Review of Hulk (2003) by Kyle20Ellis — 17 Mar 2022

I do remember seeing this film on TV once, and other than the visuals, good music and two or three decent performances I didn't think much of it. I was considering a re-watch, but was advised by a very reliable and trust-worthy pen pal not to. But as I have said many times about other movies, I was curious. As I do love the director and think highly of the cast, I did finally give it a chance. And my initial reaction sadly hasn't changed.

I will give credit where it's due. It is an artistically tasteful film, with wonderful cinematography and editing and the effects are great. The score is also memorable and more importantly fits with the movies' tone. And I found Eric Bana very charismatic in his role, and I enjoyed Sam Elliot too.

Jennifer Connelly does okay with what she's got, but I didn't find her character as interesting, in fact she came across as unnecessary and vapid at points. Nick Nolte I like, but he overplays here and it doesn't help that his whole story was on the misconceived side and in a way feels like a different movie altogether.

I mostly liked Lee's direction too. I am very fond of Lee, he is a great director and has a very distinctive style which comes through loud and clear with Hulk, and I love his films. Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are two of my favourite movies of all time, I love the Ice Storm and Sense and Sensibility is one of the better period drama films I've seen.

Although he does do a decent enough job here despite a tendency to let his style get in the way of telling the story and making us connect to the characters(the only time I have felt this about him), sometimes even impressive, there are reasons why this is my least favourite film so far of his.

First off, I wasn't all that impressed by the action. Not that it was badly edited or choreographed, in fact these scenes are done with efficient style and the choreography doesn't look all that clumsy. It is all to do with tone, most of the action sequences here don't fit all that well with the feel of the overall film, the fight with the poodles is a prime example, which felt rather silly compared to the film's intensity.

The script has some brooding lines from Bana and Elliot, but some lines feel stilted or delivered in a bland fashion. Which brings me to the story, I loved the idea and had no problem with it. It also started off great. Its problems was that the more over-complicated it got, the more leaden the pace got too and the more things were left with little to no explanation, leading to one of the weakest and most disappointing endings I've seen for any comic book movie. Ridiculous is a more ideal way to describe it.

All in all, considering the director, concept and cast involved, Hulk was very disappointing and didn't live to hopeful expectations of improvement on re-watch.