The Subtle Differences That Could Have Changed This Movie Profoundly

[Lebeau]

I saw Hulk when it was released in cinemas, then never watched it again. I was really disappointed with it, and while I enjoyed some of the cinematics just wasn't conviced by it at all. Last week I decided to rent it and my mind has changed completely...it was a really great film aside from a few minor mistakes. This film could have been great...the transitions were beautiful, it really captured the feel of a comic book and I thought really worked.

So what could they have changed?

- Rick Jones: the guy he saved in the lab was a nobody, just an extra. It would have been so easy to turn him into Rick Jones. I didn't mind Hulk's origin in this one, it was scientifically relevant with the use of Nanotechnology and mirrored the Gamma Bomb close enough...aside from that minor Rick Jones detail.

- Mutant poodles? A completely unecessary detail. It made the film ridiculous, and gave the idea that at this early stage of Gamma testing, you could successfully inject anything with the Hulk's DNA and make it a weapon. It was stupid.

- The Absorbing Man/Leader: I got so excited on first viewing when the janitor starting looking like the bad guy...I was jumping out of my seat expecting that big green giant forehead to pop up on screen...instead it became a pseudo-Absorbing Man.

- The Hulk: It's the same criticism used all the time, he was a symbol...he wasn't real and it took away from the beauty and monstrosity that is Banner's transformation and his loneliness. I thought some of it was done well, but at 4 stories tall and bright green...it just didn't feel believable at all (not that a man turning green when he's angry is.)

Anyone else get the same impression of Ang Lee's film?

 

[The Chris]

Well, I still like the movie, but nowhere near as much as I used too. I think a big problem for me is it takes all that time to set up characters, and in the end, I find that I don't care about a single one of them. Ross was an annoying jerk, David banner was over the top and ridicolous, Betty wasn't too interesting either, and Bruce himself was kind of boring. There also needs to be an element as well that says how bad it is to be the Hulk, or how much Banner doesn't want to be the Hulk and I didn't feel that at all. The best superhero films (Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, Superman) In the end, I cared about their journey and in turn liked them more because of it, I think the problem here is that their journey was all ir could be.

 

[webhead731]

Hulk was too big. =(

I did like the movie though.

 

[El Payaso]

For me the main problem was the weird mixture between a summer blockbuster and an artistic movie (being the latter my favourite choice).

That made some of the psychological aspects to feel superficial and the hulk-dogs to look weird.

 

[SFII]

when i first saw the film in theaters back in 2003, i actually liked it.
i don't really understand why people didn't like it. i thought the "dog" fight was actually pretty cool. fighting in the redwood treetops. awesome. and it really gave you an idea of how massive these things(Hulk and dogs) were.
one thing that could've been better was a better villain to fight against, to make it a more exciting fight scene.

i guess maybe the plot itself was kindof mellow, slowpaced, and somewhat boring.
i don't know.

and from what i'm seeing from the new commercials for the new movie, the Hulk himself doesn't look all that different from the 2003 one. heh.
maybe people just didn't like the fact that an asian director Ang Lee was behind the scenes.

 

[Lebeau]

An asian director behind the scenes? I really don't think that has anything to do with absolutely anybody's opinion of the film. Kind of nuts if you didn't like the film for that reason.

 

[B4rr1c4d3]

I really liked the movie at the time, but felt it was lacking something. TIH seems to have hit the nail on the head for me really, well from what clips/previews I have seen already.

 

[SFII]

i just watched the film again last night. to me, it seemed like the Hulk himself was too nice and gentle and peaceful. i think it would've been more exciting to see an angry motherFer. plus, the storyline seemed a little bit too serious and depressing. i hope we see a more action, exciting type of film in the new one.
btw, i didn't realize this 2003 film was rated PG-13. maybe that had something to do with why it didn't do as well, or make as much money. i hear that Marvel Studios is gonna keep all their movies no more than just PG.

 

[Sun_Down]

-Eliminate the mutant poodles
-Have Bruce's dad turn into something more formidable for a more clear final battle (I did like the father/son storyline, though)
-Eliminate the stupid "comic panel" camera work

Do that and I really think the film would work much, much better.

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

My only disappointment concerning this movie right now is that I deleted my Absorbing Dad avatar I was using at the time from my hard drive.

 

[SFII]

right, the comic panel camera work was creative, but it would've been better without that creativity.

btw, that dog wasn't a poodle.

 

[Joker]

One of the dogs WAS a poodle.

