Avengers Month: ‘Hulk’ Review

Director: Ang Lee

Cast: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connolly, Nick Nolte, Sam Elliot

Plot: Through being exposed to radiation and genetic experiments as a young child and later in life scientist Bruce Bana suffers from a mutation that causes him to transform into a giant green monster with an uncontrollable temper.

Review: Ang Lee brings plenty of interesting ideas to the table with this unusual take on the superhero mythos. Concepts such as delving in the psychology of an extra-ordinary person, ethics surrounding human testing and weaponising people through genetic manipulation are all themes that have become stables of the genre. In what could’ve been a pioneering film it gets bogged down in heavy handed symbolism, bland characters and clunky CGI.

The movie begins with a prolonged first act that builds the character of Bruce from childhood, Bruce only taking a background role to his father who acts like a douche. When young Bruce eventually suffers a suppressible psychological trauma we skip forward to later in life when he has become even less interesting. We then sit through another overlong act where Bruce, a scientist with father issues, conducts experiments with his colleague Betty Ross – another scientist with father issues. Eventually we have a drawn out sequence where Bruce is exposed to gamma rays, which in itself is quite pointless since they’d spent so much time giving Hulk a reason to be the Hulk already.

By the time Banner does eventually Hulk out almost forty-five minutes have passed and his initial reveal is hidden in the shadows making it one of the most anti-climatic action sequences in history. When the Jolly Green Giant is brought out in the open the first response most viewers will have is a desire to put him back where he belongs. The CGI beast looks like the efforts of a toddler making a Ninja Turtle out of clay but with less personality. When he get really up close and personal he looks comically bad. The action is surprisingly yawn worthy with the tank showdown being the only one of note only because it visually takes its cues from the old animated serials. For the rest of the film Hulk is fighting giant mutant poodles or huge jellyfish while bounding through the desert like his anatomy includes pogo sticks and it’s not even slightly interesting.

Throughout the film Ang Lee has packed in layer after layer of symbolism, and not the type that is woven through out the visual palette but the type that is forced down our throats to the point that it becomes tiresome. Most of it is completely undecipherable. Things like moss growing on a rock may be open to interpretation but a scene that shows a bunch of luminous jellyfish floating above the surface of the desert most people will be wondering who spiked their soda. Most baffling is a repeated image from young Bruce’s POV where he’s waving a pair of toys around with the footage sped up. Totally pointless and baffling.

Given that this is ultimately character focused instead of action focused, which is a reasonable creative choice for the character, it’s a shame that all the characters are so bland. The long, long scenes between the characters are the perfect cure for insomnia. The characters themselves are not interesting and nothing they do is interesting. Even making frogs explode somehow proves dull. When the ultimate showdown is between Hulk and his father, and is heavily based on symbolism instead of fisticuffs, it leads to yawning instead of excitement. Especially when they bust out the giant jellyfish.

Ultimately what should have been a groundbreaking achievement of superhero cinema proves to be a muddled, pointless mess.

Score: THREE outta TEN