The Hulk (2003) Review

  “You know what scares me the most ? When it happens, when it comes over me... and I totally lose control, I like it.”
    Many people remembered Ang Lee for `Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’, which countless people believe it to be the finest martial arts film ever created. It left such big shoes to fill, even for Lee. He was even dubbed `America’s best director’. Ang Lee always loved presenting humanity and human imperfection in his stories as he has done many times before. Almost every film he has done was poetic in every way shape or form. Three years after `Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’ and two years before `Brokeback Mountain’ he made a film people would very soon forget, it was none other than the Hulk.
   I was excited when I heard that there was going to be a Hulk film, seeing how I was a hardcore fan of the Billy Bixby/Lou Ferrigno television show `The Incredible Hulk’. I was even more pumped when I heard Ang Lee was going to direct it because he is a phenomenal director. When I saw the film I was highly disappointed. This could have been an incredible film. Ang Lee really let me down.
  The film starts out extremely slow! The opening sequence was the beginning of the back-story, which continued for half of the film. The back-story should not go further than the opening credits. Lee directs to devote too much time in the back-story, which isn’t even needed. I was sitting in my seat questioning when the film was actually going to start. The first actual Bruce Banner to Hulk transformation was about fifty-five minutes into the film. By the time the Hulk finally appears, the audience was bored. This is a two hour and twenty minute film and only about twenty minutes of the whole film was action. For a film simply titled ‘Hulk’ there is just a little bit of the hulk in the film. Ang Lee might be a gifted visionary of film, but surely not with this film. `Hulk’ is just so dreadful. The acting, the music, the directing, the cinematography, the plot, and just everything were so awful in this film. Hulk has too much talking and not enough of smashing. The film can possibly cure insomnia If you want to see a great Ang Lee film, watch `Lust, Caution’ or Life of Pi.

1 out of 5