06-26-2003, 11:48 AM
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW THROUGHOUT
I've seen it now . . . not bad, but not great either.
Where to begin?
The origin change was a surprise. The green mushroom cloud reeks of an idea that was scripted to remain in keeping with the comicbook backstory, but then messed up when the story became genetic tampering. I don't really get what that was all about. Maybe just a cataclysmic incentive to get David Banner locked away for long enough, since self experimentation and then manslaughter wouldn't carry a thirty year sentence. Ah, who cares? It was big and green.
Bruce Banner having a repressed memory of the past? Nice research! :D Comicbook: Bruce Banner repressed the memory of killing his own father. Well obviously the details had to change, but at least the theme is still there.
The split screens and the one-off vertical slides leading up to the exploding frog. Interesting. Using comicbook framing to convey large amounts of data. As the story progressed I half expected to see this technique highlighting the duality of Banner/Hulk's personality and yet it seemed to focus only on hightened tension situations mostly to cover facial reactions. The result was sooo comicbook. :D
Music: I thought it fell apart in one place, but then the movie corrected me later. Did anyone else notice the cello doing that very Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon asian music thing to the visuals of the three choppers? I found myself wondering what the hell that was about until David visiting Bruce under guard turned his rant momentarily at the soldiers lined up outside . . . very cute. B) Smacks of buried political statements. I like it. B) I doubt the Bush Administration would notice that one though. :P :D
Homage: Bruce Banner entering his old residence and wouldn't you just know it, subtle green lighting on cinderblock walls - shades of an old Hulk logo. He's a clever one that Ang. Then of course cameo's from Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. Well at least Stan got more screen time in Hulk than he did on X-Men, but it's strange to think these Marvel Comic adaptations have thus far left his lengthiest performance to a non-Marvel comic film. :blink: I'm also glad they slipped in a "Puny human" from the comic and "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry," from the television show.
The CG: Hulk? Thumbs up. They gave him the full Gollum treatment and modeled every expression Bana could come up with. Notice also that dirt stuck to him too which actually puts him a notch above Gollum in that regard (Gollum was emerging from water without being wet quite a bit). Helicopters and tanks? They were also very well done. Unfortunately, aside from the uprooted streets and other urban chaos, the rest of the effects budget looked to be injected into complete crap. :( The dogs sucked a smelly one. Even in poor lighting they still looked silly. Sand displacement physics fell flat (all they needed was to buy a cow and drag it down the sand dune - instead they must have been filming a fleet footed ballerina for the sand dunes, plus the heavy thump landings of Hulk-hopping had the dust displacement of a crashing ferret - We want cra-ters! We want cra-ters!. Oh, and the graphics for uberdad . . . Well what can I say? Script in a lemon, be prepared for a visual lemon.
At this point I freeze the picture for a moment and say: Director = Good. Scriptwriters = Reactor shielding.
The Supervillain: The Absorbing Man was a Thor villain. :( Hulk movie uberdad was the most sucky puddle of pus I've seen since Jar Jar Binks. That concludes the 'pro's - I'll skip his 'con's altogether.
The Henchmen: There were three dogs in a movie. A rottweiler, a pitbull and a . . . poodle. Some stuff happens and then the poodle delivers the punchline. *barf* Silly silly silly. This is a semi-serious adaptation, not a three dogs joke! Ang Lee losses points for letting that one through. :P
The Dad #1: Doctor Frankstein ripoff. Not much 'mwahaha'ing but a few sinister words of advice to avoid eye contact with Kujo, Gutripper and Tootles probably had more impact, plus some wild eyed ranting about freeing the inner demons and whatnot. As nutters go he was actually quite a riveting nutter in a not-quite Lecter way. A well performed example of Greek Tragedy dad number one with his tragic consequences of short sighted actions.
The Dad #2: Girlfriend's Daddy! The character who means well, but follows the Greek Tragedy procedure manual and does what all other well meaning Greek fathers in Greek Tragedys do: Tragic mistakes. He teetered around a bit though, doing a kind of 'will he, won't he' thing throughout the film between 'will he blunder' or 'will he repent'. Well good thing for him, this military commander with a lifetime of experience and hundreds of armed-to-the-teeth combat troops looking up to him has a daughter to provide useful military tactical advice (Waittaminnit. There's a recurring theme in there somewhere).
