The Hulk has had its ups and downs in its TV and cinema adaptations. The iconic 70s TV show, although brilliant for its time, couldn’t do the comics justice due to a lack of special effects. Ang Lee’s cinematic attempt tried to over intellectualise a character that ultimately likes to smash things. Now we have an attempt by Louis Leterrier, a relatively inexperienced director (Danny the Dog which I’ve never heard of and Transporter 2 which I actually quite like).
Being so close to Ang Lee’s 2003 release I was initially expecting this to pick up where Ang left off. Not so though, Louis has pretended that Ang Lee’s version never existed (probably for the best in my opinion) and in actual fact it nods its head to the 70s TV show more than the last movie.
Although it ignores the last movie, it also doesn’t go back to the beginning and try to be another origin movie. The exposition of how David Banner became the Hulk is handled as a series of images during the opening sequence. It takes a couple of viewings to take it all in, but it works well, and saves us an hour of film going through the preliminaries.
We start the film with David Banner (Edward Norton) in hiding. He’s holed out in the favellas of Brazil, searching for a cure, as well as learning techniques to keep his anger under check. To pay the bills he works as a handy man at a run down bottling plant, out of hours he’s managed to put together basic lab equipment and is trying to extract a cure from local rare plants. Along the way he’s also managed to pick up a laptop and satellite dish that lets him get online and talk with another scientist who’s trying to help him (they only know each other by codenames, Mr. Green and Mr. blue).
Whilst fixing something in the bottling plant Banner gets cut, and some of his blood ends up in a bottle of drink. The American authorities that are tracking Banner are alerted to his presence in Brazil when the person (Stan Lee’s cameo) that consumes the contaminated drink suffers the effects of gamma poisoning. General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt) puts together a team of crack troops to capture Banner. The team is lead by the Russian born, British Royal Marine Emil Blonsky, a career soldier, now 39, who likes to lead in the field, not from a desk.
When his latest plant extract fails, Banner, reluctantly mails off some of his blood to Mr. Blue and after promising initial trials is told that for a permanent cure to become a reality Mr. Blue needs the data from the original experiment, data that is back home. The realization that he needs to go home coincides with the attempted snatch by Ross’s team and after it all goes wrong, the Hulk makes his first appearance and Banner escapes and sets off on his trek home.
Blonsky, having seen what he’s up against convinces Ross to get another serum that showed ‘super soldier’ potential out of liquid nitrogen and inject it into him to even the odds. The scene is then set as Banner heads home to retrieve the data and Blonsky starts down a path that will turn him into The Abomination, a foe with strength to rival The Hulk!
I can’t say that I was a huge fan of the Ang Lee Hulk, it was all a bit confusing and didn’t have the action expected from a Hulk film. In all of the comic book heros we have a duality. There’s the hero and the real person and the angst and motivations can be quite complicated. With the Hulk it’s a bit simpler as Banner isn’t in control when he turns into the hulk, he only really remembers short images in flashback of what he’s done. Fans of the comics know this and don’t expect an intellectual rollercoaster, they expect the Hulk smash movie experience. In this version Leterrier got the balance about right, he still told a pretty good story, but managed to get some great action sequences in there as well. By not doing another origin movie, he also got to develop a decent bad guy, rather than having to develop The Hulk first, which is where a lot of other comic origin movies stutter. Roth’s progression from Blonsky to the Abomination is nicely developed and culminates in a fantastic clash of the titans (which coincidentally Leterrier is directing next) that a Hulk film deserves.
The acting is top notch, Edward Norton is excellent as Banner, but it’s Roth that stood out to me. His character changes each time he gets injected with serum. As he gets more power he starts to turn into a psychopath that wants the same power as The Hulk, which leads to the creation of The Abomination. William hurt is excellent as General Ross and Liv Tyler puts in a passable, if a bit forgettable, performance as his daughter and Banners ex Betty Ross. The special effects also deserve a mention, I much prefer Leterrier’s Hulk than Ang Lee’s and The Abomination is no slouch either. The big set pieces are excellently done and the battle between the two is one of the best comic book movie finales I’ve seen in a while
The picture and sound quality of this 2-disc DVD edition were first rate. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track will shake your house during the action scenes if you have surround sound. The picture is also excellent, I watched it upscaled through a PS3 on a 37” LCD and the image detail was great. It got a bit murky in the scenes in the bottle factory near the beginning and this is where I’d expect the Blu Ray to shine, in maintaining the detail in the darker scenes.
I got the 2-disc DVD to review and the bonus disc is packed with a wealth of highly watchable extras. I’d heard that there was a lot of material cut to bring the film in at a reasonable length and we get to see a lot of the deleted scenes here (3 pages worth!) as well as an alternative opening (although I can see why it wasn’t used). There’re also quite a few featurettes with behind the scenes footage as well as cats and crew interviews and all are well worth a watch. The featurettes cover the project realization, locations, characters and special effects, so all bases are covered really.
If you’re a Hulk fan, comic book fan, sci-fi fan or action film fan then The Incredible Hulk is a must see and if you don’t have Blu Ray capability then this 2-disc DVD edition is no slouch. Great picture, sound and a wealth of extras make it a no brainer.