HULK (2003) Retrospective / Review

you know what scares me the most is it when it happens when it comes over me and I totally lost control I like it the work you're doing here is dynamite think GI is embedded with technology that makes them instantly repairable on the battlefield in our sole possession that's a hell of business well it's not what we're doing here we're doing the basic science for everyone [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't understand how this is possible you should be dead Cringer you work with you know who he really is you may not want to believe it but I can see it in your eyes so much like your mother of course she's my flesh and blood but then here's something else too Marge I had the most vivid dream it was like being born coming up for air light it in my face screaming my heartbeat if you ever come within a thousand yards of my daughter again I'll put you away for the rest of your natural life [Music] can trust me to do what I think is right not what you think you want he is a human being well he is also something else my son is unique the world will not tolerate his existence okay why is he such a threat because I know what he comes from he is his father's son every last molecule of him he says he doesn't know his father so either he's lying or it's something worst [Music] the summer of 2003 Hulk smashed his way onto the big screen first arriving in the USA on the 20th of June and arrived in the UK a month later he was directed by Angley who had success with Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon a Hulk had a huge budget of nearly 137 million dollars and pulled in healthy box office numbers of nearly 215 million worldwide but because of its huge budget it didn't generate as much of a profit for Universal Pictures and didn't meet their expectations on matching the successor Sony's Spider Man film from the year before reviews at the time were mixed but most linked on the positive side with Roger Ebert awarding it three out of four stars he said Angley was trying to actually deal with the issues in the story of the Hulk instead of simply cutting two brainless visual effects somewhere less kind Rolling Stone magazine felt Hulk should have been shorter but however they praised the action sequences other critics heavily criticized a computer-generated imagery calling the Hulk a ticked-off version of Shrek and some felt even though it was thoughtful and pleasing to the eye than any blockbuster in recent memory it's epic length comes without an epic reward the film came with the usual cross-promotions with toys kids cereal and of course of video games which will be discussed later in the video despite strong DVD sales the film was largely forgotten about over the years as more and more marvel films hit the big screen and especially the Hulk becoming really popular with the casting of Mark Ruffalo the 2003 film was considered a failure but in more recent years people have gone back to the first attempts of a Hulk movie and have started to appreciate what Angley was doing with the famous Green Monster [Music] The Incredible Hulk first arrived in the comics in May of 1962 stanley was inspired by Frankenstein's monster and dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde he combined those two classic monsters to create the Hulk the character proved very popular and to this day is one of the most recognizable characters of the Marvel Universe The Hulk pretty quickly came to TV in 1966 as a cartoon series but what most people fondly remember is the live-action TV series by CBS that aired in 1978 starring Bill Bixby as David Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as to Hulk this was very popular and lasted five seasons the show ended in 1982 but there were special TV movies throughout the 80s that featured more Adventures of the Hulk but the attempts to bring him to the big screen proved very difficult and took years for it to finally happen producer Gale Anne Hurd had gained the rights to the Hulk in the early 90s and began its development with the Universal Pictures and over the next decade they produced a number of scripts that never really got off the ground the concepts they had were Hulk battling terrorists other villains from his universe and pulling stories directly from the recent comic books they couldn't decide on the direction for the film should it be light-hearted or taken very seriously the one idea that seemed to stick around was Hulk against general Ross and the military a number of talented directors were attached over the years such as Joe Johnston who had success with Jumanji and Galen hos own husband Jonathan Hensley came on to help Cobra do some work on the script Joe Johnston left the production in favor of directing October Sky Johnson Hensley pushed Universal to let him direct but due to the escalating costs they didn't want to leave in the hands of a first-time director Jonathan did get his chance to direct a Marvel film in 2004 which his wife produced their Punisher so if Joe Johnston out on the script being rewritten again by many other artists such as JJ Abrams and Zack Penn Michael France had also made attempts to write a script to please Universal Pictures he eventually put together a script that they felt