by havocSchultz on Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:13 am
My fuck...it's full of stars...
You know how there's always that lame ass line in some movie where somebody takes a bit of a dramatic pause...and then they proudly proclaim "Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!!!"? Well, at the sake of sounding cliche, now THAT'S what I'm fucking talking about!!!
This is a superhero film.
And this is how you have a superhero fight...
I'm gonna do my best to not say: Hulk is Incredible...even though it is...I caught myself grinning more often than not throughout the film...and I'm not some huge comic/Hulk geek...
I recently watched Ang Lee's Hulk again on TV, and even though I warmed up to it a bit more than my initial viewing, it's still not what I really wanted to see in a Hulk movie...
I'm all for some drama, and emotion, and character development, and all the stuff that will make most movies better...but in the case of a comic book or superhero movie, all those things are fine and dandy, but in the end, more so than most films, you want that SMASH and BANG!.
You crave it...
And when or if you don't get it, or don't get much of it...then you're kinda left with a bit of emptiness after...
I felt no emptiness after this movie except for the fact that there was no way I could go and see it again right away with more people...
You get 3 Main scenes (as in 3 big Hulk getting down with his inner smash). All 3 each build up on top of each other, and slowly give you a little more and more.
It reminds me a bit of when I was watching the special features for Flash Point and for Kill Zone (SPL). Donnie Yen would say that he specifically designs the whole film around the action scenes. He will build each scene, slowly up the pace, and tease you a little more with each action scene until it just lets loose in the end.
You can feel this movie was designed around the Hulk. Everything was put in place and planned out in order to perfectly hand you a "brand new hero" without ever being a true origin story.
But it's built around the intensity and the suspense and the completely unpredictable Hulk himself.
It's not like the other parts without the Hulk are useless or pointless. Without them, everything with the Hulk would just be an angry green man who has never discovered spandex...
What I'm trying to say is, with Lee's Hulk, I felt it was built around Bruce and the people around him. He was always trying to get rid of this "curse" and was never willing to accept it. It seemed to be more about the emotions and inner turmoil of a man with this extremely dark side.
Which is fine, if that's the way you want to see it done.
The Incredible Hulk is about the Hulk becoming a HERO. About Bruce (hopefully) learning maybe not how to control it per se, but at least how to "aim" it...
It's not about a man running away from himself.
He's running away from everyone else until he hopefully doesn't have to run anymore...
But with the last shot of Norton in the film, you know this isn't some dude who is continuously wrestling with inner demons and depression and pathos...it's some dude who has come to terms with what he is, and he's more at peace with it...he's possibly even a bit happy about it...
Once again, I'm sure this is a little too random or rambling-esque, but I'm just kinda pulling out bits and pieces in my head and trying to do it a bit of justice...
Back to the 3 "scenes"
The first one, when the army first finds Banner living near the few shacks that weren't destroyed in Bad Boys 2...and they corner him in a bottling plant/warehouse.
Between the army, and some bad ass co-workers - Bruce is fucked - and has nowhere to go...
Except deep inside while his friend comes out to play...
This first scene with the Hulk takes place in a lot of shadows with bits of light and glimpses of the Hulk.
It's a nice tease.
It's also the first meeting between the Hulk and Blonsky (the always smarmy, sleazy, creepy looking Tim Roth)
Their second meeting (the one with the tear gas launched into the walk-way from the trailer) is after Blonsky has had a minor injection of some serum that was being developed during some sort of sequel war...
Blonsky actually holds his own for a brief moment...that is until another moment when The Hulk hoofs him in the chest and sends him crashing (hard like a muthafucka) into a tree...
Blonsky crumples, and we later find out that his bones are more like mashed potatoes and he's just a big bloody mess...
Their 3rd meeting, is of course, the big Hulk Vs. Abomination...
And this is truly what I was talking about when I said that this is a superhero fight...
Arguably, my biggest problem with Iron Man is that when we finally got to the big climactic fight, it suddenly seemed over. It was too quick. Which is a bit of a problem with a lot of big budget films. They sometimes seem to blow their load on everything leading up to the end, sometimes the part that should matter most, doesn't get all the attention or detail it deserves.
And this goes back to what I was saying about the film being built around the Hulk action scenes.
Like Donnie Yen said, when he makes his Hong Kong films, they don't usually have that much money, so they can never have too many huge action scenes.
But that's okay, because in an action film, the scene that is supposed to stand out the most (unfortunately a lot of the time it's for the worse) is the climax. That's where everything comes together. That's when everything gets tied up. And that's when everybody just lets the fuck loose. It's one of the last things the audience will remember...you want them to remember it for all the right reasons.
