A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Hulk (2003)

Date Viewed: 7/6

Details:

Eric Bana

Jennifer Connelly

Sam Elliott

Nick Nolte

Director: Ang Lee

Score: 0

The Review: Ang Lee -- director of such widely varied fare as Sense and Sensibility, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- has turned to Marvel comics for his material this time, adding to his diversity, but he has stumbled. Although a comic book series for some time, most of us grew up with Bruce Banner in his television avatar -- Bill Bixby when normal, Lou Ferrigno when green. The general theme should be (mythologically) familiar: irrespective of how he was originally mutated or transformed, he switches to a mean green machine when his adrenaline levels are tweaked, does ugly regrettable things (and occasionally helps folks out), and then fades to Bill and loses some of his memory. One of the things that Lee's Hulk does is to provide a (very) substantial amount of back-story, so much so that for awhile it seems that the major character is David Banner (Bruce's dad, here by Nick Nolte), and as it unfolds, the movie turns into a deep-regressive near-psychiatric experience of a suppressed past. That's all well and good -- both as the typical "where did this all start" backgrounder and as a long-winded prelude to multiple sequels (heaven forfend!) -- but it is much more than is necessary and over-long.

And that's the major flaw -- the pacing is erratic and the editing self-indulgent. This movie should have been 45 minutes shorter, and if so, might have held my interest better. Editing and multiple-view cuts are reminiscent of the TV episodes of "24" -- occasionally working, but more often not. The SFX are well-done and easy on the suspension of disbelief, but they cannot counter the annoyingly dysfunctional family and my lack of interest in the military-industrial complex. For awhile, I thought the science -- such as it is -- might offer some counteracting and redeeming value: How are scientists portrayed? Is there an interesting and feasible scientific hook? Where's the border between science and fiction? But no. They have this "thing" for centrifuges: all scientific wet-lab practice apparently must involve centrifuges, and this technique must be very important for all the on-screen time granted these trivial devices. And the gamma-ray source they filmed at Berkeley, verisimilitude par excellance, is in actuality a gamma-ray detector -- close, but no cigar!

Finally, the same complaint holds from the old TV show: "Where does he get his 10X size shorts?"

For the "in crowd," there are a few cute cameos (TV's Hulk form Lou Ferrigno, along with comic artist Stan Lee).

(10-Jul-03)

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