OK, as I mentioned earlier, I went to go see The Hulk. It seems that Marvel Comics has seen a resurgence of interest in its characters, starting with X-Men, then Spider-Man, followed by Daredevil, then a sequel to X-Men, and now we get to The Hulk. Right off, let me say that The Hulk was never among my favorites when I was a really an avid comic reader in my youth. As such, I was less enthralled with seeing this movie than I was when Spider-Man, my favorite comic character of all, premiered.
That being said, this movie had more of a comic feel to it than any of the other movies, what with several panels being shown at the same time during some scenes. This is much like you would see if you were reading a comic. Of course, I have seen some blog posting where people commented that they thought The Hulk resembled Shrek. Yes, he does resemble Shrek, or actually Shrek resembles The Hulk. The Hulk was around a long time before Shrek ever appeared. The easiest thing to say is that if you were a big fan of The Hulk comics, you will definitely love this movie, in my opinion. As for me, it was entertaining, but it was not something I would want to see over and over again like I do with Spider-Man.
My lack of enthusiasm does not have so much to do with the movie as it does with the character. The Hulk is the embodiment of uncontrollable rage, nothing more, nothing less. His alter ego, Bruce Banner, is a tragic character, much like the person David Naughton played, David Kessler, in An American Werewolf in London.** Bruce Banner is not any happier about transforming into The Hulk than David Kessler was about transforming into a werewolf. What The Hulk does is to mostly mindlessly smash everything in his way. I say mostly mindlessly because sometimes it seems like he has some idea of what he is doing, especially if he is defending himself from attacks. You really cannot cheer for The Hulk because he is not heroic except when it comes to Betty Ross. Somewhere deep inside of himself, The Hulk does feel the love that Bruce Banner has for her and will protect her from harm.
As I said, if you were or are a really big fan of The Hulk, you will love this movie. The computer graphics were well done [as seems to be the case in almost every movie where computer graphics are involved now], and the feel of the movie embodied the same feeling you got from reading the comics, only bigger and better. If you were not, you may want to wait for the video to come out. There was actually a pretty large crowd in the theatre, and a lot of people brought small kids. I did not sense a lot of enthusiasm from the crowd as we left, but did hear a few remarks from some parents telling people waiting about how their small children were frightened in some parts of the movie. I do not recommend taking small children to this one.
One last point: I liked the casting in this one much better than I did in Daredevil and Spider-Man.***
Now, when are we going to get to see Iron Man or The Silver Surfer on the Silver Screen? Of course, I would really like to see a good movie about The Fantastic Four, but Roger Corman still owns the movie rights to those characters. I actually have a copy of the low-budget movie he made and never released just to retain those movie rights. For a low budget movie, it is really not all that bad. Of course, you can quickly tell one thing he saved money on: lighting.
[UPDATE: According to Ian, Roger Corman no longer owns the rights to The Fantastic Four.]
[Update II: It seems without my knowing so, my wish is being granted.]
*Yes, I am mindful that Blade was also a Marvel Comic character as is The Punisher, but they are Johnnie Come Latelies as far as I am concerned because they were not part of the Marvel stable of characters when I was 10 years old and lived in the world of comics.
**An American Werewolf in London is among one of my favorite movies, ironically, but mainly because it was more about the effects on David Kessler about the situation than what happened while he was a werewolf. An American Werewolf in Paris just did not have the same emotional feel to it as the original.
***Ben Affleck was not Matt Murdock and I liked neither Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane nor Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, though thought Tobey McGuire was a great selection for Peter Parker.
Posted by Tiger at June 21, 2003 11:03 PM | TrackBackClose to my take on the film. He was never completely mindless, as when he saved the bridge and all the people on it, but basically he is the embodiment of repressed rage. Repression generally, even. Same thing on seeing it twice; I probably won't. But I'm eager to see a sequel; go figure.
Anyway, I am just dying to see a good Iron Man movie. That was one of my favorites, and it'll be interesting to see how they handle it. For some reason I always related to Tony Stark.
I agree about Kirsten Dunst, much as I like her. She's not Mary Jane. Of course, now she is, but she's not what I'd have pictured. I liked Willem Defoe as Green Goblin.
Having read exactly one issue of Daredevil ever, which was one of those crossovers, I didn't have any preconception that told me the casting was right or wrong. Except that Kingpin is a huge white guy, so that was a big change, but I like whassname who played Kingpin so much, and he did such a good job, I don't care.
Posted by: Jay Solo at June 22, 2003 01:59 AMEr, Corman no longer has the rights to Fantastic Four. He made the movie just before his rights expired, then took a payoff to not release it.
I don't recall which studio owns the rights right now, but there is supposed to be a knockout script in existence, and director Peyton Reed is already attached to direct (he just released the unappreciated Down With Love).
Posted by: Ian at June 22, 2003 11:55 AMWho should play Doctor Doom? Let me throw out a wild suggestion: Hugh Grant.
Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at June 22, 2003 11:42 PMI expanded on my Fantastic Four comments over at my blog, if anyone is interested.
And Hugh Grant as Doc Doom??? No no no, we need a real ham, a scenery chewer extradordinaire, along the lines of Al Pacino (though I'm not saying it ought to be him, just that level of overacting).
Posted by: Ian at June 23, 2003 04:47 PMI agree, no Hugh Grant. I am contemplating who should play The Fantastic Four and Victor/Doctor Doom.
Posted by: Tiger at June 23, 2003 05:13 PMOh, and yes, I agree with Jay Solo about Michael Clarke Duncan as The Kingpin being as he was a white man in the comics and using a black actor in the movie did not bother me at all. In fact, I thought it was a great move, as Michael Clarke Duncan is a great actor, and I am not sure there is anyone else large enough other than Michael Clarke Duncan who could have pulled off that role anyway. As far as I was concerned, Michael Clarke Duncan was the star of the movie. Of course, he has impressed me in every role he has played, and thought he got robbed for not winning the Oscar for his role as John Coffey in The Green Mile.
Posted by: Tiger at June 23, 2003 05:25 PMI waqs never able to get "into" the Hulk either. Bruce Banner was (is?) more of a victim than a hero, and the Hulk always seemed to be reacting to things rather than making anything happen.
I always preferred the Marvel (and DC for that matter) characters who could concoct a plan for beating the bad guy, and react intelligently to setbacks when the plan went awry.
The most interesting character I ever encountered in a Hulk story was the villain, "The Leader."
Posted by: McGehee at June 23, 2003 05:59 PM