In the comics you could get away with all those muscles, but not so much in live action.
Exactly.
Ang Lee treated the material as a whole with a great sense of realism.
It's funny people didn't start appreciating grounded, intelligent realistic superhero films until AFTER Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Hulk was just a bit ahead of its time, and its core audience simply didn't get it.
Do I think it's a perfect film? Absolutely not. It has its own set of oddities, quirks, and aspects I don't like or agree with. But it is by far and away one of the best Marvel movies. Maybe THE best in my opinion.
It's so interesting. And then the complaints I usually hear are the most ridiculous to actually critique. Hulk Poodles? Ummm yea, Hulk dogs were in the comics too.
They also fail to mention how vicious said poodle actually was, then also fail to mention Hulk also fights a pit bull and mastif. Two of the most dangerous dogs on the planet.
And it's also a wonderful nod to King Kong. A character and movie Hulk shares a lot in common with. A misunderstood physical force of nature that is taken out of his element. For Kong its the prehistoric jungle, for the Hulk, he's taken out of Banner's mind and released on the world.
Hulks fight v.s. his father? Weak. Ummm no, it was psychological war fare ... and that was the entire point of the film. The daddy issues that are at the heart of what make Banner turn into Hulk.
Hulk is about REPRESSED rage. Not expressed rage. If Banner expressed himself, we wouldn't have a Hulk. It's the fact he bottles himself up to the point for so long, he essentially explodes.
"Hulk looks like Shrek" ... that started ever since the super bowl spot came out with noticeable un-finished CGI. And it was the same year Shrek 2 was coming out, so people wanted to make an issue out of it. The CGI for that film still stands up today. There are a few shots here and there that look awkward but nothing that takes me out of the film. He looks, moves, and acts real for the most part. TIH, straight up looks like a really well done video game.
Catering way too much to the fanboys visually. I get they were going for the more savage potrayl. But I prefer Ang's child like potrayl of Hulk. After all Hulk was created as a child with the repressed memories.
Why does Hulk look like Eric Bana? Well because this is a movie with real actors, and visually it makes sense and looks real. Why would his facial structure change to something primative? Hulk is Banner. So it should look like Banner. What works on a comic page, doesn't always work on screen.