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An under appreciated film. Comic book adaptations are notoriously hard to pull of on the silver screen, especially if it involves super heroes. Or at least that used to be the case, especially if it was an adaptation of a liscense from Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics movies used to be synonimous with suckitude. Then a few years back Marvel had it's first success with X-Men. That movie while not really good, was the first Marvel movie that wasn't really bad. Then along came a Spider last year that shook the world. This year, they pulled off the incredibly rare feat of making a sequel that actually was noticably better than the original with X-Men 2. And now comes the Hulk. If any superhero comic was hard to bring to the big screen, the Hulk is it. And if any director was unlikely for the role, it would be Ang Lee. But somehow (except for those who believed in the creative team all along) there couldn't be a better match up. Ang Lee portrays the Hulk the way he is supposed to be betrayed, as a tragic figure cursed with super human abilities rather than blessed. He's no hero. He's a monster that most everyone wants to destroy. The real beauty of this film is that Ang Lee plays on it's strength as a drama rather than the stereotypical action flick that just about every other comic book adaption is forced into. And much like his previous film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee weaves a story that is about several characters, rather than just the Hulk/Bruce Banner. Each character is three-dimensional and even if you hate them, you can at least understand them (to a point). The acting, while phenomenal, is still top-notch. I was already a fan of Eric Bana and this film only adds to his resume. The CGI Hulk is no Gollum, and I'm sure plenty of people will be making jokes about him not being realistic enough, but I was pleasently surprised by how easy it was to suspend my disbelief. It's probably for the best the the Hulk only has one line in the film, but the animation of his body language and emotions was excellent and I had no problems excepting him as a character in the movie. The only concrete negative thing I can say about the film is I thought Lee over did it with his use of split screens. It's a wonderful technique when used right, as it was sometimes in this film, but many times it was unnecessary and confusing. At one point he even uses a split screen showing two scenes at the same time that occur at different times in the continuity. This is probably the fault of overzealous editors, but always blame the director. The story is solid, and Ang Lee does a terrific job bringing the audience up to speed with the origins of Bruce Banner and the Hulk. The climactic battle at the end wasn't told very well however. It's very easy to be confused at what's really happening. Still, this is a solid drama and a big hollywood blockbuster with all the elements most people look for in movies. It's not the best movie of the year, but definately one of the better ones. Originally reviewed: 6/23/03 email this review to a friend
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