Deconstructing the Hulk, Again!
Daniel Swensen
Hey, they’re making a new Hulk movie! With Edward Norton! Before 2003, this news would have made me very excited. However, all my memories of a big-screen Hulk are of Ang Lee’s plodding, overwrought misfire — so I’m more in the realm of “cautious optimism.” So I’ll vent my spleen by taking a few potshots at Sci Fi Wire’s press release.
Edward Norton (The Illusionist) has been set by Marvel Studios to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, a role formerly played by Eric Bana, Variety reported.
The Louis Leterrier-directed drama will be distributed by Universal Pictures, with an opening set for June 13, 2008. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
The Incredible Hulk will shoot this summer in Toronto.
To give it that mystical, elusive Stargate SG-1 feel.
The Incredible Hulk, following on Ang Lee’s disappointing Hulk, aims to be less self-serious and more in line with the comic series and TV show. Leterrier directed the action-filled Transporter 2 and Unleashed.
The most oxymoronic pair of sentences ever… oh, they said less self-serious. Well, thank God.
The new movie begins with Banner on the run, trying to avoid capture long enough to cure the condition that turns him into a misunderstood green menace.
But is he on the run from giant mutated poodles? God, I hope so. That was a Freudian masterpiece of intricate psychological, uh…
The script for The Incredible Hulk was written by Zak Penn, who had a hand in crafting two X-Men films, Fantastic Four and Elektra for Marvel.
Note how it doesn’t say which two X-Men films. Could that be because one of them is The Last Stand? Well, never mind. If he can save The Hulk from the drab, pompous shipwreck of the first film, I’ll oficially forgive him for The Last Stand. I’m sure he’ll be deeply relieved to know that. (I won’t forgive Ratner, though. Don’t ask the impossible.)
April 18th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I liked Hulk.
I think the fact that the screenwriter penned Fantastic Four and Elektra is more distressing than him doing The Last Stand.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Leterrier… I think he directed Transporter as well as Transporter II. I remember Trasporter II stinking on ice, but I don’t recall that having much to do with the direction; more the “this film is pointless, and really should never have been made”. That’s something to keep in mind, though, when making a sequel to the Hulk.
The Ang Lee Hulk drew a lot of fire, and I always responded with “What, exactly, did you expect?” Perhaps I’m mis-remembering the comic, here, but I think the routine was:
1) Gets mad
2) Turns green
3) Breaks shit
Ang Lee delivered 1-3 in order. So, I guess it’s worth asking, is there something more that needs to be done with this character? Did we skip some taglines? We’ve covered “Puny human”; will the sequel include “Hulk smash”?
But anyway, I don’t think Leterrier has dropped the ball yet with his directing. The screenplay… That’s another matter.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:53 am
I had the same reaction to peoples’ complaints about The Fantastic Four. Sure, the movie was hokey with corny dialogue. The comic book was, let’s see, hokey with corny dialogue. No movie adaptation of F4 or Hulk was going to Cannes.
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:42 am
Jesus-jumped-up-christ what do people want from a fucking comic book turned movie? Goddamn masterpieces? How about masterpieces of shit-covered chocolate candies, for fuck sakes.
We’re dealing with content that started out with a male adolescent base. Just because that base is now “middle-aged”, yeah I’m talking about you, now your expecting your favorite mutant-humanoid idolized as a some great savior.
If it wasn’t for all the pissing-bitching and moaning going on about this actor and that director and some fuck-wit of a writer. People would be bitching about how the comics are so much fucking better than the movie.
Have a beer and get laid. Failing that, get drunk at the Corner Bar and pull yer pud in the street.
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:24 am
Sooo… I’m guessing you enjoyed the Hulk movie, then?
Just for the record, I wanted the Hulk movie to be a lot more adolescent than it was. Masterpiece? No. A lot less moping and pontificating, and a lot more Hulk breaking shit, yes.
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I’ve never much cared about the Hulk because I wasn’t really sure what he does. He’s a hybrid of Jekyll/Hyde and Frankenstein’s Monster but I’m not sure where you go from there. I’ve never bought his comics other than a couple reprint magazines and I’ve never gone “Oh boy Hulk!”
At the same time, I appreciate the Ang Lee tried to actually do something a little sophisticated with the film, working in the abusive father and all of that. The fact that he paired it with some really questionable editing and design choices made the whole thing play like a satire, though, and I don’t think any amount of editing could have helped the ending.
Still, I don’t feel like I’m owed eight bucks or whatever for seeing it in the theater. And depending on what story details come out for this new film, I might end up seeing it in the theater too. Edward Norton might not have the best track record of avoiding stinkers, but he does add a little bit of class.
In all of this, we’re forgetting the big question: Will there be more Jennifer Connelly???????????
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Yeah, I know — I’m like the only guy who actually wanted something LESS ambitious out of a Hulk movie. Usually, I’m making the exact opposite argument. What can I say — it just didn’t come together for me.
But, if there’s more Jennifer Connelly, hope will spring eternal, and all that.