Review

Review Date: 15-June-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Hollywood should give up on the Hulk.

It seems to me the story of Bruce Banner, the unfortunate scientist who spawned a beast that subsumes him whenever he gets mad, is best suited to serial form. When told over time the story can illuminate Banner's remarkable suffering and even more remarkable hope, allowing readers or viewers to partake of that hope by dangling his longing before them. Banner is lonely, persecuted, homesick, and striving, and you feel sorry for him. That is his lasting appeal.

Superhero movies might be considered serials because they are designed to launch or continue franchises, but a movie by nature requires some degree of resolution. Maybe that is why villains are so important, to focus each widely spaced chapter. Maybe that is also why the weaponry and special effects take center stage, to fill the void where narrative depth should have been. In any case, the blockbuster formula succeeds less for Banner's saga than most because what it has to offer in lieu of fulfillment is boring. At the risk of pissing him off let me come right out and say it: the Hulk is a snore. He is big. He is green. He is strong. So what? Banner is more interesting, and even he will not admit they are connected.

At least, Banner denies the connection in this second attempt to make the Hulk a box office smash. Is the "incredible" behemoth Banner's rampaging id or a demon that lurks within his body? It is not exactly clear. What is clear is that the green machine is immediately put at a disadvantage by the introduction of the riveting Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. A brisk montage during the opening credits relates how he accidentally created the Hulk and had to flee from the U.S. military and the arms of his beloved. Now hiding out in a crowded (and visually amazing) Brazilian city, Banner devotes his free time to emailing a fellow scientist about a solution to his problem and exploring techniques to control his emotions. His anonymity and composure are demolished when an Army general (William Hurt) sends a team to capture him. The first shadowy images of the Hulk thus aroused are quite dramatic, chiefly because its appearance represents such a setback for its host.

Yet one man's setback is another man's opportunity. A commando on the mission (the ever-hatable Tim Roth) gets a jones for the Hulk's power and begins molecular modification to acquire it. While he is pursuing his dream, Banner returns to the States and his former partner in love and lab experiments (Liv Tyler) who has data which might prove valuable. It is unfortunate that Norton and Tyler have zero chemistry, because Banner's inability to reclaim his passion could have given the movie some pathos. As it is, Tyler merely lends a sweet, dopey presence to an increasing number of scenes with the Hulk, who is as much a drip as a hothead. The eventual clash between him and Roth's newly hatched "abomination" lacks excitement because there is no vitality in either. It is filmatic fluff, lackluster legerdemain. A pulse may beat in Banner but not the Hulk, and when the latter fills the screen the movie loses its force.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.