He’s green, he’s mean and
”
The Hulk,
”
currently playing at Premiere Cinemas, is a box office
smash.
He’s green, he’s mean and “The Hulk,” currently playing at Premiere Cinemas, is a box office smash.
This two-hour and 18-minute release from Universal Pictures is a pleasant surprise for past and present comic book fans.
“The Hulk” is based on the popular and long running Marvel Comic series.
As an avid Hulk fan from my youth (OK, OK, I still buy one every once in a while), I was concerned that the movie would be a special effects fiasco.
However, this adaptation directed by Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “The Ice Storm”) does a good job of translating the story from the pages of the comic book to the silver screen.
I think this film is intended more for fans of the comic than for the general public, because there are some small nuances to the story that the general audience might not understand.
The Hulk, who in comic book terms, is about one step below Superman in strength and invulnerability, is a being of immense strength and immeasurable rage who becomes stronger the angrier he gets.
Lee does a good job of giving the film the feeling as though you were reading a comic book, and he never forgets that this is just a flight of fantasy.
Throughout the movie, Lee engages the audience with the visual spectacle of comic book graphics transformed by movie magic. Wipes, split screens, zip pans and other optical effects recreate the experience of reading a comic’s panels.
Tight shots of characters under stress reminds people of those large panels where artists focus on big emotions. In some sequences, the split screens move and multiply, catching characters at several angles at once. It’s here that Lee’s talent as a director and cinematographer shines through.
In a unique expository opening sequence that Lee uses to explain how maverick scientist David Banner’s experiments in genetic modification and his own self-experimentation when he passes on a mutation to his son, Bruce.
Years later, scientist Bruce Banner, played by Eric Bana (“Finding Nem0,” “Black Hawk Down” and “The Castle”), follows in his father’s footsteps as a researcher in genetic technology. He is so emotionally cut off from others that it has undermined his relationship with girlfriend and researcher Betty Ross played wonderfully by Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Requiem for a Dream” and “Once Upon a Time in America”).
Although Banner and the Hulk are two separate entities, its Betty who helps both the scientist and the beast hold on to their shared humanity.
A lab accident exposes Bruce to what should be a fatal dose of gamma radiation. But his father’s mutation allows him to withstand the gammas, but also releases the beast within. Now when severely angered, the scrambled DNA turns Bruce into the Hulk.
Unlike the old CBS series “The Incredible Hulk” where the late Bill Bixby steps off camera in favor of bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk, Banner’s alter ego here is a massive, green computer generated image.
This character has caused some controversy with some moviegoers being that they have a hard time connecting with a CGI created character. But this character, with a few exceptions, conforms closely to the Hulk from the Marvel Comics.
Although this is based on a comic book, there are several scenes of very intense anger and violence that are too intense for children under 10 years old.