was right France stated that his vision of the film was different from the other drafts he based Bruce Banner on the nerdy incarnations from the 1960s France cited inspiration from the 1980s Hulk stories which introduced Brian banner Bruce's abusive father who killed his mother in finish film his name was changed to David his script had been a trying to create cells with regenerative capabilities in order to prove to himself that he's not like his father however he has anger management issues before the Hulk is even created which makes everything worse come early 2001 the film and a new director and that was Angley he brought on his own producing partner James Sheamus to rewrite the script to merge banners father with the absorbing man Lee cited influences from King Kong Frankenstein Jekyll and Hyde Beauty and the Beast and Greek mythology for his interpretation of the story thus allowing Lee to write a drama that explored father-son themes for the cast of characters we have Australian actor Eric Bana as Bruce Banner aka the Hulk many actors were interested in playing the part of Bruce with interest from Johnny Depp Steve Buscemi and apparently Edward Norton was linked to it very early on but turned down the role due to being unhappy with the script but he did get his chance to play the whole could come 2008 bana was cast in October of 2001 and agreed to appear in two sequels and Lee felt obliged a cast banner upon seeing chopper banner said he was never a huge comic book reader but he was obsessed with the live-action TV show from the 70s Nick Nolte plays as Bruce's biological father David Banner David has been in prison for years due to causing an explosion on the military base and accidentally killing his wife he is now free from prison and works as a janitor to keep close ties to his son Nick Nolte's character has powers of his own similar to the absorbing man who made an appearance in the early scripts for the film but his powers are unstable and he needs to absorb Bruce's strength to control it Jennifer Connelly plays as Betty Ross Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher Betty is possibly the only one who could make the Hulk transform back into Bruce Connelly was attracted to the role because of Angley she felt Lee was doing something different than just being a glossy kids movie she saw the ideas of tragedy and psychodrama it didn't feel like a conventional superhero film Sam Elliott plays as general Ross Betty's estranged father elet accepted the role without reading the script being simply too excited to work with Angley unsurprisingly the majority of the cast all jumped at the chance to work with the fame as director Josh Lucas who was always so good at playing a slimy businessman stars as Glenn Talbot a former soldier who offers banner and Betty an opportunity to work for him an attempt to start an experiment on self-healing soldiers so he can sell the research to the highest bidder we of course of a cameo from Stan Lee he made his first cameo in Bryan Singer's first x-men movie three years earlier and we have former Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno appearing as a security guard with Stan Lee filming began on March 2002 in Arizona and then as production moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for Hulk's attacking the streets then moving on to the Utah and Californian desert they made use of the universal back lot and sound stages for the water tank sequence and Hulk's eventual escape from the military base they had to provide a lot of in camera practical effects to simulate the Hulk moving around assets and locations so anything he smashes or throws was done for real in most cases you'd think his charge through his office would all be done in the computer but they did it for real when it came time to editing angley really wanted to translate those comic book panels into a motion picture films over the years have of course used split screen before but early in specific sequences but never deployed throughout an entire film thus making this movie very unique the editor worked with the FEC's company ILM to achieve the best results without using the standard use of split screen but also this came at a cost of having more cameras on set to film all the angles to help mix up the shots to create multiple panels the editor was given free rein to experiment with scene transitions from one to another some couldn't be achieved with just traditional editing so computer graphics were used to manipulate an image or have it break up into four sections and then have movement within that shot the film opens in the 1960s at a military base where we see scientist David Banner developing the idea to forge super soldiers but introducing modified DNA sequences extracted from various animals to strengthen the humans cellular response but general Ross denies him permission to use human subjects so david tests it on himself after the birth of his son Bruce he finds that his son may have inherited the effects and seeks a cure but is stopped in the process by Ross who has discovered David has continued his work David loses his temper and causes a major disaster at the base and young Bruce sees his father attack his mother years past as we find Bruce for the surname