Emerald enigma
Written: Jul 08 '03 (Updated Jul 08 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Dark and brooding, ILM's Hulk creation
Cons: Slow pacing, story structure, weak character development
The Bottom Line: 2 and a half stars for this one
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| scigamer's Full Review: The Hulk |
-INTRO-
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Marvel comics have seem their creations of character from pen and ink reborn and come to life again through the success of recent live action adaptations on the silver screen with the likes of Spiderman and X-men alike. Comic book adaptations can be a difficult process to find that middle ground in translating the essence of comic book world to what would actually work in this type of setting. The Hulk is another one of the popular superheroes of Marvel that has already has familiar base due to a popular live action TV show based on the green giant
The Hulk lumbers into theaters and contains the same type of one track mind that Banner has when he becomes the enlarged emerald enigma with a sole focus of character development that slowly struggles to keep afloat which in turn makes everything else suffer including a sloppy story along with it. Hulk suffers in trying to amaze and thrill audience members and to actually to achieve some meaning that fails and makes this seem like two separated movies
-PLOT-
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Bruce Krentzler is a research scientist working alongside his ex-girlfriend Betty Rose that are involved with experiments in gamma radiation that could lead to a breakthrough in genetic manipulation. The military has taken a keen interest in their work that would have the potential heal damaged organic cells almost instantly. Things go wrong in the lab and Bruce risks his life to save a fellow scientist by absorbing a tremendous amount of gamma radiation which he miraculously survives. Bruce surprisingly feels even better than before and eventually it is this incident combined with certain experiments conducted by his biological father David Banner that causes the stoic Bruce to turn into the green behemoth known as the incredible Hulk.
-DIRECTION-
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Well before the trailers for the Hulk appeared I was concerned how effective Ang Lee would translated this original source material into a story and how his personal directing style would translate into this kind of genre. While Lee may have had the best intentions at developing another one of Marvels wonders, his one track mind concerning character development prevents him from say, constructing a well thought out story with some comprehension of time. It all comes down to a sense of balance that just really isn’t here since it’s all apparent with the longwinded and sloppy story that takes forever to get to it’s point even when it tries to. One questionable style Lee incorporated into the Hulk was the use of the comic book panel shots displaying a certain scene simultaneously from different sets of angles that is rather counterproductive since , granted it does infuse much of that comic book personality but constantly using this technique when it suits no purpose makes it seem to have a rather amateur appearance.
Another one of Lee’s questionable directional styles lies in his constant uses of extreme close up of different characters facial features that one I understand makes the audience concentrate on the emotions of the particular character but constantly using this technique actually takes away a small portion of what the actor is trying to fully convey in their performance because you can‘t see their whole face. Your basically countering the purpose and intention of this particular shot since most are so focused and saturated with an actors eyes that you see nothing else. It’s hard to tell if the person on screen is in the process of an emotional rant or if it’s someone else in the background is.( okay maybe that last part is a little exaggerated but you get the idea)
Unlike the other comic book adaptations, the technical side of the Hulk was a difficult challenge since all the of the scenes of the involving the Hulk to fully display his abilities would be only possible through the use of digital character animation. For what was needed to show the Hulk’s potential you couldn’t have asked more than what the effects team at ILM provided at least in what they were able to accomplish now. Every appearance of the green giant on screen shows an impressive construction of weight, mass and a fluid motion in the animation. The greatest quality the stands out is how much emotion is really conveyed in the range of expressions the Hulk has, the facial animation is exactly on key in this area. Unfortunately most of the action sequences involved with the massive green guy is covered in darkness and I have to admit the Hulk looked like it could have used a darker shade of green. The problems is in all the destructive force the Hulk is able to dish out, here he really only throws around several overgrown dogs, smash a few little things here and there, and toss around some cars. Just like the character story, the action suffers along with long drawn out scenes the are just too simplified or never seem to move the story along.
-INSIGHT-
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Ang Lee takes this material and molds into a dark and tragedy tone that concentrates more on the Hulks origins from a dramatic perspective instead of following alone the stereotypical path of a mindless action extravaganza. This definitely make a feature more interesting with having actually thought behind it’s muscle as it’s let’s peer into the depths of character development that gives the audience a way to identify with them. The problem here is that the Hulk’s painfully slow pacing really prevents and hinders you from really caring what kind of development this character has or what the eventually outcome this is individual might be since it took so long to get to it’s point. The film overall structure and it’s order of events self destructs the storytelling since we already know origins of Bruce’s ability from the initial opening credits. Granted most people are already aware of the Hulk’s origins but we can’t just discriminate those folks that just have no clue can we.
The Hulk really seems to be really split into two entirely different features that really seem out of place since most of the first half deals with character development then after halfway through it shows pure muscle with it’s complete tunnel vision of action sequences. Having such a distinct separation in the story makes for such unbalance in the material, where one minute your almost putting the audience to sleep then jarring them awake when the action finally shows up. Lee almost treats Hulk as a mystery novel that goes no where as he slowly dwells on Bruce’s past of repressed memories to a painful drawn out extent that when the event comes to a climax, it’s completely uneventful and makes for a rather anticlimactic conclusion
-FINAL THOUGHT-
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While Hulk is injected with a more dark and brooding sense and a effort is put forth to concentrate on character development, the production as a whole is weighted down with pacing that’s off like a herd of turtles and a story structure that completely takes away any sense of suspense and mystery since the viewer is always one step ahead of what’s taking place. Hulk concentrates too much on looking like it’s comic book persona rather then balancing all the other elements that seem to be lacking which seems to be a little bit of everything else. The Hulk, like the story, stumbles along it’s slow path that never seems to want to progress until the very end
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
scigamer
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Location: Columbus,Ohio
Reviews written: 118
Trusted by: 43 members
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I swear I would probably pass out if I wasn't plugged into something....
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