Often, I will start my blog with a statement of faith. I have faith that the director had a vision that was somehow compromised. I have faith that the writer of the film in question wanted to tell a great story, but something went horribly wrong. I have faith that the actors really were doing their very best, but it just fell short somehow. Let's take all that as rote, shall we. I only review movies that I like. What follows is my examination of a film I like so much that I bought it on HD-DVD even after that format was dead just because there was no Blu-Ray version yet. Did I mention that own an HD-DVD player? That gives you an idea of my prowess at predicting the future. Your lucky numbers are 6-10-3-7 and 44.
Hulk: Golly. What a train wreck this thing is. I'm sort of at a loss as to where I should start. The beginning is usually a good place, I'll go there. So, the year is 199_ and Hulk is in production at Universal. The director has a bold vision for the project, Stan Winston studios is producing prosthetics for the shoot, the screen writer is well known and respected, things are looking good. However, the script is, by all accounts, a mess. The director is tired of the studio questioning his ballooning budget and comic book films are largely looked down upon. The Batman franchise is riding high on the success of Batman Forever, so the purse strings of Hollywood have been loosened somewhat. But every studio exec has his limit and Hulk was becoming a budgetary freak show. Soon the money would dry up, the director would leave and the movie would not be made.
Enter Spider-man. Spidey opens with the biggest box office weekend take in movie history (at the time). It goes on to gross a gazzillion dollars at multiplexes everywhere and every child and man-child from coast to coast and around the world owns at least one Spidey action figure and everybody wants the video game for PC and Playstation 2. This after the moderate success of X-men sets the stage for comic book fandom's golden age of movies, television shows, video games, and fan fiction porno. Now is the time for the biggest of all Marvel comics heroes to have his day. The Hulk is back and he's ready to smash all comers. At least, that's what we all thought.
Mistake #1: The Director. Ang Lee is awesome. Watch Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and you will believe. Smart, soulful, exciting and grand...these all describe his film making style. He is unafraid to court controversy with films like Brokeback Mountain or Ride with the Devil. He delivers on the action with Crouching Tiger and he makes us all a little wiser with Eat Drink Man Woman and The Ice Storm. His study of the human condition is second to none and his understanding of personal conflict and the need to grow as people is astounding. Ang Lee knows how to tell a story and grow his characters. I think maybe that's the problem. Essentially Hulk is a character who gets angry and smashes things. Pick up a copy of The Incredible Hulk at your local comic shop or at the grocery store and you will be treated to 40 pages or so of a big green guy breaking things and US Army personnel trying to kill him. That's pretty much every comic issue since his debut back in the 1960's. His niche in the comic book world is a small one and his mission is simple. The Hulk must smash and smash he does with great aplomb...also with a steel girder or other large blunt object. In short, the Hulk doesn't need Ang Lee and it is apparent from watching the film that Ang Lee doesn't entirely know what to do with the Hulk. He's got two hours to fill, but you can't have a big angry guy breaking things for two hours. There has to be something else going on especially if you have a world renowned director with an eye for the simple human dramas that drive our daily lives. The result: A barely involving psycho-drama about a young man dealing with the fact that he is adopted and his girlfriend's rejection of him because of her own hang-ups regarding father figures. Also, Bruce Banner's father is a megalomaniac who experimented on his son in utero resulting in some genetic complications that make him susceptible to Hulking out giving the proper Gamma Radiation stimulus. Also, there maybe be some abandonment issues at play for all involved. Sound like a rocking Hulk movie? It shouldn't.
Here's a quick formula for crappy superhero movies. If the appearance the titular hero does not occur in any meaningful way until you are well passed the 30 minute mark, you're movie has missed the point. The only exception to this rule is the original 1978 Superman. That movie rocks right up until the introduction of the villain, but that's a different post altogether.
So, instead of the Jade Giant crushing all who oppose him we have 45 minutes of will they/won't they from Bruce Banner and Betty Ross and the occasional cameo by David Banner who got a job cleaning toilets at a science lab after having been locked away by the military for his crazy science experiments. I don't know who his parole officer was, but he should be fired.
Problem the Second: The Script. Ang Lee did not write this movie even though he was the driving force behind the human foible aspects of the story. No, about 15 different people worked on this script at different times. The end result is a hodge-podge of dramatic scenes, inexplicable motivations, witty dialogue, flashes of brilliance and lots of talking. Lots and lots of talking. We have a need as a species to explore our feelings, I get that. We also have a need as movie viewers to escape from reality sometimes. We pay our eight bucks so that we don't have to explore our feelings. The Hulk is about rage. He's just got the one feeling. Go with that. But, I guess Hollywood pays by the page. A simple script about an angry monster wouldn't be very thick and that's not impressive at all. Think about the embarrassed studio exec who has to carry about the Hulk pamphlet while the guy down the hall hefts his copy of Benjamin Button. How could he show his face at Spago again? The solution is simple, fill the script with lots of nothing. Conversation about exploding frogs? Check. Conversation about corporate takeovers of publicly funded projects at state universities? Check. Conversation about the unfairness of the military industrial complex and the impact of religion on modern society. Check and Check. This script has it all, except for the Hulk. Oh, he shows up eventually, but just for a quick visit.
