Hulk is not the usual superhero movie. There are exciting action sequences but the movie on the whole doesn't leave you feeling exhilarated, but rather sombre. Ang Lee has made a more thoughtful movie, which actually tries to develop its characters, and is interested in the relationship between Bruce and David Banner and Betty and General Ross and the resulting relationship between Bruce and Betty.
First of all Betty. Her father is a career military man and has always been distant from her. She wants to be closer to him, but it seems clear that he doesn't quite know how to do that. She trusts him at times during this film, and those times prove to be detrimental to Bruce Banner.
Bruce Banner in this film is the walking wounded though he doesn't even know it. There is deep trauma in his early childhood and he has buried in down. He loves science and that's the only thing that seems to animate him. He loves Betty as well but can't open up to her - he just doesn't seem to be able to. He's repressed and he often awakens from nightmares that he doesn't understand, and doesn't want to. General Ross scorns Bruce's father and distrusts Bruce as well. David Banner, a military scientist, experimented on himself and passed the changes onto his son and he loves Bruce as the outcome of an experiment and nothing more. After the accident takes place, Bruce isn't able to repress all the time and clamp down on his feelings. Instead he lets go and becomes the Hulk.
After two viewings, I realized how expressive the Hulk really is. The Hulk is Bruce's Id set loose. When he's not bothered, the Hulk is quiet and still. He looks closely at the desert flowers. When provoked, he replies in kind without hesitation. He is the four year old Bruce, full of pain and frustration, but this time supremely powerful and able to fight back. His roars at one or two points in the movie are roars of hurt and frustration, of a giant child who is desperately unhappy and angry. There are also moments when he is tender. When the rampaging Hulk sees Betty in a helicopter, he halts his attack, his anger gone at once, seeming almost wistful and ashamed at the same time. There is another, shorter moment when the leaping Hulk comes to Bruce's childhood home in a military base. He studies the house and we see the Hulk swallow a sob as some memory of Bruce's childhood returns to him.
The Hulk, in the comics, is never a happy story. Betty is always longing for relationships with her father and Bruce, while Bruce is terribly scarred by what his father has done to him. The only way he can fight back is through the Hulk, and becoming the Hulk has repercussions. He is unhappy as Bruce and targeted as the Hulk. The leads in this movie are dysfunctional people, and the movie deals with them in a serious, even realistic way of a dramatic film. The Hulk is not a normal popcorn superhero movie. It doesn't deserve to be one.
First of all Betty. Her father is a career military man and has always been distant from her. She wants to be closer to him, but it seems clear that he doesn't quite know how to do that. She trusts him at times during this film, and those times prove to be detrimental to Bruce Banner.
Bruce Banner in this film is the walking wounded though he doesn't even know it. There is deep trauma in his early childhood and he has buried in down. He loves science and that's the only thing that seems to animate him. He loves Betty as well but can't open up to her - he just doesn't seem to be able to. He's repressed and he often awakens from nightmares that he doesn't understand, and doesn't want to. General Ross scorns Bruce's father and distrusts Bruce as well. David Banner, a military scientist, experimented on himself and passed the changes onto his son and he loves Bruce as the outcome of an experiment and nothing more. After the accident takes place, Bruce isn't able to repress all the time and clamp down on his feelings. Instead he lets go and becomes the Hulk.
After two viewings, I realized how expressive the Hulk really is. The Hulk is Bruce's Id set loose. When he's not bothered, the Hulk is quiet and still. He looks closely at the desert flowers. When provoked, he replies in kind without hesitation. He is the four year old Bruce, full of pain and frustration, but this time supremely powerful and able to fight back. His roars at one or two points in the movie are roars of hurt and frustration, of a giant child who is desperately unhappy and angry. There are also moments when he is tender. When the rampaging Hulk sees Betty in a helicopter, he halts his attack, his anger gone at once, seeming almost wistful and ashamed at the same time. There is another, shorter moment when the leaping Hulk comes to Bruce's childhood home in a military base. He studies the house and we see the Hulk swallow a sob as some memory of Bruce's childhood returns to him.
The Hulk, in the comics, is never a happy story. Betty is always longing for relationships with her father and Bruce, while Bruce is terribly scarred by what his father has done to him. The only way he can fight back is through the Hulk, and becoming the Hulk has repercussions. He is unhappy as Bruce and targeted as the Hulk. The leads in this movie are dysfunctional people, and the movie deals with them in a serious, even realistic way of a dramatic film. The Hulk is not a normal popcorn superhero movie. It doesn't deserve to be one.
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