The Incredible Hulk - thoughts about the film and the trailer
I was asked about the new Incredible Hulk trailer the other day and had been meaning to write something up about it because it certainly falls under the type of thing I write about. Here is the Incredible Hulk trailer in HD or you can watch it here:
Cool. But I’ll get back to the trailer in a minute.
You see there is very little joy I take in the whole Incredible Hulk character, I often find him boring, limited and uninspired. I get the whole ‘rage within’ thing, it’s very clever and watching Hulk smash things is always going to be entertaining, not entertaining enough to subscribe to, but entertaining enough that if I see one his comics I’ll pick it up and have a flick through. The whole world war hulk series left me very ‘pfft, whatever’.
It didn’t help further when the first Hulk film was, how shall we say…? ummm crap. Well crap is maybe too harsh a word but I certainly wouldn’t buy it on DVD, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and I didn’t force Tracey to sit through it.
Of course Marvel currently has a very exciting (for me anyway) franchise beginning in Iron Man and I think that Hulk is their second tent pole for 2008 (there may be others but certainly not in this half of the year). So my attention has really been focused on Iron Man and anything I’ve heard about Hulk I’ve filed away in my ‘I think you’re supposed to be interested in that’ folder.
Edward Norton is a Hulk fan and they managed to sign him up to play Banner, well that’s good, he is a solid actor and it doesn’t hurt having someone actually interested in the source material. I read that he took to the script with a very vicious red pen and rewrote it. I heard him speak about the new movie and his role and he really knows his stuff and dug the series which gives me hope.
So Norton being on board was enough to get my interest enough to have some small hope that a Hulk film may prove interesting.
A few days ago I was left awe inspired as I watched the latest Iron Man trailer and thought to myself have awesome that they were treating it so well. Now after watching the Hulk trailer I’m feeling some of the same things about this upcoming film also. Not all of them I have to say and that is simply because I’ve been an Iron Man fan for nearly twenty years… oh god that makes me feel old.
Trailer is awesome, exactly what I wanted to see, Norton is doing something interesting with Banner and it has Liv Tyler to boot. The casting seems to be really good, whoever is doing the casting for Marvel is doing a bang up job. I saw the producers talking about the film and in answer to a special effects question spoke a lot about how it is driven by the characters and the Hunchback of Notre Dame themes behind it.
There is only one thing that has me feeling a little cold on the whole thing and is beside the whole character driven thing is that green skinned behemoths are hard to CGI in life like detail.
Extraordinarily hard.
And that whole scene with Hulk going to smash that steroid dude looks awesome but is going to draw a shit load of criticism from the internet faithful. Me? I can live with it, hell I love Farscape and it is the story telling and great acting that makes me forget that I’m dealing with Muppets. I can only hope that Hulk can do this for me this time.
I want it to.
I would like nothing else to say that there were four big, huge, awesome comic book movies that made me weep with joy in the darkened cinema.
Hulk has got everything going for it right now, no baggage from the old one or my apathy towards the comic. I’ll go see this thing with enthusiasm, popcorn and maybe a diet Pepsi.
So what do you all think?
Popularity: 29% [?]
lol - hubby was watching the trailer for this the other night and going “oooo ahhhh” over it. The kids are sitting next to him asking why they’ve made another hulk movie and he answers simply “cos the first one was crap”. I have to admit, I LOATHE the other one.
Here’s hoping that this one will be worth adding to our collection alongside all the other comic-book-made-movie dvd’s.
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I get why most people didn’t like “Hulk” (the first movie). It certainly wasn’t what people were expecting. If I’d had anything invested in the character, I’d have probably felt the same way. But I didn’t. I actually like “Hulk”. I see it as a completely different take — a much more Asian take — but a valid one, and an interesting one to watch. I think there were some really nice scenes in it, and I like the “comic book boxes” visual approach. But I get that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
So I didn’t hate the first one, but nor was all ga-ga over it. It was just a good film.
This one looks more like it’s following what I know of the character from “The Incredible Hulk” TV series, to a point. It just feels more like that from the trailer, even though there are obvious differences. It feels more familiar. And therefore it will undoubtedly be more popular.
I’m not a Hulk fan. I don’t think I’ve even picked up, let alone read, a Hulk comic book. My only exposure has been the TV show, the movie, and “guest appearances” in other comic books and cartoons. I agree with your assessment… “You see there is very little joy I take in the whole Incredible Hulk character, I often find him boring, limited and uninspired. I get the whole ‘rage within’ thing, it’s very clever and watching Hulk smash things is always going to be entertaining…” Well put.
But I’m pretty sure I’ll see this one in the theater anyway. Looks like good special effects, and has the potential to make me care for about 2 hours. Also, I didn’t know Norton was a fan, so that gives me hope. Any time the participants really care, the end product has a better chance (unlike Fantastic Four, where it seems nobody really cared).
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I think your hubby and I are in for some real treats this year!!
It is interesting Jeff because there are a number of superhero/comic book movies that I don’t mind whilst others stand by and loathe. Hence then I’m surprised that I too didn’t like Hulk.
