Rating: 
Summary: The Sins of The Father
Review: Ang Lee is a superlative filmmaker, responsible for some of the most unforgettable moments, scenes and films of recent memory: "The Ice Storm, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Eat Drink Man Woman" and the tender and loving "Sense and Sensibility." All of these films deal with the ultra personal aspects of its characters interior lives and Lee views these things from an emotionally available perspective. He is a humanist and a respectful observer of life.
So it was with some surprise when I read that Lee was to direct "The Hulk," yet I knew that his approach to this genre film would be like no other and that his take on the material, though unavoidably cut from the same cloth as "Godzilla" and "Superman," would be unusual. I was not wrong.
Lee's humanity suffuses "The Hulk" as the basic storyline deals with the father/child relationship: Bruce Banner (a stalwart Eric Bana), his father David (A wild Nick Nolte) and Betty Ross (an otherworldly, beautiful Jennifer Connolly) and her father Ross (Sam Elliott). Ideally, parents mold and form a child through instruction and example and David literally alters Bruce's life, in a morally suspect scene, by injecting him with toxins thereby setting the course of Bruce's life and the course of the film. David, like Dr. Frankenstein wants to create a super human and thereby control a world that he feels has cast him aside...that won't recognize his genius.
"The Hulk" is a physically beautiful film and Lee's mise en scene cannot be faulted even when he uses the split screen to emulate the comic book genesis of the Hulk character. But ultimately "The Hulk" is not a total triumph as the two factions of the film do not quite mesh: Lee's sensibilities and the action necessary to present the physical needs of the Hulk character and the telling of his story even though there are so many gorgeous things here on which to feast the eyes: the scenes of the digital Hulk jumping about the universe that make us forget about his computer origins, the scene with the immense Hulk carrying Betty to safety that recalls King Kong and Fay Wray and Nolte's final scene in which he rages at a cruel, unfair world that brings to mind Lear raging at the sky (I Kid you not...but that's the kind of film this is).
"The Hulk" is a strange hybrid: a rapturously personal, monster movie. And Like Frankenstein, Dracula and even Godzilla, one that we will fondly recall in our mind's eye and in the most hidden parts of our heart for the rest of our lives.
Rating: 
Summary: The Abominable Hulk
Review: (Spoilers alert) If you're only halfway convinced you might want to see this, it should be noted first off that one of the first major action sequences involves The Hulk fighting ... A GIANT POODLE! Not kidding. If you still want to know more, read on then...I wanted to like this one, but it fails on many levels. I think that the person who wrote the story made a reasonable choice in making the villain of the movie Bruce Banner's father, a character that embodies the spirit of amoral science and provides a target for Banner's anger -- amoral science and monstrous anger being the crucial dramatic elements of the character of The Hulk. However, the promised drama inherent in the clash never really manifests in the movie. The theme of strained father/offspring relationships is explored in two other characters, but nothing that dramatic happens there either. Worst of all, the Bruce/David Banner clash just ends in a silly superhero combat. Which leads to the next problem: the science is confusing and nonsensical. The original comic book and later T.V. show did better jobs in explaining the origin of The Hulk's power. In the movie, there is a confusing sequence of events involving pre-natal genetic manipulation by David (Bruce's father)on Bruce, a gamma explosion, something about nanobytes (which is never explained satisfactorily), and then some kind of lab accident again involving gamma rays. It's like the writer felt he had to pile on pseudo-scientific explanations to make it more believable, but it just makes for messy exposition. Believability gets completely thrown out the window in the end anyways, as David Banner somehow taps his son's power and changes into a being that can take on the properties of anything he touches, like water and rock, for instance. How do you get that from experimenting with starfish and lizards? While the ridiculous thing they did with Banner's father was the nail in the coffin for me, the most troubling aspect as the movie progressed was The Hulk himself. You could just not believe for a second that he existed in the real world next to the human characters. First of all, he looked like a muscle-bound Gumby -- a clay being, rather than flesh and blood. And they made him way too big -- his grossly exaggerated physique and King Kong stature made him just that much more unbelievable and hard to relate to. There should have been a vulnerable side to The Hulk that we could have related to, but you could not with the Godzilla we got on the screen. Setting aside things like the bad special fx and the corny ending (reiterating the "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" line from the T.V. show), and the question of how his pants stay on, you still don't have a good movie. Besides the promised father/son drama that never delivers, you have some fairly fidget-inducing pacing, humdrum acting performances and no especially deep insight or philosophy anywhere. Disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Shrek Meets Out of Africa
Review: What a boring movie! After sitting through tedious dialogue and tortured expressions while Bruce Banner makes his way through repressed memories and failed relationships, he gets mad and turns into Shrek.