 

[matthooper]

How about a director who knew who the Hulk actually was. The best comic films have directors who either loved the character before filming or became a fan before filming. Raimi, Favreau, Nolan, they all understood he character. Lee, by his own admission really knew nothing of the character. The entire film is a metaphor. It's not a comic book movie. He put in the comicbook cuts simply because it was the easiest way to make a homage to a comic.

I have not seen it yet, but it appears the director of the new Hulk film gets it.

 

[murdock_matt]

My biggest problem was the "comic-book-panel" style used throughout the movie. It just seemed too gimmicky. There were a few instances where it worked (like Talbot talking to Bruce in the lab - we saw Talbot talking/Bruce reacting/Betty watching all at the same time). But there were times where it served absolutely NO PURPOSE whatsoever. Did we really need two angles to see (1)Talbot getting up from a lobby sofa and approach (2) Betty standing in front of elevator doors? There was no cinematic/narrative reason for a lot of the camera tricks.

I appreciate creativity, but pointless over-creativity is distracting. The freeze-frame of Talbot being blown up - and then having his outline traced by a white line before he is engulfed in flames - really takes away from the righteous irony we should have been cheering.

I didn't mind the psychological aspects of the film but they could have been handled a little better.

 

[SFII]

How about a director who knew who the Hulk actually was. The best comic films have directors who either loved the character before filming or became a fan before filming. Raimi, Favreau, Nolan, they all understood he character. Lee, by his own admission really knew nothing of the character. The entire film is a metaphor. It's not a comic book movie. He put in the comicbook cuts simply because it was the easiest way to make a homage to a comic.

I have not seen it yet, but it appears the director of the new Hulk film gets it.

i like that explanation.

 

[Man Who Laughed]

The comic panel transitions, while a clever concept, should have been cut. The fans and general audiences are not in theaters to watch a comic book. They are there to watch the translation from comic to screen. The comics and the movie are separate universes, separate continuities. That's the fun of watching comic characters we love onscreen. They are interpreted differently, but at the core are usually still the characters we love.

Everything that has been said about poor character development, I agree with. I honestly couldn't have cared less about the characters at the end of the film. They tried to have us connect to Bruce with the flashbacks, but overall, it just didn't work.

Going back to the characters again, who the hell was the villain? The movie focuses way too much on Ross, and not enough time on David Banner. Is he the Absorbing Man? Leader? No. He is really just a glorified henchman to his own intent. So the fans get stuck with this weird amalgam villain that has no real definition. In the new movie, apparently they never use the word "Abomination" in reference to Roth's character, but we all know who he is. Hulk tried to create a whole new villain, which a comic movie really shouldn't do.

There was a lot of potential making Bruce's father the villain. Bruce struggles with himself as the Hulk, and hates what his father indirectly made him. Hates that his father wants to exploit it. And now its all that can stop his father. There's an emotional factor there that was completely untouched.

 

[co2]

I liked the panels. Gave you something to keep you engaged in slower expositional moments.

As far as changes...
1. The size changing. I really liked the design of Hulk. If they had kept him at the 9' level he was at the first transformation, he would have been absolutely perfect!
2. I wish Bruce's past could have been revealed slowly through Bruce's dreams and flashbacks from his father rather than being so front loaded in the front of the film. This would have allowed us to get to Hulk a little quicker and made it a mysterious reveal as to Bruce's past and who the janitor actually was. That would have propelled the movie forward with a lot of momentum. I watch the movie now and think how incredible it would have been if it could just be re-edited.
3. Yeah, why couldn't Harper, the lab assistant, be named Jones?

That's really it. I like Bann but think maybe he might have been miscast. If Norton could be in that role with the changes I suggest above, it would have been the greatest movie ever made.

 

[Swordmaster]

Have his eyes go green before he Hulks out. They did it in the last scene, but the others (maybe the one before the last fight, but it was too dark to see) lacked it.

 

[StanLee Wannabe]

I liked the panels. Gave you something to keep you engaged in slower expositional moments.

That comment is spot on. It really worked well in the transport scenes (both Hulk and Father) as well as the combat scenes. Added to the 2008 movie and it would have made that even better.

I didn't like the way they did the explosion death of the pharmaceutical guy though. I realize they were trying to make extra sure that the one death in the film (other injuries were explained to be ok in painful fashion) was kiddie-friendly.

 

[Batmania]

I liked the panels - in parts. It was interesting to see multi-character perspectives, etc. but they were overused and sometimes seemed to be used for the sake of it. It was also distracting, trying to take in the different boxes all at once.

