Real Reviews - The Hulk HD DVD

Adapted from the Marvel comic book and the well-known 1970s television series, Hulk is the big screen debut of that lovable brute created by Stan Lee. Basically the Hulk is a Jekyll & Hyde character, transforming from scientist Bruce Banner, played by Eric Bana, into the angry and quite strong green monster known as Hulk.

The movie was better than I anticipated, with a bit of good character development and a good back story about Bruce Banner’s father injecting him with a toxic reanimation agent when Bruce was a child. Nick Nolte plays Bruce’s father, Dr. Banner, who returns to his son and tries to assimilate the essence of the Hulk’s strength. What I particularly liked about the characterization of the Hulk was the element of pathos injected into his plight. Shouldn’t we feel sorry for a man who has been genetically manipulated against his will? Shouldn’t we sympathize with his inability to control his transformation into the green giant Hulk?

Overall, the acting was adequate but tended toward average, and the plot was a little fuzzy. I was never sure who was the bad guy: was Bruce’s girlfriend’s father, the military commander, the bad guy? or was Bruce’s father, Dr. Banner, the bad guy? Everyone wanted to control the power of the Hulk, but always for selfish reasons. The plot was a bit thin, so I guess I expected a little too much here.

Directed by Ang Lee, Hulk features some great CGI graphics. I especially enjoyed the excellent Hulk monster who was full of human emotions and facial expressions. I also liked the editing: there is lots of good transitions including multi-panel images with simultaneous scenes and also the interesting use of wipes and montages. I got the feeling that the movie was indeed a comic book come to life.

I watched Hulk on HD DVD and the PQ was absolutely gorgeous: one of the cleanest films on HD. The AQ was a mixed bag because it had a good sound design but the volume levels were uneven. The dialog was very soft at times. Maybe I’m really spoiled by uncompressed audio tracks because they are so dynamic and these lossy tracks are a bit muffled sounding. In a word, the PQ was pure HD, but the AQ seemed only DVD quality.

The disc included an assortment of deleted scenes, a behind the scene look at several scenes in the movie, a brief history of the Hulk, and a commentary track by director Ang Lee.

Rating: 7

Source Chuck’s Movie Reviews

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