In Nick Nolte's words, "Take it back! It's not stopping! Take it back!" That's right, TAKE THIS MOVIE BACK FROM US! I don't care what these sissy YouTubers think of 2003's Hulk being "better than The Incredible Hulk," but it is SO BORING, SO DULL AND WAY TOO LONG!!!
Ang Lee may have been a good director for hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life of Pi, but he's just not the right director for the giant green-ragin behemoth. As much as we think that the psychological plot of Bruce/Hulk's anger is "important to the character," it's too bad that Ang Lee delved into it too deeply in a convoluted way! THERE WAS JUST NOT ENOUGH EXCITING ACTION! I hate it when the Hulk fights main bad guys at night (like the badly-CGI Hulk-Dogs) with NO LIGHTING! They were just too dark and hard to tell the good and bad guys apart! No wonder it failed to domestically earn back the $137 million budget after achieving a B- CinemaScore grade from audiences more than 10 years ago! The pacing is so slow and there was just TOO MUCH POINTLESSLY-LONG QUIET CONVERSATIONS! And what's worse, the comic book-style transitioning is TOO DISTRACTING throughout the entire 2-hr long film! I know Ang Lee is trying to make it a "comic book movie," but it only became ridiculously stale and ruins the pacing and flow of every scene in a stupid way.
"Stronger than 2008/Avengers Hulk" or not, but the CGI on this 2003 version of the Hulk, or "Shrulk", is just so fake and too smoothly-detailed or fat to make him look like a fearful green monster! He also didn't say "Hulk Smash!" other than "Puny human" and "TAKE IT ALLLLL!!!!" Don't blame how "weak" Ed Norton's Hulk (way more realistic and better-detailed!) was handled in the reboot when maybe it was just done to ensure that he isn't too "overpowered"! And that the Abomination (Tim Roth), who was much stronger than the Hulk in the comics, will have a chance to initially overwhelm him before Hulk would gain the upper hand in the end. People should know that at least his strength has gotten better in 2012's The Avengers since he's the same Hulk (but different actor) from his own solo Hulk reboot! Eric Bana is just too monotone and emotionless for us to sympathize with, nor does he even act like a scientist who runs gamma radiation tests. For he is clearly the one who's a lot more angry than the Hulk since he doesn't seem to be worried or desperate enough about preventing himself from endangering everyone like he does in the comics. All of the characters, other than <3 Jennifer Connelly <3 (although her face can be at times too wooden like Kristen Stewart's), are so unlikeable! Especially Josh Lucas as douchebag Glenn Talbot, who clearly does not act like a real major but more of a stalker of Betty Ross (unlike his FAR SUPERIOR Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. counterpart) and has the worst yet hilarious death scene ever! While Sam Elliott (also appeared in Ghost Rider) did good as General "T-Bolt" Ross, William Hurt's reason of his hatred towards Bruce/Hulk made a lot more sense than simply hating him for being the son of David Banner. Speaking of whom, Nick Nolte's insane father of Bruce Banner unfortunately is the character I do not care about! I don't care about his ties to the Hulk's origins (nanomeds and genetic blah blah blah kind of stuff) for the sake of developing more of the "anger issues"! His motivations and his obsessive experimentations on starfishes, reptiles and monkeys didn't quite make sense to me. And his acting became over-the-top once he goes crazy with all the yelling (Bruce's GOOOOOOOOO!!!!! included) and his subtle mock yelling! I don't think that he was an inspiring Hulk villain once he was turned into Absorbing Man (Carl Creel from the comics and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) or whatever when he absorb things like electricity (Zzzax-style), rock and water before turning into a giant gamma cloud! Now that is just plain weird.
Overall... THE CAST IS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! Can't people who "didn't enjoy Incredible Hulk" not understand that!!?? I'm glad that Marvel and Universal rebooted the Hulk franchise with a movie that strongly ties to the Avengers! I could almost imagine the disappointing reactions from the Avengers stars like Robert Downey, Jr. and especially Mark Ruffalo when they see this not-so-incredible Hulk film! You don't need the serious tone, then take it too far, to make a Hulk movie! What really defines the Hulk is a perfect balance of fun-filled comic book action and tragic (but not too tragic!) suspenseful thriller to make it more faithful to the cheerful tones of Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man! So don't bother seeing Hulk and then next seeing The Incredible Hulk (a total reboot, not a direct continuation) even if they're 5 years apart from each other. Bruce saving Harper from gamma exposure is not enough to make the audience be first introduced to how the Hulk came to be for the first time on the big screen thanks to a very FLAT-written script made for Ang Lee.
Like Spider-Man 3, the well-composed soundtrack (by Spider-Man 1-2 composer Danny Elfman) and the "excellent" action scenes (the tank and helicopter desert scenes until the abruptly-short San Francisco rampage, and the South America ending) does not outweigh the negative flaws that were frequently found! No matter how many times I view this on DVD, the end result remains to be the same disappointing mess that I already know. This 2003 Hulk adaptation does NOT deserve a much bigger praise than the more comic book-faithful Incredible Hulk, which is officially canon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with no disregard even with a so-so $263 million worldwide gross! And don't even think about making me angry with your positive comments saying that the Ang Lee movie has a "better story than in the 08 reboot"! Because you wouldn't like me when I'm VERY angry.
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