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 Director
: Ang Lee
Starring
: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Joshua Lucas,
Nick Nolte, Celia Weston, Brooke Langton.
Picture
1.85:1 Anamorphic, DD and DTS 5.1, 2-Disc, Single-Side,
Dual-Layer, Keep Case
Running
Time : 132 mins
The
story:
The
inner beast will be released.
Scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) has, to put it mildly,
anger management issues. His quiet life as a brilliant researcher
working with cutting edge genetic technology conceals a
nearly forgotten and painful past. His ex-girlfriend and
equally brilliant fellow researcher, Betty Ross (Jennifer
Connelly), has tired of Bruce’s cordoned off emotional
terrain and resigns herself to remaining an interested onlooker
to his quiet life. Which is exactly where Betty finds herself
during one of the early trials in Banner’s groundbreaking
research. A simple oversight leads to an explosive situation
and Bruce makes a split-second decision; his heroic impulse
saves a life and leaves him apparently unscathed—his
body absorbing a normally deadly dose of gamma radiation..
The
summary:
Stan
Lee's Hulk is the latest comic-book hero to be unleashed
onto the big screen and onto a whole new generation that
probably know little of the original. Marvel Comics green
giant is brought to life by Ang Lee, and takes on an original
style compared to the previous superhero movies. For starters,
the Hulk is the work of CGI and not an actor. Eric bana
plays Bruce Banner but once he gets angry, the giant hulk
is the work of Industrial Light & Magic (with a little
help of motion-capturing Ang Lee). Secondly is that the
Hulk is no traditional superhero who spends his days merrily
saving the people of the US of A. Only when Bruce gets angry
does the Hulk shed his clothes and become a raging 15-foot
monster. Which brings me to onto my final point - he's at
least twice the size of any other comic book character,
which does little for realism (though I realise none of
them are "real"..) and being completely CGI doesn't
help matters.
Whilst
the Hulk may visually lack realism, the story is a far more
serious prospect. Taking time to snapshot Bruce Banners
life from child to adult, the mood couldn't be further from
a Marvel character. It's a believable story for an unbelievable
event. The problem seems to be that so much time is spent
developing the characters that there's little time for the
action. The action that is here of course looks stunning,
but it's hard to relate to a gigantic cartoon character
so ultimately you find yourself not involved in the film
and not really caring what happens. It's the risk that Ang
Lee took, to portray the Hulk in this way but it hasn't
paid off. A shame as the Hulk is such a massive franchise
that it deserved better..
But
what about the disc? Well, not only does the Hulk look good,
it sounds good too. A superb transfer from Universal and
a good set of extras spread over two discs makes this an
attractive package, especially as the DTS track doesn't
even appear on the region one version. Okay, so the Hulk
doesn't live up to the hype, but for home viewing this it's
a worthwhile DVD movie.
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Extras:
Disc
1
*
Audio Commentary - An insightful
feature commentary with Director Ang Lee.
*
Hulk Cam: Inside The Rage -
When a symbol appears on-screen you can branch out to eleven
excellent behind-the-scenes featurettes.
*
Trailer - The Thunderbirds
teaser trailer.
Disc
2
*
Hulkification - Four renowned
comic book artists were asked to draw their own version
of a scene. The artwork is then viewed alongside the actual
footage from the film, plus you can find our more about
each of the artists.
*
Evolution of The Hulk - Find
out how The Hulk evolved from comic book to the big screen.
Hulk creator Stan Lee gives his side of the story and there's
plenty of clips of the comics and footage from the TV series
and film. 16 mins 20 secs.
*
The Incredible Ang Lee - No
prizes for guessing what this is about. It's self-indulgent
and it's not really up to standard of the other featurettes.
14 mins 30 secs.
*
"The Dog Fight Scene" -
Take a look at the work and ILM techniques that went into
creating what turns out to be a scaled-down version of the
originally planned scene. 10 mins.
*
The Unique Style of Editing The Hulk
- NA short featurette looking into the style
*
The Making of The Hulk - The
best and most in-depth feature can be viewed in four separate
sections (Cast and Crew, Stunts and Physical Effects, ILM
and Music) or together as one. There's plenty of behind-the-scenes
footage and interviews with cast & crew. 23 mins.
*
Deleted Scenes - Six minutes
of deleted scenes. The scenes are average and don't add
much to the film, but there is a cameo appearance by Lou
Ferrigno!
*
Superhero Revealed: The Anatomy of
the Hulk - This interactive ILM feature allows you
to find out more about the Hulk's anatomy.
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