krendler after being fostered as a kid and has no memories of that traumatic event Bruce is a geneticist working with Betty Ross within the Berkeley biotechnology Institute researching instantaneous cell repair by using low-level gamma radiation with plans to use it to kill all forms of sickness such as cancer and Alzheimer's they get a visit from major Glenn Talbot who wants to use this research to forge super soldiers and sell this cure to the highest bidder but Bruce refuses to help him and is not interested in Glenn's plans during routine maintenance a circuit shorts and triggers the experiments program sequence unable to stop it Bruce throws himself in front of one of his colleagues to shield the man and is exposed to a massive amount of gamma radiation the following day Betty visits Bruce in hospital and remarks that he should be dead but Bruce feels great a new janitor at the lab has been keeping an eye on Bruce and Betty's work and he approaches Bruce and reveals that he is Bruce's biological father Bruce presumes that janta is lying until he finds it was true he checks his own genes Bruce begins to lose his temper and his stress levels skyrocket he transforms into the Hulk and he tears up his office he grabs the equipment that caused him to receive heavy doses of radiation and throws it out the building but he goes to meet her father who has been keeping tabs on her team's research he grills Betty on Bruce to find out if she knows his past and who he really is general Ross suspects Bruce of collaborating with David Banner general Ross interrogate spoofs about the events of his past but Bruce can't remember so Ross puts him under house arrest Bruce gets a phone call from his father who has plans for his mutated dogs to attack Betty Bruce is then visited by Talbot who accuses him of going too general Ross behind his back to cut him out of the research deal leading to a second transformation into the Hulk the Hulk seriously injures Talbot and escapes to save Betty after a brutal battle with the dogs Betty seized a Hulk transform back into Bruce she comforts him and tries to understand his problem but the military turn up and take Bruce away to a hidden base underground where they planned her experiment on him and harness his powers for themselves [Music] the visual effects for Hulk would be handled by ILM and be supervised by industry expert Dennis Muren Dennis had worked on the Star Wars films the abyss and Terminator 2 just to name a few I LEM would start work on the film in 2001 and would finish just a month before the film's release ILM had a huge challenge on their hands creating a computer-generated character that was as close to a human as possible even today he still get that uncanny valley with CG characters so even now it's still not perfect the whole Quetta moved like a real person he needed the ability to a moat his muscles needed to flex and bend in a realistic manner and he had to look believable when interacting with live-action elements the Hulk went through many changes in the design process angly was pushing the eylem animators to not animate the Hulk like a cartoon yet to move in a realistic fashion and not appear over animated so the best way to do that was to use motion capture Lee had acting experience and would put on the motion capture suit sometimes the help I LEM get the movements that the director really wanted instead of directing a stuntman or an actor he would do it himself surprisingly I couldn't find any footage of Eric banner doing the motion capture most cases they do get the actor who has been cast in a particular role to do the mocap performance but oddly they don't use Eric so for me does create some disconnect like the Hulk is a totally different character but as the facial resemblance to Eric banner even though having angley do the motion capture it didn't really affect the performance of the Hulk but I think it would have subtly helped in showing that Eric had continued his performance outside of displaying Bruce also what comes with the casting of Bruce Banner is that the Hulk takes on the facial features of the actor oddly they don't do that with a 2008 film The Hulk once transformed looks nothing like Edward Norton whereas come the Avengers the hope looks like Mark Ruffalo the Hulk's first big action sequence featuring the mutated dogs was supposed to be a lot longer with over 200 visual effects shots which would cost in the region of 15 million dollars they had to scale it back as it was unaffordable which didn't please only by the ILM animators knew it would be tough despite the changes to help with the process they even used a motion capture suit on a dog to help with the animation and it proved quite successful it's interesting the effects for this film over the years has been panned by many online critics it's made lists of the worst CGI in movies I honestly don't think that is the case considering the talent involved I think the problem lies is with the color of the Hulk he is bright green and the creative choices that have been made to have him looked like the comic book version don't do them any favors in terms of animation detail and how he interacts with the live-action elements is top-notch for the time the fight with the military in the desert is