Main cast: Eric Bana (Bruce Banner), Jennifer Connelly (Betty Ross), Sam Elliott (General Thunderbolt Ross), Josh Lucas (Talbot), and Nick Nolte (Dr David Banner)
Director: Ang Lee
Some things shouldn’t be dramatized. Look, I like The Incredible Hulk. I always thought he’s an adorable extension of man’s destructive tendencies captured on comic. One can argue that it’s also about one’s inner conflict, although I always find these tedious justification of Hulk’s raison d’etre reaching a little too far. He’s just a silly green guy who smashes things while saying “Hulk – smash!” and I cheer him for it.
Now, look at what Ang Lee is doing. Apparently he believes that he’s directing the new Apocalypse Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Triumphant Now! hybrid movie that will change life and make us all feel more enlightened when we leave the theaters. Come on, we watch this movie for the special effects, the non-stop action, the beautiful hotties! Don’t give us this shallow two-hour-plus agonizingly slow borefest masquerading as “deep thoughts”.
Focusing on Bruce Banner’s turning into the Hulk, this movie agonizingly crawls over his childhood, his teenage years, his adult years, his love story with Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly, still reprising her “All you need is love!” schlock fest from A Beautiful Mind), and on and on, Hulk is a humorless piece of claptrap that tries so hard to come off as more credible than it is. It is as if Ang Lee feels that old-fashioned fun is beneath him and he is directing a pretentious film for Cannes instead. Finally, when the Hulk does show up, it is so cartoonish and badly done – complete with ugly shorts – that I finally burst into laughter for the first time during the whole movie.
An overlong bore all about repressed memories, evil fathers, and Eric Bana sporting surprisingly huge ears, this movie seems to be laboring under the delusion that it is some pretentious award-bait movie. Thanks to Ang Lee not being able to keep his delusions of grandeur in check to make a fun movie brimming with life and excitement, Hulk is just a big steaming pile of green poo.