The bastard: The vehicle for taking the heat off the girlfriend's dad, who after all means well. Yes everyone loves to hate a complete and utter bastard.
The girlfriend: Let's see . . . gorgeous, forgiving, intelligent, the one being who can tame the beast etc. etc. Awwww innit cute? Those crazy scriptwriters. So they dish up a somewhat perfect girlfriend (trying to come to terms with the imperfect boyfriend) and suck the viewer so far into caring about this girl that when the poo hits the fan you feel so sad. :( You just want to reach out protect the poor lass from everything else those those nutty Hollywood scriptwriters can dream up. Someone burn that Greek Tragedy instruction manual already! Nicely acted though. I never saw Beautiful Mind, but I'm definitely seeing what that Oscar went to. :)
Something positive to say about the characters . . . fantastic acting. Really superb. These actors did a freakishly spectacular job of making their characters into believable personalities, even in spite of the ham fisted acts of stupidity the evil scriptwriters laid out for them. To clarify "ham fisted acts of stupidity" I mean that the dialogue itself was ok, but the plot was worthy of a B grade exploitation writer. Only in the recovery room scene with Nick Nolte by the bed did I cringe at the dialogue . . . I think a couple of people who remained seated for the credits were probably waiting to find out if George Lucas wrote that bit.
Overall, I went in expecting 3 star brain-off entertainment and was basically a little surprised by high quality in some areas, poor quality in others. They could have looked into the psychology of rage angle a lot more than they did and could also have improved the film drastically had they weighed up their script for cheesey elements to kill off. Still, it's worth a look, particularly for those into comicbook adaptations.
And remember kids, if your father is a military genius in need of tactical advice on handling green monsters that are only dangerous when provoked, try, "Don't shoot 'im Dad! You'll just piss 'im off!"
I've seen it now . . . not bad, but not great either.
Where to begin?
The origin change was a surprise. The green mushroom cloud reeks of an idea that was scripted to remain in keeping with the comicbook backstory, but then messed up when the story became genetic tampering. I don't really get what that was all about. Maybe just a cataclysmic incentive to get David Banner locked away for long enough, since self experimentation and then manslaughter wouldn't carry a thirty year sentence. Ah, who cares? It was big and green.
Bruce Banner having a repressed memory of the past? Nice research! :D Comicbook: Bruce Banner repressed the memory of killing his own father. Well obviously the details had to change, but at least the theme is still there.
The split screens and the one-off vertical slides leading up to the exploding frog. Interesting. Using comicbook framing to convey large amounts of data. As the story progressed I half expected to see this technique highlighting the duality of Banner/Hulk's personality and yet it seemed to focus only on hightened tension situations mostly to cover facial reactions. The result was sooo comicbook. :D
Music: I thought it fell apart in one place, but then the movie corrected me later. Did anyone else notice the cello doing that very Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon asian music thing to the visuals of the three choppers? I found myself wondering what the hell that was about until David visiting Bruce under guard turned his rant momentarily at the soldiers lined up outside . . . very cute. B) Smacks of buried political statements. I like it. B) I doubt the Bush Administration would notice that one though. :P :D
Homage: Bruce Banner entering his old residence and wouldn't you just know it, subtle green lighting on cinderblock walls - shades of an old Hulk logo. He's a clever one that Ang. Then of course cameo's from Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. Well at least Stan got more screen time in Hulk than he did on X-Men, but it's strange to think these Marvel Comic adaptations have thus far left his lengthiest performance to a non-Marvel comic film. :blink: I'm also glad they slipped in a "Puny human" from the comic and "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry," from the television show.