Allow me a quick comparison, if you will. In 1978's Superman we are treated to the birth, arrival and rearing of Clark Kent. This serves to explain how he came to be not just a Super-human, but a good man. Tension builds and we know that soon the big red S will be revealed and the day will be saved. Once Clark makes it to Metropolis it is only a matter of time before there are those in peril that only he can save and in that moment the camera pushes in on his chest as he tears his shirt open to reveal that symbol known around the world. The audience is silent, waiting for that second when the Man of Steel will be revealed in his totality. He bursts from the revolving doors in full costume and leaps into the sky. He catches the falling helicopter in one hand and Lois Lane in the other, the music swells, the people on screen cheer and the audience does along with them. It's stirring, moving and other -ings. In Hulk we are robbed of that moment. It takes forever to piss off Bruce Banner sufficiently to make him Hulk-out. When that change does occur, it happens in the dark and only lasts about two minutes. The Hulk throws a big gamma-sphere contraption at a car, growls at Nick Nolte and then leaps into the night where he is seen by nobody, because giant screaming monsters are common in the Bay Area. No swelling music, no saving the day, no jive-talking pimp to comment on his attire. He just gets angry and leaves.
Final Gripe: The Actors. You can not tell me that Nick Nolte, Sam Elliot and Juggsy McGee didn't drive this story from its roots into the mishmash of kooky ideas that it became. All of these people fancy themselves "Real Actors" and I guess that means making damn sure that a fun escapist tale becomes bogged down in angst and pathos. I read an interview where Juggsy was praising Ang Lee for not wanting to tell an exciting action story, but instead wanted to plumb the depths of the dark human mind. Dude, you signed on for a movie called HULK. Its protagonist turns green and punches tanks. That's the movie. That should be the entire movie.
Okay, now for the good. Tank Punching 101: This is the heart of the film and the reason I like it so much despite the efforts of all involved to make it suck. When the Hulk is finally on the scene and smashing as is his wont, he rules with a mighty green fist. He crushes tanks, leaps onto helicopters and jet fighters, he crushes cars like Bigfoot and Gravedigger got into a redneckin' contest and he looks awesome. You'll read a lot of snarky reviews talking about how much Hulk looks like Shrek. Really? I think the folks at ILM delivered in a way that hasn't been matched yet. Even the new Hulk in Louis Leterrie's movie doesn't look as good. There is a level of realism present on screen with Hulk that blows me away every time I see it. Sure, there are some shots that aren't as good as they could be, but the majority of what is on screen is amazing. When he busts out of the Military Stronghold and into the bright daylight of the desert, he looks as real as any actor. He moves like a person, he emotes like a person and he even sneezes like a person. Hulk is at his visual best in this film.
Clearly there is enough talent and will here to make the greatest Superhero movie ever filmed. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to actually do that. The director wanted to make a hybrid art film / action adventure, the actors wanted to show their emotional chops and the mass of writers were just trying to cram everything they could into one movie all while meeting the artistic vision of the director and actors. Not to be left out is the studio. The Dark Knight and Iron Man proved to us, this past year, that you can make a big budget action Superhero movie and make it well. Both films were perfect examples of their form. Maybe they succeeded because they had Hulk as a road map for what not to do, but more likely they did so because they had all the pieces and parts that Hulk did in addition to a studio that was involved and excited about the project. It's a fine line, I know. Too much involvement and the director's vision is compromised. Too little and the movie goes off the rails. But a good manager knows the difference and I guess Hulk didn't have one.
I will always have a soft spot for this movie, but it (like all the others) is stupid. The plot makes no sense, the actors are overwrought and there are occasional directorial flourishes that just boggle the mind. A ten second close up of moss growing on a rock does not serve the story. There are also just too many unanswered questions about the storyline. How does Nick Nolte get all that scientific equipment? If you get busted for hacking the DOJ makes sure you can't handle a computer in any form for years, but if you blow up a military base they clearly don't track you when you start building a Dr. Frankenstein lab in your living room. Also, if you get blasted with Gamma Radiation, they let you go home from the hospital after only a day. How does that happen? His HMO must suck. Although, I suppose one could argue that being the Hulk is a preexisting condition. But still, one day? How does the Hulk know where his girlfriend went to stay after his arrest? Why did they think putting a gigantic powerful monster in a confined space would be good idea? It's silly moments like that that destroy the story. In the end, it is a lack of focus that destroyed the movie.
