Hulk: Special Edition
This is an adaptation of Marvel's "The Incredible Hulk" comic book character, which saw its heyday in the 1960's. The tale starts in that very decade where David Banner is an immunologist on a military base trying to find a genetic means of developing disease and damage resistance. Ignoring a government ban on doi.....
This is an adaptation of Marvel's "The Incredible Hulk" comic book character, which saw its heyday in the 1960's. The tale starts in that very decade where David Banner is an immunologist on a military base trying to find a genetic means of developing disease and damage resistance. Ignoring a government ban on doing experiments on humans, he uses himself as a subject and inadvertently passes on the results of his trials to his unborn son Bruce. When he's caught out and thrown off the project he cracks, destroys the base with a gamma radiation decontamination burst and is imprisoned.
Thirty years later, Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) and Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) are scientists searching for a means of curing all ills using nanotechnology and gamma radiation. There's an accident in the lab and Bruce inexplicably survives what should have been a lethal dose of both nanomeds and gamma rays. He feels great at first but it's not long before the effects start to show and whenever he gets angry, he turns into a giant green monster with superhuman capabilities and a temper to match (as well as a new found respect for the elasticated waist).
David Banner (Nick Nolte) has been released from prison and takes an interest in his estranged son's condition and has his own agenda for Bruce. So does Jennifer's father (Sam Elliott), who we discover was in charge of the base destroyed by David Banner and is now a General with the power and the motive to protect the US from a rampaging Hulk.
Of course it's not that straightforward so I won't say much more as there are few things best left to be discovered while watching the movie.
Review
The first thing to say about this movie is that it isn't a non-stop action blast from start to finish as some fans might have expected - it takes forty minutes before we meet the Hulk properly. However, this is to the film's benefit and at over two-hours long, director Ang Lee has used the extra time to build a solid story background with well-developed characters. The story isn't a straight take from the Marvel character but is enhanced with additional material explaining Banner's condition and, of course the involvement of his deranged scientist father and the Ross's.
Ang Lee does a good job of directing the movie and his style of technical perfection so evident in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon shows through here as well. He even took on the task of being the motion capture subject for the Hulk himself, although I wonder if that was in part due to issues in getting his ideas across to an American crew. The choice to try and give the movie a comic book feel by using multi-image scenes, split screen effects and an amazing variety of scene transition effects works pretty well and doesn't distract from the story and in some scenes it adds an extra dimension to the mix.
The video is presented in an excellent 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, which is very clear with solid colours throughout. The darker lighting conditions of the first part of the movie to the later outdoor desert scenes, with some really good landscape photography, are handled well with no obvious problems in either area.
For audio, there is a choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS, which is odd as the obviously better DTS track didn't make it onto the region 1 release. I'm getting worried about that as this isn't an isolated case and it might signify that the US market isn't taking to the DTS format, which is a pity as it usually has the edge over Dolby Digital. Back to the quality - It's very good all round but while I found the dialogue clear it seemed a little too quiet, but I'm getting on a bit and maybe need the extra volume. The surround effects throughout the movie are well handled across the stage and aren't limited to the action scenes.
The well-chosen cast give solid performances - Newcomer Eric Bana was a good selection for Bruce Banner and performs all aspects the role well and Jennifer Connelly (Labyrinth, A Beautiful Mind) sails through, providing the love interest Betty Ross and the Beauty to the Beast that is the Hulk. Josh Lucas is adequate as bad guy Talbot and Sam Elliott gives a solid performance as Betty's father, normally silly moustache and his usual facial mannerisms aside, but the prize has to go to Nick Nolte. He gives an excellent performance as Bruce's somewhat disturbed father, David.
If you pay attention, then you might also catch cameo appearances as security guards by Hulk creator Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno, who played the big green guy in the TV series.
As a child of the sixties, I avidly read The Incredible Hulk comics but I didn't see the movie in the cinemas, having only seen the early trailers for the movie, and I was worried that the quality of the CGI Hulk wouldn't be effective enough to do the movie justice. however, after having watched it all the way through, I can happily say that ILM have done an excellent job of rendering the Hulk in all but a few scenes. Perhaps the choice of CGI scenes used in the trailers could have been better or maybe they were early versions but the movie is much better than I expected - not a blockbuster but a reasonably entertaining movie.
