It would be nearly impossible for me to think about next summer’s ‘Incredible Hulk’ without at least mentioning Ang Lee’s 2003 effort, but the script I just read does everything it can to forget that movie ever happened.
Like ‘Batman Begins’, this movie is a reboot, revamp, reimagining or redo. Whatever you want to call it, it has little in common with the last big-screen adaptation, with the exception of the main characters.
Rather than go the cerebral (some might say pretentious) route that Lee took, this one is all-out action, and I think it’s the Hulk movie fans have been waiting for. I’m going to try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but be forewarned – I will be giving you a basic overview of the plot here, so if you absolutely don’t want to know what happens, you might not want to read any further.
While this movie does hit the proverbial reset button, it skips the traditional origin story and opens with Banner on the run from the authorities for five years, hiding from the law while searching for a cure for his gamma irradiated affliction. Fans of Bruce Jones’ run on The Incredible Hulk comic will find a lot to love, as the film has a very similar tone with Bruce seeking solace through meditation and yoga, and, under the guise of “Mr. Green”, communicating covertly with a “Mr. Blue”, who seemingly has clues, which may lead to the elimination of Bruce’s alter ego.
The search leads him back to America, and into the arms of his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross, who has taken up with a new man, psychiatrist Samson Adams, in Bruce’s absence. Naturally, the government is on the hunt for Banner, led by Betty’s maniacal father General Thunderbolt Ross and Emil Blonsky who, in this version of the story, is some sort of black ops military guy, rather than a Soviet spy. Which makes total sense, given the fact that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Through flashbacks, we learn that Bruce and Betty were part of a super-soldier project that was overseen by General Ross. With funding on the project being cut, Banner used himself as a test subject, which, of course, led to the creation of the Hulk.
While Bruce and Betty are looking for Mr. Blue and a possible cure, Emil Blonsky is volunteering to be General Ross’ latest guinea pig in the super-soldier project. Long story short; there’s lots of action, with The Hulk fighting a bunch of high-tech soldiers, and when Blonsky finally becomes The Abomination, there’s a big ol’ monster throwdown at the end of the movie.
There’s an interesting dichotomy between Banner and Blonsky: one is a pacifist, trying to quell the monster within, while the other is a sadist who just wants an outlet for his inner demons, and is all too happy to find it in gamma radiation. When the two finally collide, it’s nothing short of earth-shattering. Or at least, it will be, assuming the budget allows it.
As I said earlier, this movie borrows a lot from Bruce Jones’ run on the Hulk comic, and it is also very reminiscent of the Incredible Hulk television series. The whole “man on the run trying to contain the monster within” idea is straight out of the old show, and to be totally honest, I had a really hard time not seeing Bill Bixby’s face every time I read Banner’s lines. As a huge fan of the show, this was absolutely no problem as far as I’m concerned.
There are several more nods to the old show throughout the script, including the first documented Hulk sighting by a “Jack McGhee”. Naturally, my inner geek was overjoyed at the mention of this name. Those of you who are too young to remember the series won’t know what I’m talking about, but as someone who grew up on the show, it was great to see this name mentioned.
As far as the rest of the movie is concerned, this isn’t what you’d call a thinker. It’s a big time summer blockbuster through and through. It opens quietly enough, but once the action kicks in, it hits the ground running and doesn’t let up until the climax. Which, in my mind, is exactly how a Hulk movie should be.
Of course, the seemingly inescapable drawback of a big budget action movie is the cheesy dialogue and corny one-liners. It just seems to go hand-in-hand with the genre, and this movie is no exception. However, the script I was given was dated May 13, 2007, so who knows what kind of changes were made between then and now?
Hopefully some of this was cleaned up before or during filming. The only other real critique I have was the completely unnecessary change of Doctor Leonard Samson’s name to Samson Adams. Who the hell names their kid Samson? I don’t mean to be nitpicky, but this alteration just seemed stupid to me.
All-in-all, this script, while it is just a first draft, has given me a lot of hope for what the Hulk could be, and I have a feeling this one will jumpstart the franchise. While I appreciate the fact that Ang Lee tried to do something different with his film, I think he overcomplicated the story and sort of missed the point, and we ended up with a wishy-washy Hulk. This version of The Hulk might swing the pendulum just a tad too far in the other direction, but it’s not like you can really ever have too much “Hulk Smash!”, can you?
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