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THE HULK: AN EXCEPTIONAL COMIC BOOK RECREATION
by: Edwin Bartolome
 Watching The Hulk on screen virtually transported me back to my childhood
as it was a virtual recreation of one of my favorite pastimes of those days – comic
book reading. Director Ang Lee’s movie about a government scientist and
his green-skinned alter ego was immensely enjoyable to watch, and this was
mainly due to his successful utilization of several traditional onscreen techniques
to transform the movie into one giant live-action comic book. His use of the
split-screen and pop-up window techniques to simulate comic book panels was
a brilliant touch. It was almost a novel idea but come to think of it, these
techniques have been available to moviemakers since the advent of talking movies,
but never have they been used to such level of effectiveness as in this movie.
The actors did their parts well for the most part and I couldn’t see
a flaw big enough as to warrant a complaint. Eric Bana was a sensitive Dr.
Bruce Banner and I found his character development to be quite adequate. We
are treated to several flashbacks that explain his backstory and we get insightful
glimpses of the genesis of his deep-seated fears and questions about the world.
I think this is how Dr. Banner ought to be portrayed and I see lots of parallelisms
of his portrayal of the role to that of the well-liked mild-mannered actor
Bill Bixby whom I caught on numerous episodes of “The Incredible Hulk” TV
series when I was a little kid.
Jennifer Connelly’s Betty Ross was the tender damsel in the comic book.
She did her part well and provided most of the emotional backbone of the story.
Her relationship with her father, General Ross, and their involvement with
Bruce Banner and the Hulk was the true crux of the comic book and it played
itself out quite well in this movie.
I wasn’t really familiar with the character of Bruce Banner’s
father in the comic book so I won’t be able to say whether Nick Nolte’s
portrayal was worthy of the book but I felt it was excessively imbued with
drama. A scene that particularly stuck to me was that long confrontation between
father and son in the sprawling military base. As I was watching that overly
melodramatic episode, I half-felt that I was on some Broadway play listening
to thespians in their optimum emotive state. Though I think this may have been
deliberately staged to hammer across the depth of emotional baggage carried
by the elder Dr. Banner, I still felt as though it was too much.
Which brings us to the true central character of the movie, the emerald-skinned
behemoth known as The Hulk. I wholeheartedly applaud the technical team that
brought this enigmatic character to life. I think they genuinely did their
best to make the computer-generated giant as life-like and as realistic as
possible. But alas, I was still thinking of this character as CGI even as he
was already unloading buckets of tears and his face reflected that “wounded
dog” look. It could have been his virtually-perfect physique, or his
unnatural-looking green shade, I don’t know. I think they could have
achieved better results had a live action actor been cast as the Hulk.
I feel like “The Hulk” is a modern-day remake of the “gentle
monster” movie a la King Kong, with Jennifer Connelly getting into the
role of the damsel-in-distress, the desert substituting for New York City,
and the helicopters reprising their roles as the monster-hero’s tormentors.
It has a basic plot, is unlikely to occur in real life, but has quite a broad
appeal, nevertheless. In that sense, I think “The Hulk” has accomplished
what it set out to do, that is, to suspend disbelief and get the audience to
cheer for the virtual hero.
All characters are © and ™ of their respective
companies.
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