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Let’s thank our lucky stars that the military still hasn’t learned its lesson that tinkering with genetics and other non-traditional weapons technology has some bad results, because entertaining summer action movies are a nice side effect.
The 2008 version of “The Incredible Hulk” is welcome candy for those of us who are continually amused by unnecessary and rampant destruction on-screen courtesy the military-industrial complex. As hard as I looked, I couldn’t find Michael Bay’s name in the credits, however the film strictly adheres to the Bay School of Film’s motto “Time spent explaining stuff is time not spent exploding stuff.” Director Louis Letterier wastes absolutely no time working his way through the familiar Hulk back-story, so the pesky task of storytelling is out of the way by the end of the opening credits (not too unlike an episode of “Knight Rider”). Now, it’s time to break some stuff.
Our first location of destruction is Brazil (if you don’t count the dreamy smash-ups of the opening credits). There, we find the somewhat lanky Edward Norton (also a writer on the film) giving a fresh, unique performance as a meek Dr. Bruce Banner. He’s hiding out doing factory work while trying to cure his greenish skin condition brought on by high levels of stress, known as “incidents,” a real bummer at parties.
The evil General Ross (William Hurt) is hot on his trail and is employing maniacal special forces leader Emil Blonksy (Tim Roth) to help out. Ross’ greatest aspiration is to catch and dissect Banner so that he can breed a new generation of bio super soldiers for The Land of the Free. A few minutes into the film, The Hulk is tearing up the streets and rooftops of Rio and having a huge negative impact on the flow of green Brazilian soda. Hulk smashes everything in sight while thwarting his would-be captors and without much need for explanation wakes up in Mexico. Tired of breaking foreign-made junk, Letterier moves us immediately to the good ol’ US of A to break some American made stuff.
Enter Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) who has a somewhat mysterious relationship with Banner. No sooner do the two perform some real acting on the screen than the U.S. military shows up to completely destroy the college campus on which they’re standing, all in the pursuit of Banner’s blood. This formula repeats itself with fairly impressive results and CGI until we end up in heaven for all movie destruction, New York City (albeit not until after acting out a couple “King Kong” moments). About this time, innocent Hulk encounters a nemesis made in his vain, only stronger (wonder where we’ve heard this before formula before?). The Abomination is a super-sized, reptilian version of special forces leader Blonksy who uses his newfound power for the sake of evil and chaos with no authentic motivation necessary.
Hurt and Roth play their comic book villains right on, inhabiting a world that is seemingly detached from ours while Norton and Tyler actually feel human and accessible. It’s a nice balance and works well for this film.
At the end of the day, “The Incredible Hulk” is an incredible box office opportunity for destruction, not much more. But honestly, how much more do you need?
This is the second release from Marvel Studios, following the super hero performance of “Iron Man” earlier this year. If you loved Iron Man, you’re probably going to like “Hulk” pretty well, but you’re going to have to reduce your intake of gamma radiation and humor. Where “Iron Man” spouts a stream of humor and cleverness, the dark nature of “Hulk” allows for only a smattering of funny moments and irony (like Lou Ferrigno’s cameo as a security guard). More importantly, “Hulk” is the second building block of a series of films designed to overlap with one another and result in “The Avengers” in 2011 (and yet another epic paycheck for Samuel L. Jackson). You’ll want to keep an eye out for clues, such as references to Stark Industries, Nick Fury and a special serum or two… oh, and then there’s that little cameo by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) himself.
While significantly shy of “Iron Man,” “Hulk” still delivers the 1-2 comic book combo – developing a little bit of story and then breaking a whole lot of stuff. If you have that inner action junky inside you just waiting to be released, you should allow “The Incredible Hulk” to be your next “incident.”
8/5/2008 1:36 PM
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