The climactic extended chase through desert, city and ultimate battle with a movie version of the old Marvel villain Absorbing Man is plenty fun, too. One of the great bits that they've resurrected from the comics is the Hulk's ability to travel great distances by leaping really high (and, no, he doesn't balance deftly on the upper branches of trees!) Watching the creature bound from desert rock into desert canyon - or swing one tank against another, I was happily thinking this is what Jack Kirby saw when he was first visualizing this book. In those moments, I was almost totally willing to forgive the movie the time it took to get to 'em. Perhaps I even would've forgotten the movie's first half if I didn't have this damn scraped tongue.
The Hulk's not the worst of the new superhero movies: every once in a while Lee's pure visual sense enlivens even the drabbest set-up moments (he gets a lot of good foreboding imagery out of his desert setting, for instance) and, unlike Daredevil, you pretty much can figure out what going on in the action sequences (one big exception: an underwater fight between Hulk and a CGI Nolte). If it's not the unmitigated disaster some fans were predicting based on its rough cut Super Bowl tv promo, it's not the sublime art-'n'-genre blend that many of us were hoping for either. Years from now, I bet movie historians'll look at it as an interesting blip on the director's career.
Got an appointment to get my tooth refilled next week. Perhaps I'll be more tolerant when League of Extraordinary Gentlemen debuts. . .
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Come on Frenchie, snap it.
2 - Kate Sherrod
Not a speck of cereal.
I wasn't going to read any Hulk reviews since I might actually make the 80-mile round trip to see this one, but I couldn't resist the title of this post.
That is all.
3 - Al Barger
"Little paws sticking up..."
4 - Bill Sherman
"Nuthin' but the best for my dog. . ."