Hulk 2.0
I was ready not to see The Hulk and if by some chance “The Happening” had been any good, I probably would not have seen it till on DVD and that would have been a mistake. The Hulk, like Iron Man earlier this summer, was very well made, produced, directed, andacted. It came as a total shock how good it was considering some of the strange reviews I saw of the movie, such as the ones imitating the Hulks limited vocabulary.
The last time around the CGI was cool eye candy but so fake it was laughable, but Eric Bana’s depiction of a scientist overloaded with gamma radiation just didn’t work at all for me. Nick Nolte seemed to be dragged out of a holding cell for the movie and although Connelly did a decent job as his girlfriend, there seemed to be no chemistry.
This time around though, Edward Norton does a great job as Bruce Banner. As some have said, he plays it without pretension. There is a sense of a real desperation in him as he experiments on his blood to rid himself of what he sees as an affliction or curse rather than something superhuman and a talent. the desperation though is often controlled by the breathing techniques he has learned as well as his years as a scientist.
Tim Roth does a great job as Emil Blonsky, a foil to Norton who likes the idea of so much power and resilience in his body that he will go through a number of painful injections to get what Banner already has. He plays his growing insanity well, understated, but with a tense desire to be a force with which to reckon.
William Hurt, aside from the mustache which looks like a cross between a mangy dog and worn out carpet, does a decent job as well as General Ross. He seems intent on bringing Banner back to the military base so that he can replicate Banner’s work in order to make more super soldiers. A sentiment that is echoed in Iron Man earlier this summer.
Finally. I could not finish talking about acting if I did not mention Tim Blake Nelson’s depiction of Samuel Sterns, who plays a doctor that Banner has been corresponding with in order to figure out a way to eradicate the gamma radiation from Banner’s system. Stern plays almost a comical mad scientist character in this movie who only sees all the potential benefits of Banner’s breakthroughs as opposed to Banner’s belief that this is some sort of an abomination of nature.
There is also a synergy in this movie that gives nods to the TV series and comic and brings, really, the best of those world together into the big screen and makes it a truly fun experience to watch. As someone who is not a Liv Tyler fan, I also liked her in this movie as she gave it an emotional depth that lacked in the other movie she was in a few short weeks earlier, the Strangers.
There were many great moments of this movie. Like the scene where the Hulk brings Liv Tyler to this rock outcropping during a rainstorm and lies her underneath it. There was a sense in this one that indeed a woman could calm the heart of a savage beast.