 

[November Rain]

Perhaps there wasn't too much conflict between banner and the hulk himself, this is also a criticism of this newer version as well. Banner should have hated the hulk, the hulk should have hated banner however considering the screenplay and how the hulk was a manifestation of all of banner's deeply buried emotions, i could see why he wouldn't hate him so much.

a rick jones character would have helped considerably in both films.

The absorbing dad obviously had some sort of conflict with regards to the military and general ross, perhaps the final fight scene should have been extended to first have david try to get to ross and then maybe betty, being defeated by the hulk and then realising the power sap idea would be his best method ultimately leading to his destruction. he should have put more blame on ross for the death of his wife and being incarcerated but apart from a look they shared and a lil rambling, there was nothing else.

I truelly think every thing else they did was alright and was necessary for their particular narrative, maybe giving hulk more motivation for his first hulk out and perhaps refining the earlier aspects of the film to keep it flowing up till that point.

Now while i do like the dog scene, I wouldn't have minded seeing some sort of gamma radiated primate also in the mix (two dogs, one primate) to mix things up a lil.

the funny thing is i don't believe any of these real changes would have made it any more accessible to the general public, I just don't think they really want to see the hulk as a complex character.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

I never thought the 2003 version was really bad ,but just lacking something. That little extra push. For instance i was watching it not to long ago and when Bruce is captured the 1st time.you see this long drawn out sequence as they transport him down to the bowels of gamma base. I was thinking when i saw it that he's going to change and go all hulk on their asses. The next thing you see is banner walking with Betty and all these soldiers walking behind him. I was like WTF! there was no payoff as fans of what we expect to see from the hulk .For the new one there was too much and not enough pathos to make you feel for him. Just all out ass kicking.
Nick Nolte and his character was completely unnecessary to me in the 2003 version. I
always believed that the arch-enemy of the Hulk has always been Thunderbolt Ross and the government. Maybe at the time they didn't want to show the government in a bad light so they never came across as a villain.In the comics ,Ross is Captain Ahab with the Hulk as his Moby Dick. I didn't see that and Ross came off as weak. In the new one Ross as a character is much more driven and a better nemesis.
if they were to take parts from both hulk movies and combine them.Then they would have an awesome movie IMO.
..... oh and film a climactic battle where people can see it.

 

[Slushy]

Before I saw The Incredible Hulk, I decided to watch Hulk again just to get myself pumped up.

What I didn't like:

- Too much Jennifer Connelly. I never really liked her anyway so I'm glad she wasn't brought back.

- Hulk fighting really big dogs. It sounds cool on paper, but it was terrible actually seeing it.

- Pacing. I appreciate that they tried to infuse more dramatic elements into the story and not just Hulk smash, but the pacing was way too slow. At times, I felt like I was watching The Ice Storm, another Ang Lee film, rather than Hulk. And while the slow pacing worked for that movie, it certainly didn't for this one.

- The Hulk's dad being Absorbing Man

- The finale. I thought the idea of the last act was good, but everything was in the dark, and you couldn't make out anything on screen. Definitely needed more "heroic" moments from Hulk here.

- The Hulk's size. Hulk gets stronger the angrier he gets, not bigger. It was unnecessary creative change.

What I did like:

- I liked the comic book framing.

- I like the overall storyline, and how they gave Banner a more complex origin. He didn't just get bombarded by gamma rays and changed into the Hulk. He survived because his father experimented on him when he was young, so that change to his DNA, combined with witnessing the murder of his mother, combined with the gamma radiation created a perfect storm for the Hulk to be born. And I liked how Hulk defeated his father at the end. Basically, all his father cared about was getting more and more power, and he wanted his son's power. But his son's power derived from his anger, and the anger was so great that the father couldn't handle it.

 

[honest george]

I like the overall storyline, and how they gave Banner a more complex origin. He didn't just get bombarded by gamma rays and changed into the Hulk. He survived because his father experimented on him when he was young, so that change to his DNA, combined with witnessing the murder of his mother, combined with the gamma radiation created a perfect storm for the Hulk to be born. And I liked how Hulk defeated his father at the end. Basically, all his father cared about was getting more and more power, and he wanted his son's power. But his son's power derived from his anger, and the anger was so great that the father couldn't handle it.

Totally agree. This film had more drama, it was a monster story where the real monsters were the fathers (like a classic Universal Monster movie). Although, you got the sense Sam Elliot's Ross actually cared for his daughter, but Hurt's Ross was just a jerk. Bruce's dad was plain twisted and evil.