Rating:
Summary: It Ain't Easy Bein' Green
Review: Ang Lee delivers a somewhat unwieldy adaptation of the Marvel comic character - a psychological onion of a story with layer upon layer of plot points. A worthy effort, but ultimately overlong and a tad slow. The film takes much too long to get started, and convolutes an admittedly simplistic origin with oodles of unessential Star Trekkian techno-babble. The pivotal characters of Bruce Banner and his love interest Betty Ross have zero chemistry with each other and are of little interest to anyone else either. However, Sam Elliot is great as Thunderbolt Ross and Nick Nolte menacing as Bruce Banner's estranged (and strange) father. The cinematography is excellent, with a jarring comic book panel look - think of the climactic `prom scene' in Carrie. We are given multiple viewpoints in a myriad of split screen panels at once. While this is meant to be an homage to the source material, its hard to get used to - and some of the editing transitions (a liquidy wave at one point) are laughably bad. The CGI is unparalleled. Arguably some of the best ever put to film. The Hulk moves and reacts to his surroundings in a way that should have Peter Jackson and George Lucas as green as he is, only with envy. The action sequences are fantastic, with the Hulk batting aside heat seeking missiles and shaking a tank crew from it turret while shrugging off spattering bullets like squirts from a child's Entertech. However, this movie just isn't FUN. Of course the idea that a rampaging green monster could be fun is a little hard to sell (but maybe not - look at Godzilla - the REAL one, not that American junk), but this is relentlessly serious. I can't think of any levity except during the actual Hulk sequences when he's battling the military. Ultimately this would have done better had it been handled by someone who had actually been a fan of the comics. The story is very good, but is marred by a heavy hand and somewhat unlikely ending (its doubtful that the military which has just worked so hard to control Banner would willingly place him in a situation where the Hulk would surface again so readily). Monumental effort, but so-so result.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Science
Review: OK - no one expects the Hulk to make sense. The existance of the creature violates nearly every law of conservation of energy and matter. You either accept and enjoy the story, or you gripe about it, mumbling "That's impossible" every ten seconds...
STILL - why do Hollywood writers have to grab every new scientific concept or breakthrough and act like it explains everything and justifies bad science? The new buzzword is 'NANOTECHNOLOGY' so now Bruce Banner gets big thanks to NANOMEDS (oh and Gamma Radiation, too, just to satisfy the pureists)
Bottom Line - this is a Bad Movie, and the CGI Hulk is almost as bad as the CGI Rock in 'The Mummy Returns'
On a positive note though, Eric Bana is very good looking, and at certain angles looks like a young Christopher Reeve. Hello Warner Brothers - we've found the new Superman...
Rating:
Summary: HULK MAD! MOVIE BAD!
Review: The Hulk isn't one of my personal favorites. I'm one of the few people in this world who feel that the only thing good to come out of the Hulk was Wolverine (Issue #180-181 of the Hulk was Wolverine's first appearance.) Then again I did grow up on re-runs of the Hulk TV series as well, so I did have some level of high expectations for the film. Despite my belief that the plot of the Hulk (until recently) has been relatively thin, and more about Hulk tearing things apart than anything deeper I had hoped that the movie would opt to explore the more recent Jeckyl and Hyde approach of the newer comics, which have been incredible (pun intended.) Hulk should be a horror story, not an action movie. I think the biggest flaw of this film is that despite its attempt to remind audiences that its based on a comic book (wipes and fades that look like a page turning, comic like "cells" that also resemble TV's 24, etc.) this is Ang Lee's Hulk... not Stan Lee's. I appreciate the nod to the TV series, like the cameo by Mr. Ferigno, and "David" Banner... I don't appreciate the changes to the character's origin, which were done poorly.
Stan Lee had this thing about making super heroes out of radiation, these days we know a lot more about radiation than we did then, so we replace radiation with genetic engineering. In my opinion if the origin of the Hulk was to be changed it should have followed the new origin presented in Marvel's "Ultimate" continuity. Even though I'm not that big of a Hulk fan I feel very betrayed by this film. That was not the Bruce Banner I remember, or David Banner (from the TV series), and in all honesty what they did with his father was just plane bad. The story seemed incoherent, and Hulk looked fake. I'm sorry but that's all there is too it. I would have liked it more had it not dealt with the father subplot. Exploring Banner himself, repressing his rage over a bad break up perhaps? Dealing with everything going wrong in his life at the moment and then BOOM his hit with the Gamma rays, or if I had my way the Super Soldier Serum, which would also open doors for a movie based on the Ultimates.
It's really a shame to see Fox with the rights to X-Men and universal with the rights to Hulk... I'll never get to see the live action epic battle between Wolverine and the Hulk, and maybe Wolvie's making an appearance here could have saved this movie, since nothing else could. Who knows, the movie did have a lot of good ideas, they were just poorly executed. Perhaps the sequel will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Hulk SMASH Ang Lee!!
Review: I'm writing this review a cpl days after seeing the movie, while the pain is still fresh.. I tell you folks, I'm a Hulk fan from way back, and since comic book movies have been improving every year since X-Men set the standard I had very high hopes... And then Ang Lee came and crushed those hopes like a discarded
beer can. I blame him, and the 3-4 screenwriters for my pain.