really well designed and demonstrates perfectly what the Hulk can do it showcases all these classic traits as he smashes that tank it feels like it's been ripped from the comics and turned into live action the close-ups of the Hulk and the detail on his skin is perfectly fine and works well in creating the illusion that the Hulk is really there when things get too busy especially the attack with the dogs it doesn't look particularly real and when the Hulk gets trapped in the base and they spray that foam on him he post funniest face it all looks a bit silly the summarize I don't think the CGI is bad I just think the look of the Hulk in terms of conceptual design and a choice of color doesn't quite make it work everything outside of the Hulk is to a very high quality especially in Nick Nolte's transformation it took them another two movies and a decade to get the Hulk right but ILM did a lot of the legwork to help push computer-generated characters to the next level [Music] the score to Hulk was composed by Danny Elfman who was no stranger to the genre and was to go to choice of the 90s he had made a name for himself on Batman and Batman Returns he worked on Darkman Dick Tracy the flash TV series and before the Hulk worked with Sam Raimi on spider-man so he was considered a safe choice by the film studios but Elfman was not angley's first choice he brought on his feet from collaborator Michael Donna he went for a non-traditional approach which featured African drumming and Arabic singing the studio wasn't happy with the score and rejected it and Danny Elfman was approached to provide a new score with a limited amount of time to do so and Lee wanted Elfman to write material that didn't sound like his previous superior scores if you are familiar with Elfman's work on Batman darkman and spider-man there was a lot of crossover and there was an obvious similar sound so it was the right move to push Elfman to write something that would stand on its own compared to his previous efforts what surprised the original composer Michael Danner is that Elfman did leave in some of his work into the score it was clear to him that the studio panicked and brought in Elfman and he heard what was done before and liked it the score came to CD when the film was released in the USA and has been out of print for years but you can easily get it for a cheap price on the second-hand market or you can get it digitally on iTunes and Amazon the film doesn't come with a memorable theme tune for the Hulk it's not something you can listen to and for it to get stuck in your head I suppose it's quite difficult to create a theme tune for the Hulk but a score does fit really well with the tone of the movie the tragedy lost memories the tension between father and son and the monster wanting to break out the score for the most part complements that healthman makes use of electronic beats and rhythms underneath the orchestral music which is a similar technique that hands in with deploys in his scores surprisingly the standout pieces to me is the material that dama had written seeing the Hulk jumping thousands of feet in the air with the Arabic singing just worked really well for me but it doesn't really fit with Elfman's material so the score is a strange hybrid I think as an OK score that works as an enjoyable listening experience the emotional beats of the score worked the best and of course the action hues play out well when Hulk gets attacked by the military as he escapes from the base but overall there isn't anything that stands out to make it a score that you need to desperately add to your collection it does its job but it lacks the themes and consistency to make it a solid superhero school and one that's worth recommending a video game was released a time with the movie for the ps2 GameCube Xbox PC and Game Boy Advance set eight years after the ending of the film which is a different approach at the time for a licensed game most game developers would follow the plot of the film and take some liberties to include more action the game begins with Bruce Banner voiced by Erik having a nightmare as he transforms into the Hulk and destroys waves of soldiers and tanks sent by the military to attack him once he awakens Bruce is contacted by his old mentor dr. Crawford who explains that he has developed a cure for the Hulk called the gamma orb unfortunately military troops led by the corrupt General John Riker have raided the lab and are on to dr. Crawford and you have to get to him before Riker does throughout the game to halt battles against his regular enemies from the comics such as madman half-life and the leader reviews at the time were mostly positive the music and graphics were praised for the consoles and PC releases highlighting his fun and mindless mayhem as you go around destroying everything in your path but complaints were made about the limited powers of the Hulk and the linear gameplay levels as you play as Bruce Banner were criticized for being too difficult while others praised it for its stealth based gameplay and variation provides within the game itself if you want to grab a copy its dirt cheap on eBay and still surprisingly fun to play today before we get to my final thoughts on the film there were talks of a seeker with Eric