Starring: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte, Sam Elliott
Directed by: Ang Lee

The string of comic book movies continues with Ang Lee's The Hulk. Those of you looking for an action flick, be warned. The Hulk is heavier on character development and drama than action.

Eric Bana is brilliant scientist Bruce Banner (although he doesn't know his real last name just yet). He believes his parents died years ago. Untrue. What really happened takes a long time to get at in the movie, but it's heavy on repressed memories and trauma. He's working with a beautiful scientist with which he used to be involved (Connelly) on a project that would enable people to regenerate quicker from injury. Long story short, Bruce's crazy, biological father (not quite a stretch for Nick Nolte) pumped young Bruce full of some junk or other and that injection is awakened by a gamma radiation accident in the lab. Bruce then gets angry. Bruce then gets big an green and has to shop for new clothes.

Upon hearing of a Hulk movie, I wondered how they could have conflict. After all, while everyone may know the Hulk, he doesn't really have any easily indentifiable enemies. It turns out that the enemies are in his head and his family. His father is against him. His memories are against him. And to top it off, the military wants to know how they can make armies of Hulks. There's a bunch of conflict right there.

So if punks kids show up looking for a smash-fest, with Hulk busting up cities and such, they'd better be patient. It takes an hour before Bruce turns into the Hulk, and then there isn't that much action until near the end (although the fight with the mutant dogs is pretty cool). In the meantime, even though there may be too much backstory, enjoy a well thought-out drama and the excellent comic-bookish direction by Lee.

DroopyMcC
Jack