Universal | Review by Dan Taylor
I've
had mixed feelings about Ang Lee's HULK
pretty much since the project was announced.
While it was nice to see another big name
director hired for a superhero adaptation,
I feared that Lee's heavy-handed, humorless
approach might weigh the flick down. Let's
face it, I enjoyed both X-MEN
flicks and DAREDEVIL,
yet they can all be a bit ponderous at times.
And, as a fan of the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno
TV show (now available on DVD), the idea
of a purely CGI Hulk kinda bummed me out
– a feeling the early, SHREK-esque
TV commercials did little to soothe.
Who knew that the CGI effects
would end up being the best thing about
this dry, dull, booooring adaptation of
Marvel's Jekyll & Hyde hero? Scratch
that... they're the only good thing
about this giant mess, two hours and 18
minutes of humorless, comic book pathos
interrupted by all-too-brief sequences featuring
the purple-skivvie-clad hero.
The HULK story is familiar
to most: scientist Bruce Banner (effectively
portrayed by the vacant looking Eric Bana)
absorbs a lethal dose of gamma rays during
the obligatory Science Experiment Gone Awry.
The rays unleash the monster within him,
though only when rage gets the better part
of the wimpy scientist.
Had Lee and his scriptwriters
stuck with the character's core theme –
that there's a monster within us all –
maybe the flick could've been a bit leaner,
getting past the talky exposition and into
the good bits. In other words, "Hulk
smash!" But they couldn't leave well
enough alone.
Instead, Lee has to inject
a family dynamic that includes Banner's
father David (played in present day by a
freaky looking Nick Nolte), who used himself
as a guinea pig during experiments for the
Army. The genes were passed along to a young
Bruce and during a confusing credit sequence
– which actually needed more exposition
than the quick flashes of the scientist's
experiment log – Banner, Sr. destroys
the military base and attacks his family.
I think.
So instead of focusing on
a character that appeals to the hero that
lives within us all, despite our problems
– the touchstone of every hero from
Daredevil to Captain America to Spider-Man
– Lee creates a scientific reason for
the Hulk to exist, and the gamma ray exposure
only brings it to the surface.
Once Banner transforms into
the Hulk – in some effective sequences
– the flick falls into a fatal cycle
that prevents the story from going anywhere:
Hulk smashes, the Army/police chases, Banner
reappears and we get started all over again.
And, in one of those contrivances
that work so well in comic books yet seem
so dopey when translated to the big screen,
the Army is led by the father of Banner's
sometimes girlfriend Betty Ross (the beautiful
but sleep-inducing Jennifer Connelly), and
the private government contractor trying
to steal the secret of the Hulk for his
own nefarious purposes is Glen Talbot, a
competitor for Betty's affections. In that
role, Josh Lucas (the poor man's Matthew
McConaughey, or is it the other way around
now?) might as well have a handlebar moustache
that he can twist and a cape he can pull
up over his face after he ties Betty to
the train tracks.
Surprisingly, for the rumored
$150 million spent on the flick, the big
showdown between Hulk and the flick's villainous
Absorbing Man is conducted at night in near
total darkness. It's hard to tell –
or care about – what's happening, especially
when nobody's motives are all that clear
to begin with.
It's too bad that the first
two hours and fifteen minutes weren't compressed
into twenty-five so that the flick could
have more of the Jekyll & Hyde Meets
The Fugitive vibe that made the television
show such compelling drama. After a string
of well-done adaptations starring the X-Men,
Spider-Man and Daredevil, it's a shame to
see Lee deliver such a joyless clunker.