So Yen would make sure that all the earlier scenes built up to the amazing climax - it made it all worthwhile.
The Incredible Hulk does NOT blow it's load early.
They made sure that their climactic battle, would be running through the audiences head for a long time after.
And it is...
When you finally get to the true "HULK SMASH!" moment, it's well worth it...because he truly does smash...and smash and smash and smash...wherein in Ang's Hulk he jumped...and jumped and jumped and jumped...this one trades all the jumping for smashing...
And I must say, the worst bits of cgi were scenes that usually seem to look bad in most films...for some reason...my buddy I went with said the same thing...it's the cgi city view from the helicopter thing. Flying through the city and what-not...it always looks like a bit of a flight simulator...but if that's what they needed to do in order to make the Hulk appear as a real character, I'm fine with that. He interacts and mingles with the real actors as well as Kong and/or Gollum. His skin isn't the constant one green shade like previously - it's more like real skin that's a different color. Like that dude that was on Oprah, with the blue skin. It would still have some different colors and shades and depths to it depending on the kind of light...and it was spot on...
I'll need to really sit down and try to focus my thoughts better in order to write something a little more proper and coherent...but I'm willing to try and answer any questions people might have...
I also will have to see this and Iron Man again, to see which one I enjoy more in the end...
Of course Downey's performance in Iron Man is hands down brilliant (as well as his brief moment in Hulk...which shows off exactly the kinda sparks we might see between Hurt and Downey in the future...just a few lines shared and they already clicked...), and Norton's in Hulk are mostly a polar opposite...which I can see gelling well together down the road...
But
I like that Norton wasn't all depressed and sorrowful the whole time...he had a bit of spark and wit to him. And he has a way of conveying intensity and calmness with the same simple glare.
It's nothing too flashy for him like some of his previously lauded roles - but it's a fine line. He's not too geeky. Or too nerdy. Or too depressed. Or too Emo. Or too stalkerish.
He has his issues, and he deals with them, but he still tries to exist in a normal way.
I will say I think Incredible Hulk suffers a bit less from the whole origin-itis thing that so many comic book films seem they need to inflict upon themselves.
And for certain ones, it's kinda unavoidable.
Iron Man did it well, but for that type of film and character, it did need to have some sort of setup.
But with The The Incredible Hulk, I feel that even if there wasn't the previous one, this one still could've done it the exact same way it did now.
You get a brief setup of what happened, kind of, in the opening title sequence.
Then we're into the movie.
So you don't have to endure Bruce getting his powers...discovering his powers...learning his powers...etc...
But, that's not to say this isn't an Origin film.
It's not the origin of one man and his powers...
It's the origin of one man with powers becoming a hero...and I think in the end, that's what makes it so enjoyable...
And I'm not saying any of these other heroes didn't eventually become heroes...they did...that's what it's all about...
But I don't know, it was just nice to see things done differently...
You get a few little moments of exposition throughout so it helps you understand a bit more about what happened...in case you came in a few minutes late.
But it's nice, because with him already having the powers, we can jump into the action quite early and get things going...then fill in a few blanks here and there throughout...
And Hulk's true hero shot at the end...with his foot pinning down The Abomination...cops and civilians all gathered around staring in awe...and the roar...just before he takes off...really gives you something to smile about...and something to shiver about...
So yeah...what else...there's bits of humor...nothing goofy like cgi animals or monkeys swinging.
Just a few small moments or reactions or quips that keep it light enough in between the intensity to make it the perfect summer escape film.
It never takes itself too seriously, but it does treat all the subject matter and the fantastical elements seriously. And I think that's a big problem with some films. Especially since more and more big name and/or talented directors and stars and what-not are working on these types of films.
Sometimes I think people try to get a little too serious with films like these cause they feel that if they don't, it might be beneath them, or seem cheesy, or something...but then they end up taking/sucking all the fun out of it...
And I'm not just talking about comic book films...but many and any type of genre films...
It's a difficult job to be able to have everybody involved buy into the world and the characters you're creating, and to take it seriously, but still know that in the end, they're there to entertain as well.
The Incredible Hulk doesn't goof off or get all cheesy...even the few lines spoken by the Hulk were fine with me...because they could've just as easily made him some wise-cracking behemoth...but they don't...
But, in the end, Louis Letterier and his band of merry sapiens know that they are making a comic book movie...and that's exactly what I (a non comic reader, but a big comic film fan) could've asked for.
Where's this damn poll...?
At this point...a feel like anything less than a 9 would be PUNY!!!
. Regardless, I will be seeing The Incredible Hulk opening weekend. 
