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Hulk (Widescreen Special Edition)

Hulk (Widescreen Special Edition)

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: he's bruce almighty, alright
Review: Talk about pop culture comics with heart, "Hulk" is an incredible movie that combines sci-fi with elements of film noir. While some have to accept that, yes, the CGI is no Gollum in terms of quality, I have to say this is one of the most gripping and emotional films I have seen in quite a while.

While the story is complicated and tends to take itself far too seriously, it is also engrossing and scary. There are elements here that give the plot a depth increasingly lacking in modern action flicks as it begs questions about morality, justice, and a father-son relationship. It's not about saving the world from evil. It's saving oneself from the incarceration of anger and hatred.

The cinematography is somehow odd maybe because while the movie progresses as a story, it wants to keep a few such elegant idiosyncrasies from comic books knocking around. The way some scene transitions were made all looked clean and functional blending with the colors that gave the film a distinctive palette.

The direction and performances are amazing. All the incredible special effects blend perfectly into a visual style that is completely natural and assured, as might be expected from Ang Lee after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". However, the Hulk CGI sowed numerous disappointments most especially from die-hard comic and movie fans. But come on, even when Spidey was web-swinging from building to building, even when Daredevil battled Bullseye in the chapel, the effects were at times obvious. We have to admit that even Hollywood has a long way to go technology-wise.

Nick Nolte and Jennifer Connelly as Bruce's father and girlfriend, respectively, as usual give fine performances. Nolte's character could have been over the top as it is, but he manages to keep it right. Eric Bana delivers a fine performance as well as the troubled scientist who always had to live in fear and he manages to share the terror and vulnerability that makes him a character you immediately care about, innocent and tragic.

Overall, "Hulk" is one dark movie that I loved because even with "flawed" special effects, it never loses focus on the story or the characters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Hulk is a Legend!
Review: Ang Lee has done it again. He's created a movie that can be considered nothing less than legendary. This was a movie that was definitely worth waiting for!

If you are familiar with Lee's films, ('Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' namely), you can expect to see not the average action/adventure flick. Lee aims to create something more. Like I said earlier, he avoids all stereotypes and creates a legend, or even something along the lines of a Greek tragedy. I repeat the word 'legend' because that is the only word to describe this outstanding film.

Now, in response to all the negative feedback that I've personally heard or read, this movie was not intended to be a 'Spider-Man' equivalent, nor was it supposed to be action from start to finish, and, neither was it supposed to be about the Hulk solely.

After I saw the film on opening day, hordes of people were "booing" the film saying that Raimi's 'Spider-Man' had much more action than 'Hulk.' Yes, this may be true, but this film wasn't about that. It was about the inner and worldly conflicts of man, which is almost a "theme" of today. The plot was very deep, I thought, and was superbly written. If you want to see a pure action film, skip this one and see "X-Men 2" to save yourself the agony of watching a thought-provoking drama. This movie is just that, a drama with elements of action.

People also complained about the Hulk's almost insignificant and all-too-predictable appearances. They need to understand that along with the Hulk comes the other side of the story, the tormented life of Bruce Banner. That's what makes the story of Hulk so "alive" and "romantic." We have to witness what it means to deal with these struggles to get the true meaning of this story that Lee has given to us. We need the human side of the conflicts to bring it to our own personal levels. If it weren't for this, there would be no plot, and all we would see is explosions and a green monster destroying everything in sight. If I want to see that, I'll just pull out one of my 'Godzilla' movies.

Another complaint that I've heard is the fakeness of the Hulk himself. Personally, I was floored to see such impressive realistic computer animation. He well surpassed 'Jurassic Park's' CG effects that were phenomenal at the film's release date. But, in response to this argument, 'Jaws' is hailed to be one of the '100 Best Movies of all Time' by Entertainment Weekly (it's #52 to be exact), and the special effects were a bit lacking even during its initial release. Special effects don't make a movie--the quality story and careful directing make the movie. 'Star Wars: Episodes I & II' perfectly display this statement. The original "Star Wars' series has well exceeded the quality and response of this new era of films, and the quality of special effects has definitely improved substantially since the late 70's. Why are the originals still considered "better"? The original films concentrated more on storyline and getting its message across. In short, 'Hulk' was masterfully crafted with incredible ground-breaking special effects (in my opinion).

