Movie Review: The Hulk

The Hulk

The movie The Hulk is, of course, based on The Hulk comic books. While I used to enjoy the TV series The Incredible Hulk, I've never read any of the comics or seen the cartoons. Still, with the promise of state-of-the-art special effects and a story line I'd heard was "darker" and "more real" than the Hulk plotlines I did know, I thought I'd give the film a shot.

The movie opens with a good deal of background material that's dispensed in surprisingly short order. David Banner (Nick Nolte) is a scientist working for the government. When denied human subjects for his experiments, he uses himself. Unintentionally, he passes along the results to his son when his wife gets pregnant. Banner, who becomes more obsessed as time passes, is fired for insubordination. Fast forward 30 years, and Banner's son, Bruce (Eric Bana) is now a scientist himself. Adopted as a young child when both of his parents died, he no longer bears the surname "Banner", but he's obviously inherited some of his real father's talents. In partnership witih his ex-girlfriend, Betty (Jennifer Connelly), he's working on microscopic constructs that will heal all injury and disease. But iin the midst of their efforts, there's a lab accident and he's exposed to gamma radiation which is apparently all that was missing from his own molecular make-up to turn him into a large and raging green behemoth any time he's angry or threatened. Obviously, the Hulk is scary. He's also in demand. The government wants him, especially Betty's father who is a 4-star general (Sam Elliot). Industry wants him, and Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) will stop at nothing to get him. And there's one other person who'd do just about anything to get his hands on the Hulk...

The performances in The Hulk vary widely. Eric Bana seems oddly flat, even for a character that's supposed to be in tight control. Jennifer Connelly does nothing that a hundred other actresses couldn't have done with equal aplomb. It's a little jarring to watch Josh Lucas, the ex-husband with a heart of gold from Sweet Home Alabama, but it turns out he's a pretty capable bad guy, too. And Sam Elliot gives a good performance as well. Nick Nolte, however, is fantastic. Jack Nicholson is the king of onscreen crazies, but I have to wonder if Nolte isn't his equal. His turn as the elder Banner is just terrific.

The Hulk is directed by Ang Lee, the same man who directed the award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I've not seen the latter, and was looking forward to seeing the former so that I could see for myself why so many people talk about Lee's talents as a director. One thing I can unreservedly say after my two plus hours in the theatre is that Lee is everything I've heard he is and then some. The cameras are used very creatively, and the edits are astonishing. The special effects are even better than I'd heard. Although there's at least one scene where the effects fall down on the job, in the main, they're jaw-droppingly effective (with Industrial Light and Magic at the helm, that should come as no real surprise).

Alas, Nolte's formidible acting abilities and Lee's inspiring direction just aren't enough to save a drab script. I kept waiting for the story to pick up a little steam, and it never did. I'm sure there were places where I was supposed to be gripped by suspense, but it never happened. I'm also sure I was supposed to be afraid, or sad, or touched in places, too, but none of those ever happened, either. The bottom line for The Hulk: If you're seriously in to edits and angles, or are willing to sit through just about anything to see a top-notch performance, then The Hulk offers plenty of bulk. But if you want to see a really good comic book character made into a really good movie, skip the theatre and head to the video store where you can rent Spider-Man again.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Hulk is rated PG-13. There are some scenes where small children are terrified which would probably not be a good thing for small children to see. There are also a couple of scenes involving animal experimentation that I found briefly uncomfortable. In the main, PG-13 is just about right, and any movie-goer age 12 and up should be able to see The Hulk.