Toronto Feeling Green **May contain Hulk Spoliers**

As some of you may know I am a bit of a comic book geek and when I heard that they would be making a movie based on the Hulk I was both excited and skeptical.

Finally, the character can escape the silly green makeup covered Lou Ferigno and step into the 21st Century.

However the first few trailers were pointing out that though the filmmakers' hearts were in the right place they were making a garish almost cartoon looking Hulk.

But none-the-less we were being presented a slightly more realistic image of the Hulk then previously shown on the campy 70's TV series. So I was in conflict. As the comicbook fan this was exciting, but a s a movie fan this was a pathetic waste of time.

Well let me tell you that the movie fan in me is kicking himself for making a premature assumption. Not only have they improved the CG character but the entire movie is smart, well played out (accept the pathetic ending), with excellent performances, great action sequences and plenty of green.

Monsters not money.

They producers masterfully put together a story that has some scientific logic to it. Its no longer just Gama rays transform an unwitting scientist into a Green Bohemeth. Now there is back story and logic.

And though the editing of the movie was a little annoying early on, when you realize that the many boxes are meant to be an omage to Comic book layouts, it becomes nastalgic and appropriate.

In all I loved the movie and was most impressed by it. Now I would not recomend it to everyone. However anyone who is a comcbook/scifi/adventure/special FX/action fan check this story out.

However, I can tell already that many of you may disagree. What did you think?? Discuss, Discuss.


P.S. For those Lucasfilm fans out there Sarah from the Labyrinth plays the hulk's girlfriend in this one. Very Cute.

 

Comic Book nerds unite!

I have never really read "The Hulk" comic books, and while I am familar with the basic angry Banner=Hulk Theory, I was glad there was some back story to the character.

The CGI work was awsome, the Hulk looked great, I just had a problem with the mutant dogs, they looked soooooo fake, The one could have easily been mistaken for EP.2's Nexu a few times.

But it did lead to one of my favorite lines.

Betty But he saved me!

Ross Yes, from a mutant French Poodle.


This was a very ambitious project, and I think that they pulled it off quite well, but I do agree, the ending sucked!

 

Well they took the liberty of enhancing the backstory a little more beyond th originla comic book, likely to give more credibility to the story.

The mutant dogs were sadly pathetic, but the fight was none the less entertaining.

My problem with the ending was the bad build up to it and the "freak of the week" style primise the hulk has been too long trapped in.

I was hoping for perhaps a cameo villian.

Also not the name of his Father DAvid. A likely omage to the original show where the producers changed the characters name beleiving Bruce was too homosexual. No kidding.

 

did i see a comic fans unite thing??/

where are we uniting?

 

I'm not saying that the scene with the dogs was any less entertaining, I just mean they looked like something ripped off from Resident Evil If the dogs had the same abilities as the Hulk, that means they would have to get really aggitated, What did Bruces father do to them? They seemed fine when they were released, just agressive.



I wasn't as impressed with The Hulk as I was with, lets say Spiderman With Spiderman, I *want* to see a sequel, with the Hulk, I wouldn't be bothered either way.



I am thinking about how the movie ended, and left with a few questions


***Spoilers***







If Bruce/Hulk told his farther to "Take his Power, all of it" or whatever, did his farther really do it? What was the Mushroom cloud above the Water about? Lets say his farther did take the powers...does this mean that Bruce still has the ability to "Transform?" Basically I need the entire theory of Bruces dad ability to become anything he touches and that entire final fight explained to me if you could

 

This is my "Theory"

With comic books there is a simple rule: The good guys always wins. That rule is only ever broken when a story change is needed or a character needs to learn a hard Lesson. The rules still apply to the moive accept that since it is not known whether there is a sequal the lesson learned portion of the story is less likely.

So Bruce losing his powers to learn a lesson about it seems unlikely to me since in a sequal that woul make for awkward conections as to how he becomes the hulk again. Likely he is jsut temporarily sepressing his rage and still has his powers. As you saw he is hiding somewhere in the rainforrest.

