This Hulk in Ragnarok feels more like where the character should've been going in Age of Ultron instead of what they did, which was more like a regression.
I think Joss Whedon just didn't know how to grow or use Hulk post-Avengers. I will somewhat excuse Whedon because he was trying to do what he wanted in Age of Ultron and also please Disney executives. Not to mention he had to prep that film and help set up Agents of SHIELD, along with helping to oversee the other Marvel films.
I guess I was more hopeful because while it wasn't perfect, Hulk in Avengers felt like a step in the right direction. Ragnarok proves it can work.
I just never understood why filmmakers refuse to let Hulk talk and have his own character before Ragnarok.
Yeah I suppose I gotta give Whedon some credit for balancing virtually any of this. I don't think many directors could. He had to make a follow up to a massive crossover event while also setting things up for the future.
In Hulk's case, I think he just knew he needed to get Hulk to split off from the team to leave things open for him to appear virtually anywhere, if not particularly outer space, so future directors can have access to him. The easy way to do that was regress his character back to the "lonely man", "woe is me I'm a monster" deal with Hulk losing control yet again and then deciding to exile himself.
With the benefit of hindsight now, I think the better thing to do would have been to establish Hulk becoming his own entity with growing intelligence. But instead of just going along with being Banner's way of contributing to combat situation and locked up in every other situation, Hulk doesn't like being used in that capacity and still feels the weight of being under Banner's shadow. He'd want to be respected as an individual and struggle to remain in control, which could make the team nervous but without making him a snarling, rabid monster that they
need a Hulkbuster and Lullaby to keep in check. Instead it becomes an issue of "how do we deal with one of our own having an internal war against himself?"
You could still have the Hulkbuster's creation be a joint effort from Stark and Bruce, so it's introduction wouldn't be a betrayal for Bruce, but Hulk would feel the insult of having Tony (the man he thought to be a potential friend, with how he encouraged
both sides of Bruce to embrace being a hero) design something to hurt him. Make Hulk vocal about how this is ********, that they wouldn't trust him despite him clearly being more than an animal.
Personally I'd like to rework the Hulkbuster encounter to be Ultron forcing his way into one of Tony's suits to give himself an ace in the hole. So it's essentially a proper Hulk vs Ultron scene instead of Ultron just getting the motor oil kicked out of him. But if we keep it as Tony vs Hulk, then my suggestions above could greatly change the scenario and possibly make audiences root for Hulk who could not be necessarily rampaging but instead making a bid for dominance over Banner. Instead of Hulk being hexxed, it could Scarlet Witch making the team increasingly paranoid about having an intelligent Hulk around to the point that they misunderstand and then retaliate with force against Hulk.
So Hulk can still be the wild card of the team but have an actual character to him, and even an arc aside from "Hulk protect pretty red head and run away". Maybe my ideas aren't perfect but they'd be a huge improvement over the increasingly animalistic Hulk we got in AoU.
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