The Hulk: A monster of a good time

Note: Before we start the review of The Hulk, I would first like to get something off my chest. I would like to express my hatred and utter disgust at the sudden (and hugely strange) popularity of the Chinese TV show, Meteor Garden, and the band that stars in it, F4. I have no idea why anyone would watch this show and its characters like Dao, I mean, Sow Ming Tsu (Ha, ha! A "sow" is a female pig!) and Wazu Lei, or whatever the hell their names are. I am also very irritated and annoyed that F4 songs are dominating the music charts. Why vote for a band whose English vocabulary consists of only two words: "Oh" and "baby"? And most of all, their fans don’t even understand a word they say (except for "oh" and "baby", obviously). So if for any reason they had a song with the term "F-ck you!" in it (in Chinese, of course) directed to their fans, the zombies would undoubtedly keep texting in their votes. Nevertheless, I guess this bizarre phenomenon will continue to sweep the nation, taking the souls of anyone who happens to like their so-called "music." To their fans who probably hate my guts by now, then start typing your hate mail, but I urge everyone who hasn’t succumbed to their terrifying, traumatizing, blood-curdling noise: We must fight this plague!

Anyway, now that I got that off my chest, let’s continue with the review.

You’d think The Hulk would just be another comic book movie: a big, dumb, green monster eating up the box-office. You might have gotten the box-office part right, but it definitely isn’t dumb. It may even be the furthest thing from dumb when it comes to comic book movies. Directed by the great Ang Lee, helmer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Hulk revolutionizes the comic book superhero genre and takes it to a whole new level, a place we probably haven’t even dreamed a movie like this could go.

Dr. David Banner (Nick Nolte), a scientist working for the US government, is on the verge of a breakthrough, but needs to test his experiment on human subjects to be able to complete it. But when the military denies his request to do so, he has no other choice but to test it on himself, injecting whatever chemicals he has for the experiment into his body. The military is unaware of what he is doing, and when his wife Edith tells him they are having a baby, the chemicals in Dr. Banner’s body have already been transferred into the child’s, making little Bruce a somewhat experimental guinea pig of his father. His wife and the military still oblivious, the doctor observes Bruce’s many, shall we say, abnormalities, like turning green in some areas when he cries and not feeling anything when he gets hurt. But the military gets suspicious, and when they break into his lab, they realize what he has been doing. They threaten to put him away if they find anything else, so he runs right to his wife and tells her what he has been doing to their son. In such shock and fear, Edith is now on the verge of tears, but when Dr. Banner gets a kitchen knife and attempts to kill his son (to hide the evidence), she pleads to him, and when he refuses, she gets in between her son and the knife, sacrificing her life in the process.

Many years have passed and Bruce (Eric Bana) is now a scientist at Berkeley University with ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). His whole life he’s been told that his parents died when he was little. But one day, Bruce absorbs a normally deadly amount of gamma radiation during a lab experiment gone wrong, but to the shock of everyone, he survives. Little did he know that the gamma radiation unleashed the chemicals inside of him and triggered something in his body that makes him become the Hulk when he loses his temper. He suffers strange, unexplained effects and is unaware that every time he gets mad, he turns into a big, green giant that demolishes the city. The military, led by Betty’s father General Ross (Sam Elliot), the same person who exposed Bruce’s father, is called to handle the situation. But the military doesn’t understand what is happening to Bruce’s body, and only Betty and Bruce’s supposedly dead father may be able to save him.

The Hulk can hardly be described as a comic book action movie. Sure, it has some very visually pretentious fight scenes, but that doesn’t even make up a third of its very long running time (137 minutes). The film should be marketed as a drama, as its melancholic storyline and superb performances don’t fit in an action movie. Eric Bana is brilliant as the quiet and reserved Bruce Banner, the beautiful-as-always Jennifer Connelly gives an outstanding performance as Betty Ross and, the drunk driving charges and hideous mug shot aside, Nick Nolte is inspired as Dr. David Banner.

But the real star player of The Hulk is director Ang Lee, whose flawless style and technique gives the film its edge. He is more occupied with art than action; his use of multi-panel split screens gives the film the feel of an artsy indie film with a big budget. His artistic eye is amazing, especially when it comes to the editing that is elegantly and so beautifully shot.

The Hulk is a breakthrough in cinematic filmmaking. Its mix of art, stylistic elegance and breathtaking action makes it the year’s most profound action spectacle.

Bottom Line: The Hulk is an intelligent, exciting, thought-provoking action film for people who hate action films.

Grade: B+

To Do List

Movies

• Watch Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. I can’t think of any reason why anyone would miss this promising action-comedy sequel starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bernie Mac and…Demi Moore! Demi Moore has finally made her comeback! And she plays the villain! That already should be the reason to see this movie.

• Watch Adaptation. This wonderfully weird and quirky film about a screenwriter trying to adapt a book into a movie. It stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, who won his Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for playing toothless orchid enthusiast Laroche.