114 Minutes Without Incident

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2008)

Now, I'm a little bit curious. Am I the only one who thinks this script was incredibly lame? Apparently so, for no one else here seems to disagree on any level with it. Let me take this occasion to lay out some of my concerns for you: First of all, they started the thing with a huge montage, in order to get done most of the exposition they must have been afraid would take them half of the movie otherwise. Fine, the advent of The Hulk was displayed thoroughly in 2003's "Hulk", but still. Though I really don't know much about The Hulk, I'm rather confident I could have taken these revelations in a more subtle way.
Overally, the way exposition was handled throughout the movie didn't engage me at all. A typical case of "on the nose" writing, it mostly lacked any kind of subtext which would have been necessary in order to strengthen both plot and performances. It's not that they didn't try to avoid a lot of lengthy back story revelation, but still less would have been more, and so especially the antagonistic dialog came across as increasingly tedious. More focus on Banner's side of the story might have helped. After all, the climactic battle between The Hulk and The Abomination was more than obvious from the first time we grasped Blonsky's intentions. What else did their subplot offer? A ruthless father figure? Oh, yeah, that too. Other than that, the second act specifically had this really annoying stain. You know, how they like to screw it up altogether. Kinda felt like that.
Then, another thing: Why am I still carefree about all the things that happened or might ever happen to the protagonists in the future? It may have something to do with weak turning points which, though present at some points throughout the plot, in the end delivered me a character which didn't change in any direction. He ended up being in just exactly the same position he was at the beginning of this movie, only locality changed. What does he know now that he didn't know before? Betty loves him, alright, but obviously that was true all along the way, never shattered, and the army is still after him.
Even the climactic decision, his alleged crisis whether to fight The Abomination or flee was, in fact, basically a "to do or not to do" decision, featuring no inner conflict at all. For someone who's basically invincible, what's at stake? At least, I never felt like he was truly in danger, so even if that would have been the case, the script somehow failed to transport the message. Delivering on that premise was a climactic fight that made my mind wander to the one featured in Marvel's last effort, "Iron Man", which is, hands down, one of the best movies I've ever seen.
So I'm left wondering why the treats of "Iron Man" worked so well for me, when, comparing it's basic storyline with the one of "The Incredible Hulk", there's really not much of a difference to begin with. Could it have something to do with afore mentioned issues? Only: hell, yeah! At this point, I could share some more facts I didn't dig about this movie, like bland scene transitions, flimsy sound mix (especially score), CGI overuse, spontaneous decline into profanity featuring unintended humor, etc. But I guess it is time to drop some good news as well, after all, I still gave it six stars out of ten. So, photography was lush, of course, the only thing that kept up my interest was the nice camera work and the amazingly well done composition of the material. After last weeks "Hancock" experience a real calmer. CGI did blend in nicely, no doubt, if not as great as it did in "Iron Man" (again, hands smoothly down). The acting was pretty decent, Tyler and Norton great choices, only Hurt didn't convince me this time. Lighting and overall mood was satisfying, if nothing special, I assume. And yes, also the screenplay didn't completely suck, it just could have been a lot better, is all I'm saying. There was even one moment I liked, watch out for Liv Tyler's scissoring skills (totally not the way you think).
Well, closing this report I have to confess - though you might already have guessed it - that my primary attention was all turned towards the writing, which just happens to be my favorite subject (though usually in German, I truly hope you're forgiving readers). Alright, resolution-time! Did my recommendation for this movie survive this reviews devastating downs and minor ups? In a way, yes. Basically, same goes as usual. If you're looking for a thrill ride and aren't in any way interested in anything I've said so far, please give it a shot. If you don't care about The Hulk right now and want it to stay this way, you have two options, either watch it, or don't watch it. Really, it doesn't matter. If you like stories and superb acting, go get a copy of Kramer Vs Kramer and stay at home. Totally worth it.
Whatever your choice, may the force be with you! Wait. This reminds me of something else. Ah, yeah. Seen the trailer already? Well, expect this very review with minor changes, but obviously copy and pasted, coming to your galaxy soon...