His father however would have likely done one of two things. One the power would have been too great for him to handle and the blast from the bomb would have destroyed him. Villians often have lame deaths. There is also a chance that Bruce's power, since genetic would likely conflict with his father's and his father's body would reject the Hulk powers. Its like when some one gets a new body part and the body rejects the genetic material. The part seems to grow for a while but soon begins to decay.

And since there is still too much story to tell before the Hulk dies, I doubt highly that he has lost his powers. so you know there will be a sequal.

But thats just my two cents.

 

If his farther did take all his energy, he did at least leave him with enough to stay alive and scurry away, and of all places he ended up in the rainforest, with the red cross, which was very cool IMO. But I still wanted to see it end with him going green and giving that guy a lesson about why it isn't nice to steal.

I felt Bruce was a tragic character, He never asked for this, It was something he was born with, a Genetic fault, that was followed up with a series of events that brought him...well, to be the Hulk, His farther was crazy, no doubting that. To him his son was only a science experiment, he may not have planned it this way, but in the end, that is what he had become. When he found out that there was nothing that he could do to help, he tried to kill Bruce, erase evidence that he failed, I don't think he did it out of pity, he did it becuase of his pride.

On another Character, Betty, she really bugged me, she was just so passive. When something went wrong, who did she run too? Daddy of course. All that she did for Bruce (Reporting him to the Goverment) I think she did that becuase she was scared for her safety, not becuase she really cared about his.

 

Interesting Analysis, though I find Peter Parker to be a more tragic character. He is forced with powers at an age when he is supposed to be chasing girls and studying. bruce was an established scientist and had a set life. Peter meanwhile has to learn the lesson of responsibility of his powers through the loss of his uncle, And it was his own fault. the Hulk didn't learn his resposibility later and was just a bruting monster who smashed stuff.

Betty's character was kind of one dimensional but its the inner turmoil that makes her interesting. She is having to chose betweent he father taht left her but is now trying to reconcile and this hideous monstrosity that she can't help but love. And when she tries to bring the two together it blows up in her face.

The great thing about comic books is that the really good ones tend to have a lot of depth and really interesting characters with amazing back stories. Sometimes they turn into buble gum entertainment and often the time line gets must up and they have to repair it. But I am continually surprised by the perplexity of it all.

 

Hmm, interesting.


Well, I was thinking of watching the movie, but then after seeing the trailer more and more before the movie came out, I don't know...I just didn't think it was worth it... ?


But if you try to convince me, maybe I'll see that it really is worth it and reconsider watching it.

 

What the walk on/talking cameo by Stan Lee wasn't enough for you. Ok how about the Lou Ferigno one. No...fine then how about some killer action, intriguing storyline, superb editing and fantastic acting. No??

 

What the walk on/talking cameo by Stan Lee wasn't enough for you. Ok how about the Lou Ferigno one. No...fine then how about some killer action, intriguing storyline, superb editing and fantastic acting. No??

Damn...well, I think that just convinced me...fine, I'll go see it and tell you all what I think after...

Why am I so easily convinced at things?

 

Personally, as a fan of comics, I was way less than impressed.

The painful pacing, the cheesy panelling, and that just plain stupid end.

The pacing - besides the few Hulk spots, the movie crawled along - which was made more obvious by every kid in the theatre getting restless, crying and kicking seats.

The Panelling was a horrible idea! I was reminded of a crappy show from the 70's (there's a certain look that this movie resembled as well) The panels were distracting and confusing when they tried to insert a transition (eg, helicopter shot looking down over water, in fades Betty looking out a car window but out the car window is the helicopter shot!!)

And that end. Should have ended the movie in SF and the end of the Hulk rampage - not this father/son psycho babble/fight.

Oh, and the Mutant dogs were just nasty - reminded me of the Mask when the dog gets the mask - at least that was supposed to be funny.

Overall, a waste of my money, I knew going in it was going to be bad. But what I saw was much, much worse.

Give me X2, Spiderman, heck, give me Daredevil over this.


What did the movie have that worked? The basic origin update was well conceived, the Hulk looked decent (except the eyes, what's with CGI animator sticking 6 lights on the eyes! looks completely unrealistic), the Lee/Ferrigno cameo was cute and Jennifer Connelly was hot!

 

Personally I thought the pacing was perfect. I hate when movies immediately jump into the action. This time they actually took time to develope the plot and build characters before getting to the real main character, which for this style of monster movie I thought was appropriate and allowed the audience to develope a bond with the human side of Bruce Banner. And though the panneling was annoying, I enjoyed the omage to comic book panneling and in several shots I felt like I was watching a comic come to life.

As for a waste of money, I feel there were too many redeeming qualities to make it a waste. And I can't agree at all that this was worse then Daredevil....DIE BEN AFFLECK!! RUIN DD WILL YOU!!!

 

I just watched the movie and I was MOST impressed.

The plot I loved! I actually enjoyed the fact that they developed a story as opposed to saying HERRRRREEESSSS HULLLK!

Kids will be sqirming, yes. But is that what movies are about now? Action and cool things? Go see Matrix then.

The thing with The Hulk is that the everyday joe blow remembers some of the 70's show, but never read teh comic book...thats me too to a degree.

The film was well made. The panels were different, which is why I think most will be put off. It was creative which is awesome. There was a few times My brain went "OVER STIMULATED!!!!" 5 panels at once, weee!

I loved Stans walk on, its about TIME! He actually got to stay off the cutting room floor, and a speaking role at that!

Where was Lou's cameo?

All in all I loved the film, the CG was imnpressive, ESPECIALLY the eyes! The most times hulk look unrealistic was when he was ckean, throw some water, some dirt and suddenly he looked more REAL. like jaw dropping real

Great Job ILM and Ang Lee!

 

Actually I didn't get a good look but I think Lou was the guy walking with Stan. if not then I am not sure but he does have a cameo. I guess this is one of those games where we have to go see the movie to see the cameo...like Hitchcock or Star Wars.

 

Yes, that was Ferrigno (sp?) next to Lee. Actually Lee has appearances in the 1st X-men, Spiderman and Daredevil.

Sorry Primodo, I still argue against the eyes - sure, they looked "real" but the overlighting made them appear fake.

 

Well

Lee has his apperences yes, but Spider-Mans gets cut so you see him for a second and in X-men I think the same happened...you see a glimpse of him. I love the fact Stan The Man had a walk on a talk role, and the cool thing it was kinda like, not too obvious

 

Actually if you watch one of the made-for-tv movies The Trial of the incredible Hulk You can see that one of the Jurors is Stan Lee. I beleive that was his first cameo on film. His first cameo occured several times when many artists depicted Dr. Doom with his mask off and the Tyrant was the Man himself...uh Stan The Man that is.

 

Well I have been thinking this over for a couple of days after seeing the Hulk and I am with Ken on this one, I can't say I really liked this movie.

I will post more on this later but I just wanted to get my opinion out there now.

On a positive note I am quite happy with the current Hulk comic with Bruce Jones doing the writing. This is some good stuff, especially the earlier run books. Check it out if you haven't already.

*Darth_Shaun does not work for a comic shop or Marvel comics*

 

GRRR getting back into comic books after a ten year Hiatus is difficult because all my old faves have changed so much. Right now I am fully emersed in ultimate Spiderman and soon will be delving into Xmen as well. The art of recent rebirthed series has me thrown aaback. It is a great time to be a comic book geek.

 

Yeah I am the same right now. Glad to be a comic book geek! I have been really into the Batman Hush storyline. Its really good. Spiderman is decent but Ultimate Spidey is a really good read.
After slowing down the comic collecting over the years, its crazy to think that I am back into some of these titles again. Funny how that works.