Rating: 2.5 Pulses
Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth
Directed by Louis Leterrier
Rated PG-13
Bruce Banner is back after a five-year hiatus from the silver screen in which the Hyde to his Jekyll apparently went to Hollywood for a makeover and a lobotomy.
If Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk was too dramatic for some, then the re-envisioned pseudo-sequel The Incredible Hulk aims to appease the disgruntled masses by eschewing the boring complexities of Banner’s burden in favor of the opposite extreme. In lieu of a plot, writer Zak Penn crafts concise connectors between the scenes of Mr. Green. After all, shouldn’t the Hulk be synonymous with destruction rather than dialogue?
After a dizzying opening credits back story montage, the movie begins in medias res with Edward Norton hiding out in a soda factory in Brazil. Norton as Banner has one agenda and one expression, respectively: a) find a cure, and b) try not to get angry. When William Hurt (whose mustache is no match for Sam Elliott’s) discovers Bruce’s whereabouts, the action is set into, well, action.
The resulting game of tactical tranquilizer tag establishes the ever greasy and power-hungry Tim Roth’s fascination and eventual rivalry with the green beast, leaving the remainder of the movie a series of amusing smashes building to an inevitable and disappointing wrestling match (I am, of course, referring to professional wrestling, melodramatic posturing and all).
If the major complaint about 2003’s Hulk was its focusing too much on character development for today’s ADD-addled audience, then consider recent summer spectacles and their spectacular failures. The lessons to be learned by the likes of Transformers, 10,000 B.C., and Speed Racer is that action alone does not a great movie make.
Without audience empathy, created by a good storyline and actual characterization that involves figurative (not only literal) emotional transformations, CGI monsters and ridiculous explosions are merely fireworks, which are only cool once a year for about 15 minutes. I don’t have a short attention span, but I know I couldn’t watch a fireworks display for two hours.
At the end of the movie, Robert Downey Jr. makes a cameo as Tony Stark that confirms any hints that the current glut of super-hero movies will culminate with an incredibly lucrative Avengers film. Let’s just hope that when that film is made it takes a page from the “Iron Manual: or How To Make Action With Substance,” rather than this incredibly mediocre hulk.
