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THE INCREDIBLE
HULK
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Blonsky becomes the Abomination, a manifestation of his evil and sadistic violence, while The Hulk becomes the more controlled being who can grasp his beastial affliction thanks in part to Betty, who literally tames the unabashed model of raw male emotion and urges. Most of the film is built around Banner running from the government looking to capture, cage, and dissect him while covering up their own accident in the process. When the Abomination finally emerges in the streets and seeks a “Real fight” i.e. his only true nemesis and equal in strength, body mass, and power, it becomes the dominant beast battling the opposing beast in a fight for the lives of city residents. Banner must sacrifice his humanity in order to save the very people who wanted to hurt him. Not to mention the trailer doesn’t fool us. There is a rather fantastic showdown in New York City between The Hulk and The Abomination as Penn pays respects to all fans even allowing the Hulk to scream his famous two word catch phrase. LeTerrier doesn’t pull off the complex look at trauma and childhood pain Lee does, but for the people still convinced Marvel has dumbed down this franchise, there’s still plenty of psychological undertones to keep us debating for hours, and for that it gets an A for effort. And the cameo in the finale is also a nice nod to folks who have committed to the Marvel gallery for decades, and a sign post leading into a (hopefully) landmark franchise of superheroes protecting New York City. Kudos.
Sometimes he wants to help the Hulk, and next we discover he wants to use him for a super soldier serum. One moment he’s an honorable soldier, the next he’s a scheming US politician. Half the time Emil Blonsky seems distrusting of his government angered at their misinformation and despising their policies, and the next moment he’s prepared to trust them without question and abide by their quick solutions for war. Betty contributes nothing beyond reacting (typical Liv Tyler acting duties) and screaming “No!” and “Bruce!” every other minute. And then there’s Mr. Blue who Penn can never decide is exploiting Bruce, or truly trying to help him in his infliction. If Penn would only decide where to take his characters, LeTerrier’s movie wouldn’t feel so confused and jarring. Penn seems to be riding the line between Lee’s psychological dissertation, and LeTerrier’s simplistic character tones, thus each and every character is everything at once; villains and heroes. Protagonists and antagonists. Meanwhile he also wants to focus on Bruce’s efforts to keep The Hulk at bay, but also seems obliged to keep the story moving for fear of boring the audience. That keeps his script poorly paced, in the end.
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After the unfair lambasting of the disgustingly underrated and under
appreciated “Hulk” from director Ang Lee, I found myself brutally
conflicted on Louis Leterrier’s reboot (Remake? Revision? Restart?),
because frankly, it was an apology to fans on a movie that didn’t need
one. Lee tried something new, and was punished for it. Sure, Leterrier
goes for the obvious, he goes for the simplistic, he shoots for the
predictable, but that doesn’t mean “The Incredible Hulk” isn’t an
entertaining movie. While I will be faithful to Ang Lee’s vision of the
Hulk, Leterrier puts up a good argument for his version, too. Paying
subtle lip service to Ang Lee’s interpretation, “The Incredible Hulk” is
a chase film where Bruce Banner is now living in hiding and forced to
run from the government who is stalking him and hoping to bring him in
before he hurts someone badly. Both parts “The Wolfman” and “The Bourne
Identity,” LeTerrier turns Banner into a complex and interesting tragic
hero with Edward Norton almost perfectly taking off what Eric Bana
perfected. Now a man anxious to control his emotions, he becomes the
ultimate repressed male in an aggressive society attempting to stay at
peace when violence lurks at every corner tempting him. His persona as
the Hulk is almost a seductive urge, and one that he invokes almost like
a sinfully desirable id that is his one and only natural state of being.
We’re still not at that point in CGI
where the Hulk can look like anything other than a computer
generated character, and for all the slack Ang Lee’s hulk received
Leterrier’s version looks no different. He looks like an overgrown
computer generated monstrosity with almost no resemblance to the
actual man. And while these insignificancies can be ultimately
ignored, the simple fact is that the engineers behind this movie
never work for as much consistency as the aforementioned director.
Why does Bruce’s goatee disappear, and hair extend when he becomes
The Hulk? It’s never explained, but it’s enough of a continuity
error to yank even the most unbiased movie goer out from the
narrative, instantly. It sounds like I’m being nitpicky, but I
simply found it unusual. As for the writing, most of the time Penn
can never decide what motivates his characters, which leaves the
audience conflicted in where to ally themselves. Captain Ross is
sometimes the doting concerned father forced to choose his military
duties over his daughter, and other times he’s exploiting his
daughter to get to the Hulk.