Probably the one thing that impressed me the most was how this film was presented. Ang Lee said that he held each frame a piece of art in his films, and I could blatantly see this exemplified in this masterpiece. The movie was shown as a live-action comic book-- there were different "panels" onscreen that showed different angles and highlights of the scene being shown. It was absolutely genius! The clever transition sequences were another outstanding quality. For example, there's a scene where Betsy (Connelly) was talking to a janitor (Nolte) who was mopping the hall. To change to the next part of the movie, a water effect faded the picture to the next scene like the mop "mopping" the floor. Little artistic flairs like that are riddled all over this film.

As I said before, this film can be compared to a tragedy. When I left the theater, I had an eerie feeling about what I had just witnessed and tried to make sense to all that I had seen. I really felt sorry for these characters and the situations that they had to deal with. It was very, very powerful. I don't have the words to properly describe what this film portrays or how it makes me feel. It's just...powerful. The film was extremely dark and was a contradiction to the popular 'Spider-Man' film; it painted a bleak picture for mankind's gifted soul. It was very solemn and serious much like the famed television series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Kids will probably be bored with it, considering the adult tone of the film. In fact, I was sitting next to a couple of kids in the theater who pulled out their Game Boy and commenced to play it while their mom continued watching--even during an exciting scene with the Hulk himself!

All in all, 'Hulk' was amazing, or "incredible," I should say. Ang Lee perfectly executed this film with wise choices to make 'Hulk's' legacy live on. He created a timeless story that we can compare with the flawless works from Shakespeare. Don't be disappointed when you find that this movie was more "artsy" than you thought it should be...Lee knows exactly what he's doing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it
Review: I grew up watching the TV series and I was a little disappointed when I watched the trailers of the movie before the release. I went to watch anyway since I like Hulk in general. I was very pleased indeed. This is a good movie with lots of effort put in to make the characterization of Hulk as meaningful as can be for a comic book character. This may disappoint those who expect a mindless summer action flick. Otherwise, a fantastic movie with fantastic special effects. Ang Lee's genious shines through, as always, if you have the patience to take it all in.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Different approach to hero film works!
Review: By no means fabulous, but it is interesting to see a super hero movie taking the approach of a dramatic-talkie movie like "A Beautiful Mind" or something like it. Wonderfully directed, acted, and edited, but is very slow for an action movie, and the action looks very fake sometimes. Not as good as Spiderman or either X-Men films, but still MUCH better than Matrix Reloaded!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: My father, the Absorbing Man...
Review: Very good movie overall, but I would have done some things differently. First, chop 20 minutes off the front end, because it took a long time for Banner to change. Second, if we're going from the comic books, make the Hulk talk in the third person (i.e. "Hulk smash puny humans like bugs!"). Last, if you're going to have a super-villain from the books, don't make it Bruce's DAD just for the sake of showing off the particular super-powers you want for the movie! But I really liked it despite these critiques, and I hope they can make the Leader or the Abomination look believable for a sequel!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A worthy adaptation and worth seeing summer blockbuster.
Review: Comic book adaptations are notoriously hard to pull of on the silver screen, especially if it involves super heroes. Or at least that used to be the case, especially if it was an adaptation of a liscense from Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics movies used to be synonimous with suckitude. Then a few years back Marvel had it's first success with X-Men. That movie while not really good, was the first Marvel movie that wasn't really bad. Then along came a Spider last year that shook the world. This year, they pulled off the incredibly rare feat of making a sequel that actually was noticably better than the original with X-Men 2. And now comes the Hulk.

If any superhero comic was hard to bring to the big screen, the Hulk is it. And if any director was unlikely for the role, it would be Ang Lee. But somehow (except for those who believed in the creative team all along) there couldn't be a better match up. Ang Lee portrays the Hulk the way he is supposed to be betrayed, as a tragic figure cursed with super human abilities rather than blessed. He's no hero. He's a monster that most everyone wants to destroy.

The real beauty of this film is that Ang Lee plays on it's strength as a drama rather than the stereotypical action flick that just about every other comic book adaption is forced into. And much like his previous film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee weaves a story that is about several characters, rather than just the Hulk/Bruce Banner. Each character is three-dimensional and even if you hate them, you can at least understand them (to a point).

The acting, while phenomenal, is still top-notch. I was already a fan of Eric Bana and this film only adds to his resume. The CGI Hulk is no Gollum, and I'm sure plenty of people will be making jokes about him not being realistic enough, but I was pleasently surprised by how easy it was to suspend my disbelief. It's probably for the best the the Hulk only has one line in the film, but the animation of his body language and emotions was excellent and I had no problems excepting him as a character in the movie.

The only concrete negative thing I can say about the film is I thought Lee over did it with his use of split screens. It's a wonderful technique when used right, as it was sometimes in this film, but many times it was unnecessary and confusing. At one point he even uses a split screen showing two scenes at the same time that occur at different times in the continuity. This is probably the fault of overzealous editors, but always blame the director.

