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The Incredible Hulk DVD Review Director: Louis Leterrier Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Paul Soles. Screenplay: Zak Penn Cinematography: Peter Menzies, Jr. By Don Young The first thing seen after the Universal and Marvel Studios logos is an X-ray followed by a green cellular shot, more x-rays, cells and blood, green stuff, a skull and a fraction of a second shot of Ed Norton’s eyes, before the title comes up. Credits continue as quick cut scenes and still pictures tell the story of how Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) became the Incredible Hulk. News reports, scenes of the aftermath of the lab accident, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) in hospital, General Thaddeus “Thunderball” Ross (Wm. Hurt) in his search for Banner, and a metronome beating like a heart. Three minutes into the movie, the backstory is told, and the audience is deposited in a dark apartment with Banner after 158 days without incident, in Rocinha Favela – Brazil; an interesting shantytown built on a hillside. It’s hard to ignore a movie that begins with such a dynamic start. The action continues in a martial arts instruction and moves to an old bottling plant, where Banner works, as he learns Portuguese, and protects a beautiful girl from the plant bully. Most of the dialogue is in Portuguese with subtitles, which makes it seem real. We hardly notice, as the story has captured us and we are anxious to see what happens next. After Banner tries to create a cure to turn his green blood cells to red, and almost succeeds, the story jumps to Arlington, Virginia (the Pentagon) and off to a case of Gamma sickness in Milwaukee. And who should the victim be, but Stan Lee, the creator of the Hulk comic book, and the executive producer of the film. This could cause the audience to drop out of the story. There has been a lot of green in this movie, but then it is based on a comic book that goes back a generation or more. Stan Lee drinking a green soda and getting Gamma sickness is maybe not too far-fetched. The soda was bottled in Porto Verde, Brazil, which causes General Ross to mount an operation to attempt the capture of Banner. In case you missed it, ‘verde’ means green in Portuguese. And everything in this movie has a green shading, except for Banner’s red sweatshirt, which he loses early in the movie. The task force is assembled without delay, and as a bonus, includes Emil Blonsky, (Tim Roth), a Russian/British special ops soldier that has every medal possible, except those issued port mortem. So off they go in a green airplane, which even has green and red lights inside. We’re briefed on the operation on the trip. General Ross is precise, “Tranq him and bring him back.” They drive up to Banner’s neighbourhood, blow the door off his apartment, but are too late as he has just exited by the window. This leads to a chase through the town, across roofs and down alleys. When it appears Banner has lost them, who should he run into but the bully and his gang from the bottling plant. Now he has two gangs after him. When Banner hides in the bottling plant, the local gang finds him first and gives him a beating. The soldiers arrive about this time, and get to see the transformation to Hulk. The bully gets thrown through a pair of windows, and another local gang member dispatched. The soldiers try a different tact, firing tranquilizers by the hundreds at the big green Hulk, without success. In anger, the Hulk throws a huge tank down the plant, which seems to kill several soldiers and sprays the rest with green soda. Blonsky continues to fire at Hulk, who throws a forklift at him, and then uses a piece of machinery to break a hole in the wall, escaping into the green forest. Banner wakes up in the jungle in Guatemala, and hitches a ride to Mexico. After buying new clothes with money some kid gives him, he continues down a trail in the forest. Sixteen days later Banner is in Culver City, Virginia, looking none the worse for wear. He finds Betty sitting on a bench at the university, just as her boyfriend arrives. Banner gets shelter in a friend, Stanley’s (Paul Soles) pizza restaurant. He uses a pizza delivery ruse to get in the computer centre, past the guard, who is no other than Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk in the old TV series. Banner finds all the data he seeks is gone and decides to move on. Betty was thoughtful enough to copy the data, before it was wiped from the system. Meanwhile, Blonsky gets treated with a mild dose of the gamma to give him power more suitable for the Hulk challenge. Betty catches up to Bannister, and together they walk into another capture attempt. Lots of action, exploding humvees, and a helicopter crash. Hulk escapes with Betty. Blonsky was not up to the Hulk challenge and ends up in the hospital, where his enhanced power enables him to recover quickly, and receive additional gamma medication of increased strength. Banner and Betty move on to find Mr. Blue, Dr. Samuel Sterns, (Tim Blake Nelson), the scientist who is willing to help Banner find a cure. Will Bruce Banner survive the attempt to cure him? Will he escape the clutches of General Ross? How does Blonsky get turned into the Abomination: the huge and ugly character that is stronger than the Hulk? The movie is only two thirds done, and there is lots of action left, which gives sufficient reason to buy or rent this movie. There is much to like in this movie. It has a story that is culled from almost fifty years of comic book development, and is well written for the genre. The cinematography is as good as most movies and better than many. The characters are true to the comics and actors well chosen to portray them. The ending action sequence between the Hulk and Abomination is as good as any I have ever seen. This production used the best of the current stunts, special effects and visual effects (CGI) available from the best companies in their fields. Many of the filming locations were in Ontario, with the finale fight scene shot on Yonge Street in Toronto and Main Street in Hamilton. The bottling plant was in Hamilton, as was the hospital. The university was the University of Toronto, and the scene outside it was Morningside Park. The air base was CFB Trenton. Lots of local scenery dressed up to be someplace else. Being mostly shot in Ontario, there were many local actors in it. I especially enjoyed the performance of Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, as the crazy taxi driver in New York. I think he could have played Mr. Blue, Dr. Sterns, although Tim Blake Nelson’s performance was nothing less than excellent. A nice cameo was in the ending scene with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) from the Iron Man movie. It was like a teaser for the next Hulk movie, or perhaps the next Iron Man movie. Ed Norton was an excellent choice for Bruce Bannister, bringing a balanced performance to the role. He played the role as if he was really Bruce. Liv Tyler was equally suited to her role. As Betty Ross, she expressed the range of emotions needed to show what Betty was feeling, often without words. Her performance in the almost love scene with Bruce was something to enjoy, visually and emotionally. On The DVD: The three disc set is a complete story of the making of this movie (as much as anyone needs to know). Disc one has the movie plus deleted scenes and a commentary by Louis Leterrier, Director and Tim Roth, (Emil Blonsky). Disc two contains an alternate ending, more deleted scenes and several features on the making of the movie: The Making of Incredible, Becoming the Hulk, Becoming the Abomination, Anatomy of a Hulk-out, all describing how the movie and the characters were created. A feature, From Comic Book To Screen, shows the original comic book scenes, animated, that were the basis for a scene in the movie. Disc three is a digital copy disc, to be used to download a copy of the movie to a PC or Mac, to watch or save on an iPod or suitable player. A simpler single disc version is available at a lower price. Buy it or rent it; this is a movie that is worth the price in enjoyment per dollar. |