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A Few Thoughts on The Hulk

Jul 16, 2003 9:52 AM
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Saw the film yesterday. I'll try to keep this spoiler-free:
  • That shit is too long. It's a full hour before you see him transform.
  • The shots and visual style make a lot more sense if you view them as comic book panels in video format, especially when Ang Lee splits the screen into multiple frames.
  • You may have missed it, but when Bruce Banner first enters his lab building, he passes Lou Ferigno (played The Hulk on TV) and Stan Lee (famous Marvel Comics dude).
  • Most of the action scenes are at night. I wonder if this was to hide flaws in the computer animation.


Comments: A Few Thoughts on The Hulk


Ang Lee says that they deliberately had the early scenes with the Hulk at night and the later ones with him in daylight as a means of "revealing" him to the audience (I guess so the end would be more impressive). Since they do eventually show him to us (for quite some time) in bright sunlight, I'm apt to believe him.

Usually, though, you're right about cloaking special effects with darkness. I just saw Cath watching Harry Potter again on HBO, and there's a blatant scene in which they keep a mediocre CGI creature in almost complete darkness to hide the fact that it looks ridiculous.

Overall, Hulk is definitely a bit too long, but still liked it more than most of this summer's supposed "blockbusters"....

Posted by: Nicardo on July 16, 2003 1:15 PM | permalink

I think Ang Lee's full of shit and rationalizing it.

After all, that final battle scene, in the pond, was in murky darkness. So cloaked that we weren't entirely sure what had happened.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on July 16, 2003 1:23 PM | permalink

But you're ignoring the scene in the army base as well as the fifteen straight minutes in the desert in which the Hulk is seen in broad daylight with no attempt to hide him in darkness. The last scene, as far as I'm concerned, was in darkness because Lee didn't want to show Nolte's Absorbing Man thingamajig in the light, because it looked kinda stupid....

Posted by: Nicardo on July 16, 2003 6:56 PM | permalink

I'm not ignoring it; I'm just saying there's inconsistencies about Ang's explanation.

I did like the fact that the young Nolte looked like Little Bill from Boogie Nights.

And I don't want to talk about the Hulk any more.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on July 16, 2003 7:03 PM | permalink

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.