The story is solid, and Ang Lee does a terrific job bringing the audience up to speed with the origins of Bruce Banner and the Hulk. The climactic battle at the end wasn't told very well however. It's very easy to be confused at what's really happening. Still, this is a solid drama and a big hollywood blockbuster with all the elements most people look for in movies. It's not the best movie of the year, but definately one of the better ones.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Utter disappointment
Review: I saw the trailers, and I expected what it seems quite a few people here expected (a fake-looking Hulk). When I saw the movie, I was actually quite impressed with how well the Hulk was done.

My problem was with the storyline. I couldn't decipher how any of the characters related to one another, with each pair of characters seeming to move from friendship to indifference to hatred and back in the blink of an eye. I found that the Hulk had essentially no personality whatsoever, assuming that confused and defensively angry aren't really personality traits.

I entered the theater with low expectations, and I left the theater utterly disappointed. Amazingly bad movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just like the Bad Old Days
Review: Remember not so long ago, when almost every comic book turned movie was cringed at? The only people who would dare see them without plenty of reassurance would be the die hard comic fans, who would love the movie no matter what? Well sadly, The Hulk is a big step backward from recent releases and takes the genre back to those very days.

The acting and story are extremely over the top. What's worse is all seems like it's in the wrong dang movie. If a very few select scenes were removed, you'd be hard pressed to even call this sci-fi much less The Hulk. It's yet another pseudo-intellectual flick trying to be more than it is and failing miserably. I'm so sick of movies using cheesy editing and over the top acting and dialog to beg the audience to believe it's saying something intelligent. Intelligence doesn't require gimmicks.

Hulk is by far too nice and friendly to be the Hulk. In one scene, he's peacefully sitting in the desert looking at flowers. No rage, no anger, nothing. Yet, he's still Hulk. The only good CGI scene in this entire flick is a helicopter battle in the desert. Sadly, even that's pretty much ruined by constant cries of "I'm okay!!" over the radio so our Hulk stays a good boy.

This entire movie is clich・rips from anything and everything, but barely including the comic in that list. The stereotypical General, the genius criminal without access to a comb in his life, the vanilla hero, even the nosy won't shut the heck up girlfriend. If this obsessive daddy's girl could mind her own freaking business for a half a millisecond, maybe Hulk boy wouldn't be so stressed!

- Rirath_com

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just disappointing
Review: A truly disappointing film for the objective, thoughful comic fan. This film reminds me of another movie that featured a green, large, monster: Godzilla. Except it doesn't attempt to be funny.

The special f/x, despite the challenges in bringing the Hulk to life, are passable, and at times thrilling - but there isn't enough. For an action movie, there is too much talking, too much hand wringing about daddy and repressed memories. And unfortunately, much of that dialogue is bad (the character of General Ross having the lion's share of throwaway lines). There is no chemistry between Eric Bana (Banner) and Jennifer Connelly (Betty Ross), and as a result, you don't care about either of their characters. Josh Lucas's turn as Glen Talbott is sniveling rather than malevolent. Nick Nolte as David Banner plays an interesting demented man, but I presumed that was so because he really didn't have to act to convey that.

The story has many holes too, the most jarring being the introduction of a super-villain in the last 10 minutes of the film - which caused some folks to walk out in the theatre where I was. There are one or two great moments (Bana describing his experience being the Hulk to Connelly) but they dont make up for the over two-hour rotten egg of a story that Ang Lee tries to salvage with beautiful cinematography. It's too bad Bruce Jones, current writer on the Hulk comic, wasn't given the job of writing the story, since he's done wonders for the comic. James Shamus and the other two script writers seem like they had little sense of what makes the Hulk interesting.

The Hulk made $60 million in its opening weekend, but that will drop by 50 percent in a week, I'm betting. It's nice for fans to finally see Hollywood doing comic movies with enthusiasm, but I'd rather see fewer of them if it ensured that such films would be done better.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Yes I read the comics Yes I saw the movie
Review: I thought this movie was gonna be good from the trailer but i was sadly disapointed. I have read the comics and enjoy those and i love the batman and spiderman movies but this i thought was not that great. I was actually bored in the movie. Parts of it were ok and others I was just thinking "O come on". The special effects were good and the cinemetography was excellent, and I like the actor that plays Bruce Banner, but the plot and everything else was iffy. I would say wait till this movie comes out to dvd to see it. Its not worth your night off, go see hollywood homicide.


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