The CG: Hulk? Thumbs up. They gave him the full Gollum treatment and modeled every expression Bana could come up with. Notice also that dirt stuck to him too which actually puts him a notch above Gollum in that regard (Gollum was emerging from water without being wet quite a bit). Helicopters and tanks? They were also very well done. Unfortunately, aside from the uprooted streets and other urban chaos, the rest of the effects budget looked to be injected into complete crap. :( The dogs sucked a smelly one. Even in poor lighting they still looked silly. Sand displacement physics fell flat (all they needed was to buy a cow and drag it down the sand dune - instead they must have been filming a fleet footed ballerina for the sand dunes, plus the heavy thump landings of Hulk-hopping had the dust displacement of a crashing ferret - We want cra-ters! We want cra-ters!. Oh, and the graphics for uberdad . . . Well what can I say? Script in a lemon, be prepared for a visual lemon.
At this point I freeze the picture for a moment and say: Director = Good. Scriptwriters = Reactor shielding.
The Supervillain: The Absorbing Man was a Thor villain. :( Hulk movie uberdad was the most sucky puddle of pus I've seen since Jar Jar Binks. That concludes the 'pro's - I'll skip his 'con's altogether.
The Henchmen: There were three dogs in a movie. A rottweiler, a pitbull and a . . . poodle. Some stuff happens and then the poodle delivers the punchline. *barf* Silly silly silly. This is a semi-serious adaptation, not a three dogs joke! Ang Lee losses points for letting that one through. :P
The Dad #1: Doctor Frankstein ripoff. Not much 'mwahaha'ing but a few sinister words of advice to avoid eye contact with Kujo, Gutripper and Tootles probably had more impact, plus some wild eyed ranting about freeing the inner demons and whatnot. As nutters go he was actually quite a riveting nutter in a not-quite Lecter way. A well performed example of Greek Tragedy dad number one with his tragic consequences of short sighted actions.
The Dad #2: Girlfriend's Daddy! The character who means well, but follows the Greek Tragedy procedure manual and does what all other well meaning Greek fathers in Greek Tragedys do: Tragic mistakes. He teetered around a bit though, doing a kind of 'will he, won't he' thing throughout the film between 'will he blunder' or 'will he repent'. Well good thing for him, this military commander with a lifetime of experience and hundreds of armed-to-the-teeth combat troops looking up to him has a daughter to provide useful military tactical advice (Waittaminnit. There's a recurring theme in there somewhere).
The bastard: The vehicle for taking the heat off the girlfriend's dad, who after all means well. Yes everyone loves to hate a complete and utter bastard.
The girlfriend: Let's see . . . gorgeous, forgiving, intelligent, the one being who can tame the beast etc. etc. Awwww innit cute? Those crazy scriptwriters. So they dish up a somewhat perfect girlfriend (trying to come to terms with the imperfect boyfriend) and suck the viewer so far into caring about this girl that when the poo hits the fan you feel so sad. :( You just want to reach out protect the poor lass from everything else those those nutty Hollywood scriptwriters can dream up. Someone burn that Greek Tragedy instruction manual already! Nicely acted though. I never saw Beautiful Mind, but I'm definitely seeing what that Oscar went to. :)
Something positive to say about the characters . . . fantastic acting. Really superb. These actors did a freakishly spectacular job of making their characters into believable personalities, even in spite of the ham fisted acts of stupidity the evil scriptwriters laid out for them. To clarify "ham fisted acts of stupidity" I mean that the dialogue itself was ok, but the plot was worthy of a B grade exploitation writer. Only in the recovery room scene with Nick Nolte by the bed did I cringe at the dialogue . . . I think a couple of people who remained seated for the credits were probably waiting to find out if George Lucas wrote that bit.
Overall, I went in expecting 3 star brain-off entertainment and was basically a little surprised by high quality in some areas, poor quality in others. They could have looked into the psychology of rage angle a lot more than they did and could also have improved the film drastically had they weighed up their script for cheesey elements to kill off. Still, it's worth a look, particularly for those into comicbook adaptations.
And remember kids, if your father is a military genius in need of tactical advice on handling green monsters that are only dangerous when provoked, try, "Don't shoot 'im Dad! You'll just piss 'im off!"
Heed the Song of Battle and Unsheath the Blades of War