5 of 10
Cinematography by Frederick Elmes
Eric Bana
Jennifer Connelly
Sam Elliott
Josh Lucas
Nick Nolte
Lou Ferrigno
Stan Lee
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| The Hulk 5 of 10 |
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| Directed by Ang Lee Cinematography by Frederick Elmes Eric Bana Jennifer Connelly Sam Elliott Josh Lucas Nick Nolte Lou Ferrigno Stan Lee |
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| The Hulk has always been the most interesting Marvel character, in my mind. He is the only one who really has an intrinsic conflict between his character and his actions. It is only by completely losing control of himself that he can become a superhero, and do good. Which is very strange. But I find it fascinating. So, I was pretty excited about the possibility of a film. And I was even more excited when I found that Ang Lee was to direct it. (He is famous for his complex character portrayals, and I felt that he would give the character of Bruce Banner the treatment it needed and deserved.) There was a lot of discussion about the decision to render the Hulk completely digitally, but I didn't care much about that. I was interested in the characters. But I was disappointed. There was a lot of very clever editing, some fine directing, and some excellent acting. (Connelly in particular was very good, as were Elliott and Nolte as the two old fathers.) And there are some truly touching moments, in particular one scene where Betty Ross realizes what the future holds for Bruce Banner. That scene was really excellent, and very much the kind of thing that I was expecting from the film overall. But almost immediately after that, the movie falls completely apart. I should have seen it coming, really; it was simply too complicated. It tries to cover a ton of much emotional ground, but it's resting squarely on the back of a huge, green, digitally rendered guy. Which finally just won't allow the film to be serious. So its philosophizing about suffering and the human condition is laughable. Lee should have just ended the movie in San Francisco. There would have been a ton of loose ends. But as it is, there are still a ton. They're just different ones. Finally, it fails because it tries to do too much, not because it tries to do too little. Lee tried to make a profound movie about a comic book character. He tried really hard, probably too hard, and he failed. But it was a truly admirable attempt. | ||||||