: Hulk
Director: Ang Lee
This film shows that good direction and special effects don’t make a film: you still need a good story. While I wanted to like it, it’s weak. For example, the opening credits reveal a lot of the back story: we see how Bruce Banner’s dad injected himself with an experimental drug, passed that on to his son, etc. Unfortunately, the rest of the film seems to think this back story is incredibly significant and spends a great deal of time letting us watch Bruce as he discovers his past. Boring! We already know all that so who cares? Before seeing the movie I was skeptical of having a CGI Hulk, and my doubts proved well-founded. While suprisingly well-done, with a scene or two of decent acting, the CGI Hulk never stops looking cartoonish, never is very believable as a human transformed, and never brings out viewer emotion. We just don’t care. The story is weak, the quality of acting average to poor, and the film is way, way too long. Ang Lee is an excellent director, and it shows with many deft touches, from numerous clever (yet not too extreme) fades and transitions between scenes, and occasional comic book style split screens. It’s wonderful in that it sets up the comic book mood. Unfortunately, the story isn’t there. And without characters we care about or a story where we care about the ending, the film’s rather pointless. That effect is actually heightened by Lee’s dignified presentation which gives serious import to such light content. The bottom line: why bother?
Topic: [/movie] |