Bana returning the sequel was intended to be released in 2005 with the hope battling the leader and abomination but due to the failure of the film those plans were scrapped come 2006 when Marvel acquired the film rights they instead decided to do a soft reboot of the Hulk franchise with Edward Norton being cast as Bruce the film decided to start from fresh and threw in his accident as part of the opening credits taking inspiration from the late 70s TV show and had Bruce still on the run in South America so it didn't totally ignore the last film and how it ended but it was clear this was a new take with the entire cast being replaced I didn't mind this film at a time and did think it was better than the angly one but I'm repeated viewing it doesn't hold up well the fight between the Hulk and abomination being is only highlight for me I honestly think this and probably thought two of the weakest of the Marvel Universe series as this was early on in the world building of the MCU this one feels like the odd one out for mainly due to the fact they recast a Hulk again with Mark Ruffalo come the Avengers it was becoming clear to the filmmakers that the Hulk works best as a supporting character he can of course work as a lead in his own story but the benefits of surrounding him with other superheroes and having them working with him and not just having him being on the run for the military made his inclusion in the Avengers far more rewarding for the fans of the character and general moviegoers I saw Hulk back when it came out in 2003 I had really enjoyed spider-man the year before but missed out on daredevil which arrived a few months before the Hulk is seen the new Marvel movies were kicking off to a great start I wasn't really a huge fan of the character growing up I had seen the Incredible Hulk TV show that was repeated during my youth but I never really got into the comics but I was intrigued by the film when the early trailers looked impressive and the movie was being heavily pushed with his marketing so you couldn't really escape it so like many of us I rushed out to see the film is opening weekend and was very underwhelmed by it after it finished firstly I think the film was too long the script felt overstuffed and the comic book panel approach did appear overdone and after a while it made it for a strange viewing experience so what kind of rotor offers an average film that tried to do something different but wasn't really entertaining but I decided to give it another go when it arrived on DVD and at that point I loved films with tons of special features such as documentaries and interviews and the Hulk came with a ton of material so it was an easy sell on second viewing I found myself appreciating it more and understanding what Hayley was trying to do with the film it's real highlights other performances which are superb with Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliott being my favorite their moments together as they fight over the well-being of Bruce feels like a real conflict between father and daughter honestly making their scenes together the standout piece of the film of course Nick Nolte and Eric Bana both do wonderful jobs with their roles the highlight being the final confrontation as his father tries to persuade Bruce to pass on his powers to him so he can seek revenge for the pain and suffering they have both received over the years I think if kids went to see this at the time I believe they would have been bored senseless because the Hulk doesn't turn up to around 40 minutes into the movie which seems to be the sweet spot for origin stories Superman and Batman Begins have a similar length with their first introductions of them on screen and full costume but they both have interesting first axed whereas the Hulk gets bogged down with a lot of technical stuff behind the genetics and what Bruce is trying to do and how it could be used as a weapon and also we are dealing with his past and his father as well there is a lot going on and he gets muddled along the way and ultimately needed streamlining to get the action and excitement that people have come to expect from the Hulk as the director and writer have gone through a serious take on the classic comic book character I think it goes a bit too far and you end up with a film with no sense of humor it's pretty much void of jokes or sense of fun for a family to watch making the whole experience very dry the film makes use of great colors all the visuals pop the military base on the ground has yellows and purples it looks like a comic book comes to life and the whole film is wonderfully photographed but with a serious dialogue and tone it becomes an odd mix the death of agent Talbert is hilarious but I don't think it was supposed to be intentionally funny is - one moment in the film that stuck out as going too far with the comic book visual panels angley's shot so much footage for this film to create all these different angles to simulate the effect of you reading a comic book there are times when it works and benefits to movie with these really clever transitions and other times it becomes quite distracting like they have gone too far with it the film doesn't employ it all the time because it would have been a disaster but there are