Review of Hulk (2003) by Filipeneto — 12 Apr 2020

Without a good plot, and without a main character capable of making us care about her.

There are characters from comic books who seem to be almost incapable of causing sympathy. Hulk is clearly one of them. Despite all the melodrama surrounding the character's life story, at least in this film (I'm not a comic fan to the point of knowing if the character's story is what the film tells us), this character is very chalk and little worked, unable to mess with my emotional side.

Basically, Hulk is the monstrous alter-ego of Bruce Banner, the son of a military scientist who made the mistake of doing genetic experiments on himself. It is an adaptation of the old story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or at least it has immense similarities. Ang Lee, who assures the direction, did a decent job but lacked brightness and was never able to transform Bruce / Hulk into a character we can care about. The story seemed to me not very credible, not very interesting, very focused on the action scenes (as if the whole plot was just a pretext to see a green thug howling while crushing everything he finds) and with a very questionable ending.

As for the cast, I believe that Eric Bana did what he could with the material that was given to him but there was no way to shine. Sam Elliott is satisfactory, but unable to go beyond the cliché of the cold general who wants to use the tormented superhero as a weapon of war. Jennifer Connelly is perhaps even worse, as she is quite cold in her romantic feelings and the chemistry with Bana, quite simply, does not happen. Nick Nolte makes a good appearance, but in a character very accessory to the plot and absolutely hateful.

Technically, the film seems well done to me. It has a considerable budget and the money was clearly spent on carefully done action scenes, loaded with special effects and good quality CGI. Made to impress, they are the strongest part of the film. The point is that they need a good and firm story to give them the support they need. The photography was very well done, with a good job of filming, editing and post-production. The soundtrack, signed by Danny Elfman, does his job beautifully.

As with many other films based on comic books, this film was very well done and well thought out in the technical details but does not have a good story to tell. Without that, there is no film that can resist.