Yesterday, I saw The Incredible Hulk in a movie theater in Conyers, Georgia. I loved it.
At the age of 11, Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk was my hero. I watched the Hulk religiously, and remember how hard it was to step away from the tv to get on my bike and go over to the local parish church to serve evening Mass while the show was on.
What I liked about the Hulk was that his incredible power only manifested itself in situations of grave injustice. In other situations, Bruce Banner was just a regular, friendly guy. I knew that Jesus wanted peace on earth, but I also knew from personal experience that in some situations, force was really helpful to protect or restore that peace.
Jesus and the Hulk
What would I have given to be able to turn myself into a green monster to get back at those pesky 12-olds on the playground every time they beat me up and stole my marbles! For some reason, telling the local school bullies “you don’t want to see me angry” without turning green never made much of an impression on them.
For that reason, I never understood Bruce Banner’s ongoing search for a cure. In my eyes, his ‘illness’ was a gift of God! If the Hulk had been among Jesus’ followers, he would probably have helped Jesus clean out the Temple.
The return of the Hulk
After many, may years, the Hulk finally returned to my world in the 2003 movie ‘The Hulk’. However, the movie helmed by Ang Lee was a huge disappointment. I bought the special edition 2 disc DVD for only 10 euro, thinking I had discovered a major bargain. It turned out the DVD was actually way over-priced.
Fortunately, some people in Hollywood kept believing that there was a future for the green giant. And the 2008 movie ‘The Incredible Hulk’ is a great come-back for Bruce Banner and his angry alter-ego. The story is well-told, well-shot, well-acted and well-paced. Here is an overview of what I liked and of what could have been better:
Acting
First of all, the acting was good for an action movie like this. Edward Norton is one of my favorite actors, and he brings humor and nuance to the Banner character. As Hulk, his acting is a bit more straightforward and one-dimensional. Liv Tyler was a lot less convincing in her portrayal of Betty Ross. She is basically playing Arwen the elf all over again, although she no longer has pointy ears and is using a car instead of a horse. Tim Roth plays the Hulk’s nemesis, and he is a good actor. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get much to work with (”Ready for round three, sir!”).
William Hurt, playing Betty’s dad, general Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, was disappointing. Everything about his character was generic, and you’ll see much better acting in most TV series nowadays. “Yes, I’m your dad, and that green thing is your boyfriend, but I have to be a tough military general, so I’m still going to kill it. Oh well, perhaps I won’t, but I’ll wait until the end of the movie before I make that decision.”
The best actor next to Edward Norton? Tim Blake Nelson, who plays a very geeky scientist, constantly running into computer problems while he is trying to cure Banner of his illness. At one point, you even see him in the background trying stop one of his machines from breaking down by hitting control+alt+delete repeatedly. One of the many funny easter eggs hidden in the movie.
Vision and sound
The cinematograpy is excellent. Especially the scenes in Brazil during the first part of the movie. But also the rest of the movie is very well shot.
The digital effects were excellent as well. The compositing of the Hulk into the scenes is flawless, and I was very impressed by the quality of the tracking in the hand-held chase scenes. Sound: very good. It’s a loud movie, but loud is what this movie needs. Music: good – I loved the return of the Hulk theme from the TV series!
Surprises
There is a great cameo of Lou Ferrigno, who also voices the Hulk in this movie. Even the obligatory Stan Lee cameo (yawn) wasn’t as bad as his previous ones in the X-men and Spiderman movies.
There is a second cameo of a character from the Avengers team, which worked a bit better than the one after the credits in Iron Man. And no, there is no surprise after the credits of this movie, so if you finished your coke and eat all your popcorn, feel free to leave the theater early.
There are many other easter eggs hidden in the movie, and a number of them refer back to the old TV-series. I caught a number of them, but definitely want to see the movie a second time to catch them all.
Final verdict
I absolutely loved this movie. It’s way better than Iron Man, and I hope the Hulk will return to theaters again! But can he please find himself another girlfriend?
I can relate to the 11 year-old stuff. I was a skinny sickly kid (Rheumatic Fever) at that age and the neighbor hood kids in NYC loved to gang up on me. I always wished to be a superman or someone who could fight back. We had Marvel Comics back in the late 40’s who supplied our thirst for hero’s. Captain Marvel. Green Hornet, Superman, Mr. America, etc. We loved them all!
God Bless and catch me on Twitter as deaconjohn1987
Hey Roderick, which theater did you see it at? My wife is from near there and I think I know which one you’re talking about
From what I remember watching the TV show as a kid, David Banner was a humble man that moved from town to town, odd job to odd job. His flaw humbled him. He was always poor and always had to depend on the kindness of other people. He couldn’t get close to anyone either, he had no community. He lived a sad life but somehow he made the most of it by doing his best to be kind to the people around him when he wasn’t angry. That’s probably why we loved him. And because he literally transformed into this green creature we couldn’t really blame him for his fury. Maybe we felt our own anger come out when we cheered on the monster, impatient we wanted justice before the show was over. But after he calmed down he was always sad and sorry for what he had done.
Why didn’t I think of the Hulk as a hero as a kid. I would have at least had a cool, albeit funny, thing to say to the bullies. Instead, my hero was Charlie Brown. Yelling “UUUUGGGGHHHH!” really loud didn’t have the same impression as, “You won’t like me when I’m angry.” Hehe.