A Little Too Much Talk And Not Enough Action?
One of the main criticisms to the Hulk film was that there was just too much slow, sad, talk. For a Hulk movie, you’d expect maybe something more along the lines of what the video game adaptations are; constant, optionally senseless, violence and destruction. I mean, it’s what most people’s vision of Hulk is.
Ang Lee took the story in a different direction providing a much slower and deeper based film about the origin of the Hulk and the relationships of Bruce Banner. It doesn’t make for as exciting a film to be sure, nor one that has as much replay value as the newer Hulk film, but I can appreciate what Ang Lee’s intentions were, I just think they were a little misplaced in this film about one of the most destructive Marvel characters.
The cast of Eric Bana, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, and Sam Elliott do a great job in their roles, however. Bana plays the normally mild mannered but sad Bruce Banner, Nick Nolte plays his mean old father who did various experiments on his son when he was young, Connelly plays Banner’s love interest, and Sam Elliott the hardened military commander. I always enjoy Sam Elliott’s work and Hulk is no exception to that.
So while this Hulk film may focus on drama more than action, that doesn’t alone make it a bad movie. I think what really brought the dark shadow over this movie was people’s expectations of a rip roaring destruction film with Hulk at its center; when those expectations weren’t met, even this respectable mix of drama and action weren’t sufficient and the film got a bad wrap. That’s not to say I think it’s a great film, either – for the most part it moves along too slowly for my taste.
Hulk Smash On Blu-ray
Hulk on Blu-ray is very well done. What you’ll notice first is how awesome the picture quality is. From a directional point of view, there are a variety of scenes with different degrees of lighting and colors. This translation on Blu-ray is outstanding in presenting the sharp details of every seen. Every color is sharp, there are no signs of compression, and the colors are wonderfully vibrant without being overly done.
A DTS-HD lossless audio track does a great job in capturing the essence of the quieter scenes, like those that are primarily dialogue. It also does a superb job with the more raucous scenes where the Hulk goes nuts.
Moving on the to the special features now:
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Audio Commentary with Director Ang Lee
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The Evolution of the Hulk – About fifteen minutes, in SD, this feature is cool for comic book fans like myself as it features Stan Lee, and others, talking about the history of the Hulk and his move to the big screen.
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The Unique Style of Editing Hulk – An SD presentation lasting only about five minutes talks about the various editing practices used in editing Hulk.
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The Incredible Ang Lee – Another SD piece about thirteen minutes long, this is really a useless feature where Ang Lee gets patted on the back for all his amazing work…
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Dog Fight Scene – SD, about ten minutes, this feature explores what went into creating this scene in the movie, from start to finish.
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Making of the Hulk – SD, about twenty-five minutes, explores thoughts from the cast and crew and CG guys about how great Hulk is and will do in theaters.
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Deleted Scenes – A total of six scenes, all left in SD, totaling about eight minutes; for those of you who didn’t think the film was too long already, these extra eight minutes are for you.