Hulk Smash Puny Critics!

Sometimes, no matter how good a film is in it's own right, if an audiences expectations aren't satisfied the film will be rejected. Just look at Reign Of Fire, where cinema-goers and critics demanded an epic confrontation between dragons and humanity, and what they got were three dragons and a castle. The film was great but it didn't match expectations. Same goes for John Carpenter's The Thing back in 1982....a great, great movie (one of the best ever, in fact). But audiences wanted the benevolence and sentimentality of Spielberg (E.T. was released the same year)not the cold nihilism of Carpenter's vision.

One of the last great films to suffer the same fate was Ang Lee's adaptation of Marvel Comic's Hulk which also didn't match the audiences demands. The year earlier, back in 2002, Sam Raimi had knocked the Super Hero movie template squarely on the head by delivering Spider-Man, a film which perfectly embodied Hollywood's vision of a perfect comic strip movie. Broadly entertaining, funny, action packed and massively commercial. And that's all fine and good but not all movies have to fit that template. So, much to critic's annoyance, Hulk strives to be more than that; arty, thought provoking, intelligent, inventive and challenging.

The performances are very quiet and subdued (but always engaging and affecting), the first half is slow paced and talky (but there's always something interesting going on), the editing and compositions are experimental and unusual (but always clear and understandable), and the psychological concepts deep and challenging (but never over whelms the action). Alas it was too different for many people's tastes resulting in the much safer, much more audience friendly The Incredible Hulk being produced...which turned out to be less successful, both financially and critically.

Even in the action packed second half critics found time to moan. The fact that grows bigger the more angry he gets (so what, he's supposed to represent the unleashed rage in all of us), how he bounces from place to place (he does it in the comics and it's bloody cool) and how the climax doesn't make sense (of course it does, pay attention, he's resolving his daddy issues!)(

The cast shit all over their peers who appeared in the 2008 sequel...Sam Elliot is gruffer than William Hurt could ever imagine, Jennifer Connolly is exquisite compare to Liv Tyler's limp heroine and Eric Bana perfectly balances the dweeb with the barely suppressed rage inside him (as opposed to Ed Norton's bleary eyed sleepwalking). Dennis Muren's ILM effects are fantastic, Danny Elfman's score one of his best from this decade and to top it off you've got crackhead, drunk Nick Nolte on top growling form. If someone tells you they prefer 2008's The Incredible Hulk over Ang Lee's Hulk just do what I do. Tell 'em to fuck off. Simples.