times I wish they didn't use this effect it would have been interesting to see an alternative cut without split screen all the images being broken into four panels would it have been received better or lost some of its visual flair perhaps with a movie based on the Hulk you're going to need some good action and destruction the movie does provide that but the scenes we get with the Hulk vary from exciting to frustrating the first time we see him it's cut very quickly and lit with limited lighting to hide him as Bruce makes his first transformation and tears up his office I don't really have a problem with this scene and I understand their intentions to shoot it that way the next reveal has some in better lighting conditions and he goes to rescue Betty from his father's mutant dogs this sequence is a letdown however you have these shots that look really well composed in isolated moments but the majority of the time you can't really see what's going on even on blu-ray when I got the DVD years back you could barely tell what was happening the Hulk's confrontation with the military is a brilliant sequence but they climax with his father as he turns into this electrical nightmarish monster as he absorbs all this energy you get this incredible imagery throughout the clouds looking like Renaissance paintings then fashion to a lake and his father turns into a rock monster and with it being sat at night again you can't see what the hell is going on that's what makes it so frustrating something amazing is happening in front of your eyes but you can barely see it I do feel angley's Hulk certainly gets better with repeated viewing as we've seen so many superhero films the last decade it's become very apparent they all follow similar formulas with their story structure it's easy to see why they do that because it still works I'm not sure for how long though but it becomes very obvious to me that many of these modern superior films all blend into one and it's hard for many of them to stand out and be an individual piece of work that can stand on its own merits Hulk doesn't follow that trend it does its own thing of course these were the early days of the new Marvel films so it didn't have a luxury of falling back onto an established series with a core audience in place he was still uncertain how to strike the right tone and make something work for a general audience x-men and spider-man worked and Hulk didn't quite hit the mark it was dull and too long for kids and for adults it didn't have any humor and the basic element to keep many people entertained is a sense of fun it was played very straight and it did work for some movie goers and I'm sure pleased to fans who grew up with the Hulk but overall it failed to make the impact it needed to give comic-book fans the definitive origin story of Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk there is some wonderful scenes in this film the drama and the emotional beats work extremely well and that's one of hanley strengths as a director you really feel for these characters if you've been enjoying the Marvel films of late but completely missed this movie then I would recommend giving it a go but if you had seen it before and wrote it off then perhaps returning to it now after all these years you may find its direction and approach to the character of the Hulk quite refreshing a flawed film for sure but handled by a great director who may have been the wrong choice a time to handle this property but he does bring some interesting elements to this comic book adaptation and gives us some great scenes that are sadly surrounded by somewhat dull and plodding moments [Music] your father grilled me about something that happened to me from early childhood I'm the guy who had your father tossed away and a lot more like him and I'll do the same with you if I feel so disposed you understand I was always told my father was dead don't play with me we were 4 years old we saw it when I saw what right there how could anyone forget a thing like that repressed memories as a scientist I believe we can figure this out and he can be helped I know the government thinks they have a weapon on their hands otherwise he'd be dead by now come on Ruth let's see what you got no son listen I found a cure my cells can transform to absorb enormous amounts of energy but unlike you they're unstable [Music] life now you must give it back to me fate of our locals and our uniforms too new to me I hope you enjoyed the video be sure to subscribe to see more retrospectives and commentaries also click on the bell to be notified of the latest reviews if you want access to exclusive videos and to watch my content a few days before it's on youtube you can head on over to my patreon thank you very much

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 93,095

Rating: 4.9091215 out of 5

Keywords: hulk 2003, ang lee, eric bana, oliver harper, jennifer connelly, hulk review, marvel movies, the incredible hulk, hulk 2003 review, hulk movie review, bruce banner, nick nolte, sam elliott, stan lee, josh lucas, betty ross, hulk 2003 game review, oliver harper retrospective, retrospective review, oliver harper commentary

Id: E9Gki-CcRDY

Length: 30min 44sec (1844 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019