This far surpassed my expectations after seeing the trailer and is EXACTLY what i wanted in a Hulk movie! It promised big things and it delivered, big time. In short-it was INCREDIBLE (sorry had to say it)!! At first it seemed they have tried to dismiss Ang Lee's original take and instead re-booted the entire franchise- new actors, new style and a new Hulk design. But we find out that it is a continuation of sorts, and starts where the last one left off. They just wanted to package it differently for Marvel's new future intentions (which you will understand with the last scene of this movie and the extra-special scene after the end credits of Iron Man which i hope you all caught!) Now i'm one of the very few people that really admired Lee's take on the comic in the original movie. Whilst everyone else was expecting mindless action (which is what we get here, but done to a perfected standard), i appreciated that he did it differently and from a psychological drama perspective where we really feel and understand Banner's inner torment properly and thoroughly. That, as we now see here, was the "origin" story- and so with this movie we cut to where it counts: the ass kicking! Wheras Lee's version was a slow, complex drama- this is just straight forward action of epic scales, which juxtaposes perfectly against it's predecessor. Gone is the long build up origin story- here we see the story set up in the beginning credits, and then what follows is a relentless action movie which moves at breakneck pace.
Hiding away in Brazil, Bruce Banner is still on the run from the US Army intent on capturing him and abusing his powers for their own personal use. Unable to catch him , they hire top KGB agent Emil Blonsky- the best soldier on the field. Even when he can't seem to bring The Hulk down, he decides to even the playing field by injecting himself with an even greater quantity of Gamma radiation than Banner was exposed to. Blonsky then transforms into the Abomination- a being with strength and anger that far exceeds even that of the Hulk. What follows then is the biggest, baddest most epic ass kicking i have ever witnessed on film! Norton is terrific as Bruce Banner (a different portrayal than Eric Bana's from the first movie, both work great), Liv Tyler is "meh" as Betty Ross (though her lines are pretty weak, her facial expressions do portray the character really well- its when she says nothing that really make her role work though she is no match for previous actress Jennifer Connelly). Stand out performance here, for me anyway, was Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination. I've admired him as an actor for years now and here it seems he's just playing himself, but even then he oozes coolness and i thought he was great. William Hurt now plays General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, and whilst he his sneaky, manipulative and menacing to a T i still thought Sam Elliot played it better in the first movie.
The action, at first, is given in suttle doses but when it gears up it literally unleashes hell! Exacty what we want to be seeing in a movie about a giant green angry creature! And when it kicks up near the end, it's unstoppable- perfect pacing for a Hulk movie. Action is intense the whole way through and the final battle between Hulk and The Abomination was mightily impressive; it was pretty long for a finale but even then i still wanted more- and that's saying something considering usually i can't wait for long battles to end (Transformers was guilty of this). CGI here is awesome, Hulk performance is brilliant and the choreography is mind-blowing and there are enough nods and homages to the comics, video games and original TV series to make it stand out (loved the new rendition of The Lonely Man theme from the 1970s show!).
I loved every second of Hulk's screen time and i wanted more! Even though i thought the original was awesome, they upped the stakes here and made him 10 times more angry and it worked a treat. Needless to say i was once again smiling like a kid every time Hulk showed up- bigger and badder than ever before! Director Louis Letterier (Transporter, Transporter 2) a veteran of stylish action movies gives us his piece de resistance here- and it really rocks!
Of course the movie does have it's faults- it seems disjointed at times and the pacing seems off, however it is understandable considering there were disputes between Universal, Letterier and Norton with the final cut of the movie, and so a good 70+ minutes were cut out of the film (which will be put back in for the Director's Cut Blu-Ray). So at times the movie seems a mess but i can see why the cut stuff out considering the first film didn't do particularly well as it was overlong. Still, there's enough depth in the film as needed between the action and it does it's job. There are also other faults but i was having way too much fun to even contemplate looking at those!
All in all a perfect Marvel comic book movie and a perfect Hulk movie- as well as being a perfect overblown wham BLAM action compliment to Ang Lee's original subdued drama. Lee's version played more like Ridley Scott's "Alien", and Leterrier's is more James Camerons "Aliens". Both go hand in hand very, very well!.
Verdict: Incredible and for the fans! 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment