The Hulk
Directed by Ang Lee

The idea behind big budget action movies is that you're supposed to watch them more than once, but Hulk, which has been issued as a Widescreen 2-Disc Special Edition by Universal (22489, $27), just gets more disappointing every time you sit through it. There are a few aggressively designed action scenes-the first one, where he fights three dog monsters, is the best-but they contain blatant flaws that become more irritating on multiple viewings, a real no-no if that's all you've got going for you. The Hulk grabs a tank to toss it across the desert, and it barely scrapes the ground beneath it. Helicopters bump into one another chasing after him, but rather than crashing they miraculously stabilize and continue to fly. Finally, and worst of all, the big green guy himself falls about 60,000 feet into San Francisco Bay off the back of a fighter jet and he must have done a perfect swan dive because when he hits the water, there is no more than a little tiny plop of a splash-it's not only a mistake, it's ignoring what could have been a signature moment for the film. Instead, before the totally vague and dull climactic fight, between the Hulk character and a monster of greater power manifested from his father, there is an endless scene in which the stars who portray the alter egos of those two monsters, Eric Bana and Nick Nolte, sit in chairs (Bana is chained) against a bare black background and talk, forever. No wonder families looking for some escapism in the summer of 2003 were mostly bored stiff by the feature. It hasn't been directed by Ang Lee, the elegant magician who created the wonderful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it has instead been directed by Ang Lee, the lifeless stylist who made The Ice Storm. To be sure, the modular editing, which evokes comic book panels in a number of sequences, is enjoyable, and there are many stupider movies out there, but the drama is so talky and aimless that the show has no momentum of fun going for it. The promise of that inspired teaser, which appeared the year before in theaters with Spider-Man and then during the Super Bowl, of a guy in society's shadows who has serious anger management issues, has not been fulfilled.

The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The picture transfer is smooth, and the CGI effects probably look better on a modest sized video screen than on a big movie theater screen. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has an effectively nuanced bass and sufficient separation effects to make raising the volume well worthwhile. The 138-minute program has alternate French and Spanish audio tracks in 5.1 Dolby, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, a couple Sunny D commercials partially inspired by Hulk, a cast & crew profile section, and 3 minutes of deleted scenes. A playback option brings up a prompt that sends the viewer to a minute or two of good behind-the-scenes footage during a dozen sequences in the film. There is also a confusing little interactive segment with a drawing of the Hulk that brings up different pieces of information about the character and the special effects.

Lee supplies a commentary track, but he keeps things very generalized. He will make note of one or two points during a major scene, but never elaborate upon those points, and there are long passages where he doesn't speak at all. Don't let this mislead you into thinking his talk has merit, but he does have one bit of information that is definitely deserves sharing: "I have a suspicion that people with different colored irises see things differently. Because the scene is so dark, from person to person, some say it is too dark and some say it is too bright. My two cameramen from the past, in shooting Chinese films, when we make American prints, they both suggest to me, they say America is more sensitive to light. People have lighter eyes, and perceive light like two points more sensitive, so we lower the prints, the light, by two points. Both cameramen said that to me."

The second platter opens with a cute little feature in which storyboards for a 2-minute scene from the film are rendered by four different comic book artists. Through multi-angle functions, you can play back each version and also read about each of the four artists. There is a 14-minute profile of Lee's work on the film, a fairly standard 24-minute production documentary, a good 10-minute segment about the dog monsters (as seen in this piece and elsewhere, Lee himself actually played the Hulk at times, performing actions in a motion-capture suit), a superficial 5-minute segment on the 'panel' editing, and a 16-minute 'history' of the Hulk, designed primarily to promote the movie and other Universal products.

- December 16, 2003

 

The Alien Quadrilogy
 The Two Towers: Special Edition
 Indiana Jones Adventures
 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
 Finding Nemo
 Halloween Resurrection
Blue Crush
 Matrix Reloaded
 The Lion King
 8 Mile
Gods & Generals
Bowling for Columbine
 Chicago
 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
 Straw Dogs
There's Something About Mary
 Black Hawk Down
 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
 Once Upon A Time In America
 Gangs Of New York
 Treasure Planet