I remember back when I first heard that Hulk was being made into a motion picture. At the time I was rather excited, as I grew up watching the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV Show and really loved it. But then a bit later a director by the name of Ang Lee was hired on to helm the film. I vividly remember my first thoughts: "He is going to ruin it!" At the time I'd only seen two other Ang Lee films, "The Ice Storm", which was a fine film, but nothing spectacular and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (Which personally I thought was a complete waste of time). So, yeah, I'll be the first to admit that I judged the film before I'd even seen it, but I knew his directing style and it just wasn't going to fly with "Hulk". After seeing the preview I was less than thrilled with the special effects, but even still, it looked like it might be fun and just maybe he'd prove me wrong. Sadly, he did not.
In some respects, the film was better than expected, but not many. For instance, I thought the special effects were much better than they originally looked in the trailers...it may have been that they were in context within the film, maybe they had more time to work on them, or maybe I'd just come to terms with them, I don't know. But in any case I thought they looked pretty damn good at certain points and rarely looked terrible.
It is my personal opinion that in order to make a really good comic-to-film adaptation you need to base the film in reality and then throw in some border-line far-fetched sci-fi and finally some fantastic characters, all without going too far. In my opinion Ang Lee went too far with the fantastic-ness of Hulk. Bullet-proof...OK, maybe. Being able to hurl himself miles in a single bound...I don't think so. It's not a major plot point in the film by any means, so I could get passed it, but it was just a little too much for me...it made him look a little too cartoonish.
The fact that you have to watch quite a bit of character development before you get to see the green beast didn't bother me too terribly much, but the editing, the acting and the way the story was told did bother me. I really didn't like the whole comic-book-editing that he tried in the film. Sometimes it worked, but other times it was too distracting and made it painfully hard to "get into" the film. Personally, I dislike any editing that reminds me that I'm watching a film and that this is not reality.
As far as the acting talent goes, I thought it was less than impressive. Sam Elliott is usually a great actor, but I found him incredibly annoying in this film, like he was acting overly angry throughout the entire film. Eric Bana was OK, but I didn't buy his angry moments, he just didn't pull it off. Jennifer Connolly did a fine job however, I can't say anything bad about her. Josh Lucas was decent, but nothing spectacular. Nick Nolte was also decent, but very annoying at times, more due to the dialog than his acting abilities.
And the last order of business is the actual story used to bring "Hulk" to life. For the most part, I thought the story was actually pretty good with some really good ideas...but then again, there were some god-awful ideas too. The entire last 20 minutes of the film was HORRIBLE, just plain RIDICULOUS (special effects were pretty good though). As one other reviewer on this site said, it seemed like they ran out of ideas so they slapped together something to get the film released, while not bothering to think that perhaps this just doesn't make any sense. There were also other minor story points throughout the film that either didn't make sense, seemed silly, or just plain didn't work.
I'd also like to say a little something about the soundtrack. The soundtrack was really good, but way too repetitive, I was in shock how many times the main theme was used. It sounded good, but too much of a good thing makes it not a good thing anymore.
All in all this could have been a really good film with a different director. Ang Lee may be a good director within certain genres, but comic-based films is not one of them. I'd place this film somewhere between Daredevil, Punisher and Elektra as far as quality goes. Far below Spider-man (1&2), X-Men (1&2...and probably 3), Fantastic Four, and Batman Begins. Although, it was far better than Catwoman. I guess I can say this, if you are a die-hard fan of Ang Lee and like experimental films, then you might like this film. If you want a fast-paced, fun comic-book film, this is probably not the film for you.
In some respects, the film was better than expected, but not many. For instance, I thought the special effects were much better than they originally looked in the trailers...it may have been that they were in context within the film, maybe they had more time to work on them, or maybe I'd just come to terms with them, I don't know. But in any case I thought they looked pretty damn good at certain points and rarely looked terrible.
It is my personal opinion that in order to make a really good comic-to-film adaptation you need to base the film in reality and then throw in some border-line far-fetched sci-fi and finally some fantastic characters, all without going too far. In my opinion Ang Lee went too far with the fantastic-ness of Hulk. Bullet-proof...OK, maybe. Being able to hurl himself miles in a single bound...I don't think so. It's not a major plot point in the film by any means, so I could get passed it, but it was just a little too much for me...it made him look a little too cartoonish.
The fact that you have to watch quite a bit of character development before you get to see the green beast didn't bother me too terribly much, but the editing, the acting and the way the story was told did bother me. I really didn't like the whole comic-book-editing that he tried in the film. Sometimes it worked, but other times it was too distracting and made it painfully hard to "get into" the film. Personally, I dislike any editing that reminds me that I'm watching a film and that this is not reality.
As far as the acting talent goes, I thought it was less than impressive. Sam Elliott is usually a great actor, but I found him incredibly annoying in this film, like he was acting overly angry throughout the entire film. Eric Bana was OK, but I didn't buy his angry moments, he just didn't pull it off. Jennifer Connolly did a fine job however, I can't say anything bad about her. Josh Lucas was decent, but nothing spectacular. Nick Nolte was also decent, but very annoying at times, more due to the dialog than his acting abilities.
And the last order of business is the actual story used to bring "Hulk" to life. For the most part, I thought the story was actually pretty good with some really good ideas...but then again, there were some god-awful ideas too. The entire last 20 minutes of the film was HORRIBLE, just plain RIDICULOUS (special effects were pretty good though). As one other reviewer on this site said, it seemed like they ran out of ideas so they slapped together something to get the film released, while not bothering to think that perhaps this just doesn't make any sense. There were also other minor story points throughout the film that either didn't make sense, seemed silly, or just plain didn't work.
I'd also like to say a little something about the soundtrack. The soundtrack was really good, but way too repetitive, I was in shock how many times the main theme was used. It sounded good, but too much of a good thing makes it not a good thing anymore.
All in all this could have been a really good film with a different director. Ang Lee may be a good director within certain genres, but comic-based films is not one of them. I'd place this film somewhere between Daredevil, Punisher and Elektra as far as quality goes. Far below Spider-man (1&2), X-Men (1&2...and probably 3), Fantastic Four, and Batman Begins. Although, it was far better than Catwoman. I guess I can say this, if you are a die-hard fan of Ang Lee and like experimental films, then you might like this film. If you want a fast-paced, fun comic-book film, this is probably not the film for you.