Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

It wasn't good but it wasn't terrible. I adore Liv Tyler--she is luminous and pleasure to watch, though I'm not sure she does much acting. Maybe it doesn't matter. Ed Norton (Bruce Banner) was good and an improvement over Eric Bana. Norton is so low-key and that is perfect for this role. I enjoy watching Norton more in smaller pictures but he can easily carry a blockbuster.

The plot is rather incidental to the action in this movie. It left me time to ponder how, post angry flare-up, the Hulk always manages to find a waterfall in the midst of a shady forest as a retreat? And, the age-old question: how does he not wind up completely naked?

Possible favorite moment of the film: the Hulk gets angry at the lightening and throws a huge rock into the sky! Charming.

The culmination of the action was a Hulk versus big-scary-Hulk-like-creature show down. The creation of the scary Hulk-like creature was woefully under motivated. The battling was well staged, but the outcome was never in much doubt and the lack of suspense made it not so interesting.

Even so, the ending was ambiguous--we don't know what will happen to the Hulk. Also, the door is left open for a monster tie-in with some other recent superhero types, which would be a lot of fun.

Last: HULK SMASH!!

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