When I was collecting comics, I started by first collecting my favorites. Hulk was not one of my favorites. Though I had watched the Hulk on TV as a kid, I was not a big fan of watching a big green guy go around and smash things. I like good writing and smashing things for the sake of smashing things is, well, not exactly Shakespeare - its the comic equivalent of a Michael Bay film. But, eventually, somewhere down the line, I started buying Hulk comics because they began to write stories that were interesting and had the occasional throw-down to appease Hulk fans. I still wasn't a Hulk fan, but I enjoyed the Hulk comics because of the story.
The first Hulk movie was created to please the original Hulk fans. Hulk smash. See. Isn't that great? Not so much.
The second Hulk movie, however, pleased me. It threw down an easy to follow story that made the characters interesting and gave me a rooting interest. The villain is fun to watch and the action sequences were well done. Instead of taking the character and making him some sort of artistic force of destruction, they ran the character from the point of view of Bruce Banner (like the TV show and the better written comics did) and as a result, they gave the Hulk some depth as a character and some soul. And ultimately, when Hulk smash, we root him on because we now give a damn about his character. Really. Was that so hard?
Marvel has regained creative control over most of their properties after the twin fiascoes of X-3 and Spiderman 3 because they realized that all the special effects and actions scenes in the world can't beat a good, simple, story. So far this summer, we've seen Iron Man kick butt and now The Incredible Hulk follows in its wake of destruction. This is the summer of Marvel's resurgence.
To be honest, after seeing this movie, I was a little disappointed that there wouldn't be another Marvel superhero movie until next year or 2010. It even made me begin salivating for a Captain America movie - and that's something I thought I'd never say.
If you like super heroes, even slightly, go see The Incredible Hulk. Your faith in the comic book world on film will be restored.
3 comments:
For the "historical" reasons you mention, I was not enthused about the new film. I kept asking myself, "Why bother?"
Thanks for the review.
BTW, I look forward to Alaska photos.
Cheers.
this new Incredible Hulk is a lot more fun than the first one with Eric Bana; as usual Ed Norton has gravitated to a "split personality" role...
Yes. It was fun. But then comparing it to the first Bana Hulk is pretty cheap. I've made better Hulk movies than that with action figures and a Super 8 camera. ;)
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