(whenever you see a screenplay credit with more than two people, prepare for pain. It means a mess of a script) Ok..where to begin? Appearance: although the critics are praising Ang Lee's visual take on the movie, how original, captures the spirit of a comic, blah blah blah, these critics evidentally do NOT read comics. In a comic, you can concentrate on a panel, soak in the details at your own pace. Using the panel technique in a MOVIE means that the overuse of split screens and fades is almost unwatchable, as the information flies by so quickly. Its like having your computer screen flooded with pop up windows. Its as if Ang Lee decided to try and trigger as many epileptic seizures in the audience as possible as part of some sadistic joke. Ok, the story: Part of the power of the Hulk, I've always felt, was that his origins lay in the dark feelings of rage springing from Bruce Banner's childhood abuse. In the movie, we do get some of that, but I feel having Daddy Banner responsible via his own experiements was over the top. We didnt need that, for the story, and by turning Daddy Banner into some sort of mad scientist crossed with the Absorbing Man robs the Hulk of a lot of the emotional impact of his story. The tragic child abuse elements overshadowed by a cheesy villain. I realize that every comic book movie needs a villain, but the makers could have picked another, more rooted to the comic bad guy. Or just had the Hulk fight the military. The whole father-son thing, to me, was overblown and a waste of the solid, emotional story elements in the Hulk comics. More about the story...plot holes you could drive a truck through. The famous gamma bomb sequence tossed out in favor of an anticlimatic lab accident. "Gee, this thing is about to explode. I must go and stand in front of it like an idiot."
The brilliant military decision at the end of the movie, with Bruce wired to fry if he loses his temper, to send Daddy Banner in for a father-son chat. I could go on and on.. The acting: everyone did their best with the material, you could tell, but Jennifer Connelly's performance was as wooden as a forest full of trees. Conclusion: Ang Lee and company have forever ruined any chance of a decent Hulk movie being made, and should have giant silly poodle mutants sicced on them.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible. (SPOILERS)
Review: HULK was joyless and odd, and the camerawork, with the split screens, at first seemed inventive but just eventually became distracting. (For instance, the death scene of Josh Lucas was just silly.) The daddy stuff was irritating, and the whole "What happened behind the door?" thing was painfully obvious. And shouldn't the gamma accident that unleashed the Hulk pack more of an impact than it did? It seemed largely behind the point. When I think about the Green Goblin creation scene in SPIDER-MAN last year, it was much better done. The worst scene was when David and Bruce Banner were both sent to that platform and spotlighted heavily ... and someone encouraged Nick Nolte to go all Brando, which made no sense. (In that scene, Nick Nolte just looked like he was giving an example of an "angry monologue" on INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO.) Why on Earth was it so long? Why do you cast such charismatic actors as Nolte, Jennifer Connelly (who's capable of tremendous versatility), the hammy, funny Sam Elliott and Eric Bana (who's a known comedian in Australia) in a film so devoid of charm or humor? It makes no sense. And Ang Lee's made some terrific comedies and heartfelt dramas. Though ambitious in what it tried to do about these characters' emotions, HULK failed to be compelling and was just terrible.
Rating:
Summary: It took an hour before the movie even made sense.
Review: I was one of the many who saw the Hulk opening day, and I was dissapointed. I will admit I never liked the TV show, but this version did seem more like the comic book I knew. I thought Ang Lee would do a fantastic job, but in the end I was let down. It took way to long for the Hulk to show himself. I was constantly looking at my watch wondering what I was watching, because it didn't seem like a hulk movie. The problem was that Ang Lee tried too hard to explain this 15 foot muscular green giant. When in the end, how can you explain it? Don't get me wrong, when the hulk was on the screen, I loved it. To see this guy jumping miles into the air bouncing around like Shrek on steroids was fun. The desert chase was superb. But overall the movie drowned in its own scientific garbage that doesn't make any sense to the casual viewer. Go see it if you are a hulk fan, otherwise, you might want to reconsider.
Rating:
Summary: Is this the best movie ever? Well No, but it's good
Review: What to say, I'll start off with the bad here. I can see how a lot of people are going to dislike this movie. I know a ton of folks who hate the look of the CGI Hulk and have said they would prefer a body builder in green paint, which is BS. The final battle is not well done, and when it comes out on VHS, it'll be just about impossible to watch it becuase it lacks definition. I love this movie, Ang Lee did a good job. To those that say it's dark, it's supposed to be, his powers aren't a gift they are a curse. At it's core, this movie is a love story, and a fairly well handled one, nothing overtop and mushy. Good casting and the best thing about it:
The Editing!
It's hard to explain it, it's edited together like a comic book, sometimes more than others. A lot of people will find it annoying, but it works so well in the film it really pulls it together. SO far Marvel has done a really good job with their movies (except Dare Devil, which ain't as bad as some people make it out to be). Each movie, instead of using a cookie cutter mold, has it's own style and feel. With punisher, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, Iron Fist and god knows how many sequals, it's starting to feel like the golden age of comic movies.
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