You mention Fantastic Four which I thought captured the early feel of the Fantastic Four, it could, of course simply be Stan Lee’s awesome cameo.
I also like Daredevil and primarily for the reasons that I and you give for Hulk - I have no baggage with it so nothing to loose and what do I care if it didn’t capture Frank Miller’s awesome story telling (of course I’ve since read these and happily just separate the two).
But this Hulk film carries my ‘I’m going to have an awesome year of comic book movies’ theme and I dearly hope it makes me love the jolly green giant (I don’t even know what that means!!! I’m Australian for grud’s sake)
Given: Lee’s cameo in both FF movies was great.
Those movies, though, lacked heart, and it was evident in the lack of well-written teamwork, among other things.
Daredevil… that one’s an interesting mix, in my opinion. There were times I really liked it, other times I didn’t care at all. I never really hated it, though. Favreau obviously cared about it, I just don’t think it was as strong as it could have been.
The same cannot be said of Elektra, though. I seriously considered ritual cleansing after that one.
In all of those cases, though, I had nothing really invested in the characters beyond a passing acquaintence… well, I had a bit more of a familiarity with FF from the cartoons.
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Agree about the first Hulk, bad with a capital B. While reading your blog, I thought yeah yeah…. nothing to inspire me to go see this one. But I must admit, after watching the trailer, I would venture a peek. Don’t know if it would be up Mr Shamrock’s alley, but if it is PG, I will take the boys. (What is it with these movies being M?????
BTW here’s a little humour for you.
http://xkcd.com/232/
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Jeff - Rise of the Silver Surfer was uninspired to say the very least but as I say I wasn’t that unhappy with the way the first one was done, mind you I don’t particularly love origin stories at the best of time - prefer Spidey two over one (and won’t mention three), Batman Returns over Batman etc. FF2 was badly put together, but looks fantastic (arg pun) I think they got confused over what they were trying to aim for (family movie etc). I didn’t mind how Galactus was portrayed.
One of the big problems is exactly what you pointed at ‘no team’. Which is the core of the Fantastic Four, the family/team. And in my opinion when they like to put family trouble into the story lines as they have been recently I really get turned off them. Families having problems isn’t what I want to see in the F4.
Daredevil was never a character that I liked and would always bristle when someone would compare him to Batman (I don’t think so) but the movie wasn’t THAT bad and Ben Affleck wasn’t that awful (he was the bomb in Phantoms lol).
So they’re also working on a Thor movie (pfft like I care - until I see the trailer of course and then if it’s like these you can hand me my hammer LOL)
Shamrock - I guess it’s the content of these comic book movies that bring them up to the M rating - I mean some of them are pretty hardcore in the concepts (mutilation, violence etc). It’s all about I guess how you approach it with your boys (depending on their ages of course), talking about the concepts etc - I really love the Movie Mom reviews at Yahoo (http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/moviemom/) because they give a good idea on the films no matter the rating (they covered Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
Oh and I love xkcd - there was an ebay one ages and ages ago which made me cry with laughter!!
I’m going to check it out, because it múst be better, it can’t be worse than the other one.
Is there any history on the other big mofo? Or is that just a new movie enemy? I never read any Hulk comics and I might have seen a dozen or so comics on tv..
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I didn’t mind the first one, but there wasn’t enough Hulk and Bana was bland. I’m a big fan of Ed Norton, so I have high hopes for this… those I’m a little worried to hear that he’s been fighting with Marvel over the final cut.
Like you, I’m never too impressed by the CGI (though I don’t think the stuff in the trailer is properly finished), but you have to be willing to put that on hold to enjoy a film like this.
I do love the Bill Bixby eyes though!
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The other character Arjan I believe is what they call the Abomination
I suspect this will have Hulk fans in quite the joyful place.
Rol - I think people who point out that you can tell that it’s CGI are probably missing the point that you are supposed to suspend disbelief because obviously there is no such thing as a death star or a live dinosaur or for that matter a gamma irradiated Hulk! CGI isn’t perfect but it’s not too shabby either LOL.
I’m really looking forward to Ed’s take on this.
When i saw the first one, i knew right away that the Hulk could be Hollywood’s newest action star. I was deeply disapointed in the first movies plot and casting and special effects. To me this new Incredible Hulk movie is looking like it’s going to be redemption for my favorite green guy. Norton looks like a great choice and so does Liv Tyler. The story looks great and guess wut………….THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A MAJOR SUPER VILLAIN THIS TIME! I just hope that this new movie is all it looks like and more. Trust me guys, The Incredible Hulk is THE next big thing to hit Hollywood. I’m just hoping that this time Hulk uses all his might at the box office and kicks Hollywood on to it’s ass.
Bob - the supervillain aspect is something I didn’t even realise when thinking about the new Hulk film and you’re right, the first lacked that focus, there was no one to boo as it was just a faceless army occasionally after him and then (and I’m sure I’m not spoiling it for anyone) an unfocused father villain.
I too think Norton is going to do for this what Downey Jr did for Iron Man.
I’m actually pretty excited to see this opening weekend now.