Unlike other comic book to movie adaptations such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Daredevil, there is no real super villain for our dark hero to vanquish in this story but perhaps that will be addressed in a sequel, if one is ever made.
Extras
Disc 1
Feature Commentary with Director Ang Lee - This is a reasonable commentary and Lee has an easy talking style with some interesting information to impart. Bear in mind that he's on his own and not many people can talk non-stop for over two hours so there are some occasional gaps in the flow but it's worth listening to regardless. Subtitles are available for those who might find Lee's accent a little difficult to understand but I found him pretty clear and didn't need them.
Hulk Cam: Inside The Rage - Like the Follow The White Rabbit feature on The Matrix DVD, if you press Enter whenever an atom icon appears onscreen you get a little behind-the-scenes footage. You can view these on their own in DVD titles 3 to 13, although you will lose their context with the movie.
Thunderbirds Teaser Trailer - This is a forty-second teaser for the upcoming live action/CGI movie version of the Gerry Anderson TV puppet series. looks like it could be pretty good but it's early days and there's not much on show.
DVD-Rom Features - As with some other DVDs, this uses the InterActual player, a modified PC only player that lets you access hidden areas of the DVD but nothing a little digging around won't reveal. Mac users can forget it and it's even incompatible with some versions of Windows - more trouble than it's worth.
Disc 2
The following extras can all be viewed with subtitles in eight languages.
Hulkification - In this fairly unique exercise, four well-renowned comic book artists were asked to recreate a two-minute action scene from the movie in their own unique style. It works pretty well and you can view it in several ways - split screen with original movie scene and original storyboards; split screen with original movie scene, artist's inked art and coloured artwork; or full screen artist's inked or coloured artwork. there's also some background information on each of the artists.
Evolution of The Hulk - An interesting and detailed, sixteen minute featurette showing how Marvel's The Incredible Hulk came about. From its comic book days to the TV series and on to the movie version, it includes some interesting interview material with creator Stan Lee, Marvel president Avi Arad and Ang Lee.
The Incredible Ang Lee - A reasonably interesting fourteen minute featurette focusing on director Ang Lee and his involvement with the movie. As you'd expect it's a pretty positive piece and includes some interview material with Lee himself and comments from Eric Bana, Nick Nolte, Josh Lucas and various members of the production team.
The Dog Fight Scene - A pretty good ten-minute piece on how this CGI heavy scene was shot. We get to see it from production team meetings to the motion capture sessions, including lots of shots of Ang Lee as the Hulk, to the animation process and the incredible level of detail the animators will go to achieve as much realism as possible.
The Unique Style of Editing Hulk - A five minute short on how they gave the movie a comic book feel using multi-image layouts and scene to scene transition effects.
The Making of Hulk - A very well put together, twenty-three minute documentary in four parts (Cast and Crew, Stunts and Physical Effects, ILM and Music) that can be viewed one by one or all at once. There's lots of behind the scenes footage with interesting input from Ang Lee, major cast members and relevant personnel of the various production teams involved.
Deleted Scenes - This is a sequence of six deleted scenes lasting just under six minutes in all. Unlike most deleted scene extras, these have been pretty much finished and are shown in widescreen format. They're mostly story enhancing scenes, no special effects stuff, and probably cut for timing reasons.
DVD-ROM Features - As with Disc 1, this uses the InterActual Player and my comments above stand.
Superhero Revealed: The Anatomy of the Hulk - A nicely presented, if somewhat difficult to navigate feature that allows you to learn some facts about the Hulk. It covers his physical attributes and capabilities to ILM development and physical statistics on Bruce Banner and the various levels of the Hulk state.
Overall
Hulk is yet another good comic book to film adaptation that fans of the character, should enjoy, regardless of any initial expectations and the slow build-up before the real action begins.
The DVD production is of excellent quality and the well thought out extras, which should keep you entertained for a few more hours, are a very good addition to the package. This is a must for Hulk and fans of the Sci-Fi genré.
This page has been read:
3832
times