HULK

The healthy track record of 21st century film adaptations of Marvel Comics characters continues here with what may be the best of the lot.

HULK tells the story of how government biologist David Banner (Paul Kersey) was looking for a way to human cells more adaptable and resilient using reptile and amphibian DNA. Unable to get permission to use human volunteers, he did what every good mad scientist does: he used himself as a guinea pig. However, he was unable to find any concrete results until his son Bruce was born. When his Army bosses discovered what he was up to, Banner set off a gamma bomb at his lab to hide his work and was effectively "disappeared" by the government spooks for 30 years.

Coincidentally, Bruce (Eric Bana) grew up to enter the same field as his father, as did Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of David Banner's old boss General Thunderbolt Ross (Sam Elliott). Perhaps guided surreptitiously by Ross, Bruce is following the same line of research as his dad, who is now hovering around the lab disguised as Nick Nolte (whose arrest photos must have served as an audition for this role). When Bruce accidentally takes an overdose of "nanomeds" in the lab, it triggers his dormant gamma-mutated DNA, with his anger manifesting itself as mass. During times of stress, the normally reserved scientist loses control, becoming a huge green-skinned behemoth. And of course, the madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!

I had mixed feelings toward how the character's origin has been monkeyed with - you just can't beat that "born in the heart of a nuclear explosion" riff. But since the comic origin would only take a few minutes to tell, and the origin story takes up most of the film, writer James Shamus' plot quickly grew on me. With some help from the director's wife (who is a biochemist) the pseudoscience makes sense. Stan Lee swiped the whole origin idea from AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN anyway. What's important is that his vision of combining Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde into one super-powered monster survives.

Director Ang Lee does an... incredible job on all counts. The moving split-screen technique he devised to simulate comic panel juxtaposition sounds dumb when you read about it, but he and editor Tim Squyres make it work wonderfully, guiding the eye around the frame and often using the technique to multiply visual information without slowing the pace. He also uses the length of the film to his benefit, building dramatic tension slowly, then melding together fine performances and special effects in the second half. 

This later material is worth all the buildup, with scenes of the rampaging Hulk fighting the army all over the desert, smashing through San Francisco, and battling his father's savage "Hulk Dogs" all with a depth of realism beyond any f/x yet created. Putting down the download-happy dolts on the web, who got hold of an unfinished cut early on and were vocal in their disappointment, the f/x are possibly the best EVER in a movie. After getting rushed trying to finish work on MUMMY RETURNS, and having had to flush the work they'd done developing Universal's aborted digital Frankenstein feature, the folks at Industrial Light & Magic have poured everything they have into making the Hulk as believable a character as possible, from using Ang Lee himself to perform for the motion capture, to using new techniques that render a monster with reflective hair and breathing pores. When this Hulk goes on a rampage, you're there for every frame of it.

However, it's the story and acting that sells the show. Wisely, relative unknown Bana was chosen to play the lead, and he helps us reshape our idea of what Banner should be. Some of the strongest scenes in the picture just feature the cast (Nolte in particular) showing off their chops, making their roles as well-rounded as possible. With all this magic at hand, even the comic lettering used for the titles feels more like a respectful nod to the comics than a note of camp.

In the comics, in the course of the first few years, the Hulk soon developed his own life and personality, leaving the (increasingly rare) time spent as "puny Banner" to just marking time until there was an excuse for Hulk to return. Even some of Banner's friends started to like the Hulk more. In the TV series that many remember fondly, the Banner character dominated, with the Hulk relegated to a few freakouts where he lifted cars and caught the bad guys at the end. The movie allows us to get to know Bruce and get involved in his story. So even when the Hulk appears - and is much more fun, given his ability to leap 100 miles and smash up helicopters - we still care what happens to Bruce. Heck, for the first time in any medium, you can see that the two characters are really one. With every element married together by one of Danny Elfman's best scores, which mixes Bernard Hermann-like motifs with barumba rhythms, the result is like a weird collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and Jack Kirby.

The only flaw in this grand monster movie comes late in the game as a big climax is called for. Old David Banner tries to become a Hulk himself with a dose of gamma, but only gains the ability to replicate any substance he's in contact with - a clear adaptation of Marvel's villain Carl "Crusher" Creel, the Absorbing Man (who was introduced as a Thor villain, but was a natural foe for Hulk). Lee and company are a bit too vague and hurried as to just what it is happening to Old Papa Banner, and much of the audience is left in confusion. 

This confusion is a natural result of the Hulk's essence, though, a being shared by a brilliant scientist and an angry beast. The chaos extends a bit to Universal's "special edition" DVD, with some extras thrown onto disc one with the feature, and the remainder ending up on disc two in no particular order. Ang Lee does a fine job accompanying us on his commentrak, though at times he can't help but fall silent and watch the action. The feature can also be watched with one of those icon prompts that comes up whenever you can click over to some related behind-the-scenes footage. One somewhat wasteful feature is the "Anatomy" section, in which you can click on parts of a Hulk model and bring up trivia (yawn). Tucked within this bit is a nice reveal of some of ILM's digital work showing all the layers of Hulk's skin. However, this same stuff is covered again in disc two's excellent Making-Of documentaries. Disc one also has a few deleted scenes, including a second cameo by Lou Ferrigno and a scene where General Ross phones the mayor of San Francisco.

Another documentary featurette covers the Hulk's history through comics and television, including clips from the old MARVEL SUPER HEROES cartoon. Though all the various interpretations of the character couldn't be covered in one featurette, Universal takes a stab at honoring the comics by commissioning four Marvel artists to draw the same scene from the movie. This is a fun idea, but unfortunately they get too busy with it, spinning the camera all over the artwork until it makes you sick to watch it. More successful tribute is paid to all the artists that created the film, from a spotlight on the director to an interview with Elfman. There are also some DVD-ROM features present, but the big byte-gobbler is an entire level of the cool HULK video game for the Xbox. Sweet!

If the DVD is a bit jumbled, it's only a continuation of the chaotic atmosphere the character inspires. In every format, the Hulk gets the most criticism and gains the most loyal fans from the schizophrenic cacophony that follows him wherever he goes. Artists are more likely to break pencils drawing the Hulk than any other character. He can't be stopped, contained or controlled by any puny force, format or art form. GrrraaaAAAH!!