an
accident, gets hit by some kind of gamma ray. This triggers his
ability, when really angry, to turn into the Hulk.
The Hulk has two foes to deal with throughout the story. One is
the U.S. Military, led by Sergeant Ross (Sam Elliot), who happens
to be the father of Bruce’s co-worker and ex-girlfriend,
Betty (Jennifer Connelly). In the Hulk’s battles with the
military, we get the Hulk hopping around the world and throwing
tanks around as if they were toys. These scenes actually make
up some of the more enjoyable moments of the film as Hulk bounds
around the world and dodges missiles that destroy the landscape.
The other enemy is Bruce’s own father, David (Nick Nolte),
who returns and seeks power – now that he knows how to get
it. He somehow turns himself into a being that can become the
same substance of whatever he touches. It’s a cool idea
for a super power and it would have been fun to see him use it
in clever ways. However, we don’t get much of it until the
end, wherein he battles his own son.
As fun as it is to watch, Hulk is fairly problematic
thematically. First of all, in a story about anger, Hulk
manages to say absolutely nothing about anger. Further still,
Bruce’s emotional problems are all completely founded in
some strange Freudian ideas about some repressed memories from
his early childhood. That Bruce’s repressed memories are
causing him emotional problems is ridiculous in the first place.
But even if we were to accept that notion for the sake of the
story, the script still does nothing constructive with the idea.
Its resolution doesn’t seem to lead to either Bruce’s
betterment or our enlightenment.
The one truly redeeming aspect of Hulk is its editing
and cinematography. Director Ang Lee always provides us with a
nice picture and generally cool – although sometimes cartoonish
– CG renditions of the Hulk. Most significant is the comic
book style of editing. We frequently get new frames, within the
main frame, that present the story like a frame by frame comic
book. Various methods are used, including different but simultaneous
camera angles, changes of focus, split screens, superposition
dissolves and many other techniques that consistently maintain
the comic book feel. And it works. Hulk becomes fun to
watch, if for no other reasons, for its dynamically moving picture.
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