The Hulk (2003/Universal
Blu-ray)
Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C- Film: C+
Let’s start by saying that The
Hulk is NOT as bad of a film as people have made it out to be. Does it make other super hero films green
with envy? No, but The Hulk is not nauseatingly bad either. Ang Lee’s venture into superherodom was a bad
choice; in fact, Ang Lee is a bad choice in general, but The Hulk especially. The
film had the money to back it and the cast to support it, but lacked the vision
and quality director to guide it. The
film in many ways was lost in its own green skin. With The
Hulk, Ang Lee put old elements, new elements, and flat out bad elements
into a cinematic blender and hoped for the best. What the world got was a superhero film that
strayed too far from its comic book origins and too close to what Ang Lee
thought a “superhero movie was.” You may
wonder how after all this criticism, how the film could be “not that bad;” well
it all boils down to other films are much worse. If it was not for the great cast and big
budget, the horrible directing and bad CGI would have surely SMASHED the film;
but for whatever reason the film stays afloat with the few good components it
did contain.
For a synopsis and different point on the film refer to an earlier
review of The Hulk at the link below:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4834/The+Hulk+(2003/HD-DVD)
For being a somewhat sub par film the technical features are surprisingly
solid. The picture is presented in a
vibrant and colorful 1080p High Definition 2.35 X 1 Widescreen that
demonstrates a good use of deep blacks with no compression or artifacting;
obviously coming for great source material.
The sound is equally impressive in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Surround (with special features in Dolby Digital 2.0) that utilizes the entire
soundscape of all speakers; emphasizing each sound from the loudest ‘boom’ to
the slightest ‘ping.’
The extras are the same as those found on HD DVD reviewed elsewhere on
this site. The extras to recap are a
Feature Commentary with Director Ang Lee, Deleted Scenes, Evolution of The Hulk, The
Incredible Ang Lee, The Dog Fight
Scene, The Making of The Hulk,
and The Unique Style of Editing Hulk. After seeing the film the extras do not seem
too appealing; why watch more of something that was not all too great to begin
with? On top of not wanting to view them
in the first place; the extras are lackluster and drab as they guide the viewer
through the films evolution from beginning to end. Whereas it is interesting to see Ang Lee’s
thought process and direction (however misguided it was), it does not surmount
to anything that will knock the viewers’ socks off.
Is the film absolutely awful? No,
but this reviewer would not run out to buy it either. In the end, the film could have been much
better as is evident from the newer Edward Norton Hulk film. There are elements that worked and many more
that didn’t; leaving a ton of angered fans.
And you don’t want to see comic fans angry…
- Michael P. Dougherty II
