Movie Review — The Hulk

by John Hawkins | June 23, 2003 10:41 am

Movie Review — The Hulk: I did read a few Hulk comic books when I was a kid and I also watched the old Hulk TV show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. So quite naturally, I was looking forward to catching the new Hulk to see what they could do with today’s special effects.

Well, I’m sorry to say that while the CGI driven Hulk did not disappoint, pretty much everything else in the movie did. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the movie was just plain old boring the entire time the Hulk wasn’t on the screen. Eric Bana who played Bruce Banner was tedious & uninteresting. His character wasn’t funny, witty, compelling, entertaining, or sympathetic, he was just there killing time until the Hulk showed up. The other characters that got significant screen time, Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, Sam Elliot as Jim Ross, & Nick Nolte as David Banner, weren’t exactly fascinating either. They did the best the could with the material they were given, but I’m not sure anyone could have done much with the dull and uninspiring script of the film.

Now I’ll grant you that the Hulk was impressive (although I’m not sure why they broke from the comic and TV show and made him 15 ft. high). I particularly enjoyed the scenes where the Hulk was duking it out with the US military. Watching the Hulk take on tanks and helicopters was a lot of fun and frankly they should have done lot more of it. Unfortunately, the moviemakers even managed to ruin some of the time the Hulk was on the screen by matching him up with ridiculous opponents. At one point, the Hulk actually fights…are you ready for this…3 giant dogs including a giant poodle. Yes that’s right, a giant poodle. I guess all the giant baby dear and humongous chipmunks were all too busy to make it to the movie. The last fight scene of the movie which should have been the grand finale wasn’t very good either because again, the Hulk was fighting another substandard opponent (although I don’t want to give it away and spoil the film for you). Had they simply played this film more like a Godzilla movie with the Hulk rampaging through cities and brawling with the US military, the action would undoubtedly have been much better.

So to sum it up, a few excellent action scenes weren’t enough save the movie from the dreadfully dull dialogue that sucked the life out of this movie. Thumbs down…

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