Seth Paxton
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 1998
- Messages
- 7,585
The Hulk
7.5 of 10
Here is what I said in the Hulk thread (which was also lost and reposted). I will move this long review to the Hulk review thread once it is posted and edit this back to a simple blurb/pointer to that thread.
7.5 of 10
Here is what I said in the Hulk thread (which was also lost and reposted). I will move this long review to the Hulk review thread once it is posted and edit this back to a simple blurb/pointer to that thread.
The problem is that the story is at times rather sloppy, and yes, some of the CGI is a little fake looking. However, much of the CGI problem lies more in the action being depicted than the CGI work itself. I found myself in total belief of most of the interaction, if not all of it, but also thinking that many moments were just goofy things to have happen. I loved the Hulk comics of the 80's, so that type of action did not bother me.
The film features some very Looney Toons styled dogs at one point, for example. And my reaction was less subdued than many of the laughs that some moments unintentionally received, like a moment when the Hulk is sent flying into a patch of desert. I was willing to look past those moments, but much of my audience wasn't. Take that as a warning.
But on the other hand the film has many good dialog/acting moments, especially Nolte's work. Lee has set a dark tone as has the script...that is an emotionally dark tone, not death and destruction (though there is a bit of that too). In fact, despite it's moments of action in the 2nd half, the film is much less an action film than CTHD was. In fact you might consider the tone of CTHD more than what you might expect from a summer action flick.
Elfman's score has his classic hero touches, yet also is more faithful to Lee's more Asian style of scoring (again think CTHD). I liked the effect.
Finally, Lee has gone fully with a comic cell/frame style. Almost constantly the film transistions between scenes in a way the shows or implies the various blocks you would see in a comic. It's very creative and consistent, and yet it also often seems in contradiction to the darker tone of the film.
Summerizing, CGI pretty good, some of the action and narrative is not so hot, other parts are rock solid. Good acting. Story wavers between interesting and silly (somewhat in the way Lost World did).
I give it a 7.5/10 at this point. It was no X2 or Spidey but better than Daredevil. In some ways it feels like a creative Ang Lee experiment, perhaps in a way that it might come to be seen as creative genius from an average initial reception. And I might be well in the minority by not loving it. We will see.
: worth seeing
