|
Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is a brilliant scientist
working with cutting-edge genetic technology. He is also a person who leads
a quiet, emotionally distant life that conceals a nearly forgotten and
painful past and one that has resigned his ex-girlfriend and fellow
researcher, Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), to remaining an interested
onlooker.
One day in the lab, a simple oversight leads to a
near-fatal situation. Bruce makes a split-second decision and his heroic
impulse saves a life and leaves him apparently unscathed, despite his body
absorbing a normally deadly dose of gamma radiation. Things such as vague
morning-after effects, blackouts and other unexpected fallout from the
experiment-gone-awry are beginning to happen. Banner begins to feel some
kind of a presence within. That turns out to be a massive, rampaging creature, an impossibly strong green monster who appears when Banner's level
of anger goes too high, cutting a swath of destruction in its path.
In no time, the military is engaged, led by
Betty's father, General Ross (Sam Elliott) and Bruce's rival researcher
Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas). Personal vendettas and familial ties soon come
into play. Betty has her theories, and knows that Bruce's father, David
(Nick Nolte), is somehow connected. She may be the only one who understands
the link between scientist and the Hulk, but her efforts to stop the
military, may be too late to save both man and creature.
Ang Lee's Hulk is not your usual big screen
comic-book adaptation. Sure, the screenplay adheres to the pulp formula of
the genre while Tim Squyres' flashy editing, Frederick Elmes' rich
cinematography and Danny Elfman's booming score definitely help make it feel
like a comic book. Yet, Hulk plays more like a Greek Tragedy about
one man dealing with sizeable inner and outer demons than it does a
wall-to-wall action and effects orgy. Characters and their motivations have
always been the most important factors in Lee's movies, among them
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the effort he puts forward here
to chronicle Bruce's journey while examining his inner struggles give the
movie the edge it needs.
This is not to say that Hulk is nothing more
than a dark character study with a budget. With the exception of the film's
drawn-out, effects-laden showdown between good and evil, the action scenes
are exciting, at times amusing and a lot of fun. The much-discussed visual
effects of Hulk are equally sublime. Industrial Light and Magic, working
closely with Lee, have done an excellent job in bringing Banner's green alter
ego to life. The instances, where the Hulk may look a bit unconvincing,
are few and far between. The effects found in this film are the best kind:
ones that propel the story forward instead of detracting from it.
Bana gives a low-key, brooding performance as the
scientist, resonating with just the right amount of arrogance, emotional
pain and quiet rage without going over the top (ILM's Green Guy takes care
of that). Connelly, proving once again that she has the talent to match the
looks, makes Betty much more than just the suffering girlfriend the
screenplay makes her out to be, while Elliott and Nolte, the latter stealing
every scene he's in, are excellent in their supporting roles. And even
though it is a lot of fun to see his character be tossed by the Hulk like a
rag doll, Josh Lucas' Talbot comes off as one-dimensional and thus pales in
comparison to the other leads.
With the exception of the dreadful Daredevil,
the Marvel Comics universe has recently been both a creative and financial
goldmine. The Hulk, like Spider-Man and the two X-Men films, shows us that with the right people working on the project, great comic books can become great cinema as well.
 |
share: 
REVIEW: 