Saw Hulk Movie

[drcpunk]

It wasn't as bad as I'd heard. In fact, it was fun to watch. But, it's no Iron Man.

The opening montage shows "Okay, Banner's Hulk, and this is the girl, and this is the guy who's the obstacle, and he's on the run." Lovely sequence -- we really don't need more than that.

After that... well, it's about 3/4 of a decent movie, and then it just ends abruptly.

Also, the General's tactics tend towards the stupid. I'm more a dove than a hawk, but I am so, so tired of the portrayal of the military as stupid and stupidly evil.

Okay, attacking in Brazil? Not bad. Good strategy to identify without contact, good plan to knock Banner out; it just didn't work. After that? Chasing Banner through a major populated area? Not great.

And then, planning an attack on a USA college campus? I am sure there are worse places to attack Banner / Hulk, but this is pretty bad. mnemex says it's about the message: The general wants his daughter to see that Hulk = Monster.

Okay, yeah, I get that, but even so, attacking when he's awake, on a crowded college campus? Dumb. Really dumb.

Good follow up scene with the rival boyfriend, and one can see exactly why he thought he needed to call in the general, and why he understands this was a mistake. And the General's comment about his daughter, "Where does she -find- these guys?" is a lovely bit of understated praise for our heroine's taste in guys.

The NYC mad scientist is lovely. He's a completely different point of view on the whole Hulk / super soldier serum.

The big fight that follows? Okay, it's not boring. And, "pure soldier" vs "nice guy who happens to turn into a monster" is not a bad concept. But making this the climactic fight is emotionally rather hollow. I mean, so what? And, the movie pretty much ends there.

I wonder if there was anything cut. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought I remembered two bits from the trailer that weren't in the movie. One was Banner saying to the General that the "only thing" that could defeat the Evil Abomination Soldier was "in me". The other was Banner telling Betty that he had to go far away from civilization.

The end Hulk sequence, with his eyes turning green during meditation, has me wondering what the heck I'm supposed to think. Did he induce this on purpose? Did he destroy the cottage where he'd set everything up so carefully? And, he's got the gold necklace -- does this mean Betty did pawn it, and Banner got it back?

The pacing was pretty good, but it still felt like we're missing about a quarter hour's worth of plot in there.

Comments

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

I totally agree -- I think there *was* a better movie there, but it got edited to death.

My impression was that Betty *had* in fact pawned the necklace (for about five seconds earlier in the movie, I believe we see them emerging together from a pawnshop) and that Banner had somehow gotten the money together to buy it back for her.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. I probably blinked. That's cool.

[avram]

The bit with his eyes at the end is supposed to be ambiguous. See, they're planning to use the Hulk in the upcoming Avengers movie. They can go two ways: Either Banner's got some control, so he's one of the Avengers, or he doesn't and the Hulk is a menace they have to defeat. Which option they would go for depended on how the movie did at the box office, which would determine whether there was a sequel.

Since it's done well, there'll presumably be another Hulk movie, probably one in which the NYC mad scientist guy becomes the Leader, though conceivably Betty's other boyfriend could become Doc Samson.

As far as the military's choices of where to attack Banner, well, it's not like they can just attack him any time they want. They're constrained by not knowing where he is most of the time.

And that was probably the least crowded college campus I've ever seen. I mean, aside from Banner, Betty, and the military, the only people there were those two students with the camera-phone. I was wondering if maybe it was between semesters or something. I've seen more people on Columbia's campus at 3 AM on a weekend.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

As far as the military goes, I'll buy your explanation for Brazil. There, it was a good plan; it just didn't work.

For the campus... not so much. He's awake and alert, which is a problem to begin with. Coming after him when he's asleep is much better. Ideally, you get folks who are good at tailing discreetly, and wait until he sleeps. Less ideally, well, he's heading to a bus stop. Once they know that -- I'm assuming they don't know it to begin with -- if possible, get someone who doesn't vibe military on the bus. Regardless, get people everywhere that the bus might stop, find out where he sleeps.

And, while I was thinking, "Hm, they might not have anyone discreet enough", well, that's not true. They did it in Brazil, where I'm guessing they'd stand out a lot more.

I don't think it was between semesters, as we do see more people when Banner first arrives. And, I'm wondering what the administration thinks of the property damage, but that's another question, and one that really didn't occur to me until now.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Hm. According to wikipedia and imdb, Betty's boyfriend is indeed Samson, though just because he's named that doesn't mean he becomes that Samson, I guess. Still, both imdb and wikipedia are working under the assumption that he does.