Surrounded by unfavorable speculation regarding special effects, director Ang Lee’s “The Hulk” opened last Friday in theaters around the country. Despite negative assessments of the trailer by the Hulk-faithful, the film grossed an estimated $62.6 million according to CNN Money Web page.
The film, adapted from a popular comic book, tells the story of Bruce Banner, a man whose bottled rage manifests itself in the form of a violent transformation from man to hulking beast.
Australian actor Eric Bana stars as the emotionally distant and later unstable Banner. The movie portrays the Hulk as the result of an overly-ambitious scientist’s attempt at human biological regeneration. The scientist, David Banner (Nick Nolte), injects himself with his research and inadvertently passes the gene on to his son, Bruce.
By the use of scientific jargon, the audience must be convinced there is a vaild reason for the creation of the Hulk. Although the Hulk does not make his first appearance until 45 minutes into the movie, the audience is not teased to the point of rage.
The computer-generated images are surprisingly good. The movie is not as cartoon-like as the television trailers make it seem. The Hulk’s facial expressions are especially impressive, giving the Hulk the emotion that was completely lacking in Bruce Banner’s character.
The character of Bruce Banner was deplorable. Banner is a zombie before the Hulk comes into the movie, and the only change in his dry demeanor after the birth of the Hulk is his release of anger. Other than that, there is nothing passionate or redeeming about Banner’s character in the rest of the movie.
On the other hand, the Hulk, even with his inhuman green exterior, took all of the good characteristics of humanity and electrified them into an exaggerated state of brilliance. His rage demands compassion, and his frustration craves comprehension. But all of this is overshadowed by his love for Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), which is the real controlling force for the rest of his emotions. It tames him when he is most out of control, and guides him when he is most lost.
“The Hulk” does not just focus on Banner’s relationship with Ross. There is also a look at the lost and then rekindled relationship between Bruce and his father.
Nolte delivers a nice performance considering what he was given to work with. His character is never truly given the opportunity to develop. David Banner begins the movie as a concerned father who probably goes too far to advance his research, but by the end is raving about the government’s ongoing attempt to control the public’s collective mind. The motivations for his actions are left unknown throughout the entire movie.
Exciting action sequences make the movie fun to watch. The movie uses an abundance of split scenes in which the picture breaks up into many other pictures to show different views of the scene, or even different scenes at the same time, interrupting the film’s flow.
