Hulk
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 This film will make you angry. And we won’t like you when you’re angry.
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Hulk is a 2003 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero The Hulk. The film was directed by Ang Lee and stars Eric Bana as Bruce Banner/Hulk. It follows Bruce Banner (or by his adopted mother's name Krenzler) is fighting his inner demons after an accident involving gamma radiation that causes him to become the Hulk.
It's later established that the universe this movie takes place in is Earth-400083.
Plot
Bruce Banner is a research scientist at a Berkeley, California laboratory. His work focuses on using nanomeds and gamma radiation to cure cancer and other diseases. Unfortunately, all of their experiments end in the test animals violently exploding. He works with Betty Ross; they were recently romantically involved, but have broken up because Bruce was too emotionally withdrawn. Although neither of them knows it, their fathers worked together on an Army base in New Mexico. In the late 1960s, David Banner was a driven research scientist intent on unlocking the secrets of regeneration of tissue so that humans could regrow lost limbs. Sgt. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross shut down Brian's experiments when he learned that he had been experimenting on himself for dangerous purposes. David was aware of the risks and already feared that he had passed on some genetic mutation to young Bruce. Bruce was a quiet, troubled child who was comfortable only in the presence of his mother, Edith. After being fired, David sabotaged his equipment, which resulted in an explosion on base. He then went home, fought with Edith and tried to kill young Bruce. Instead, he accidentally killed Edith. David was arrested and incarcerated in a mental hospital, while Bruce was placed with foster parents. He has repressed his memories of his parents and, because Bruce works under his foster parents' name (Krensler), Betty's father doesn't recognize him. Ironically, Ross oversees the research Betty and Bruce perform.
Glenn Talbot used to work for the same lab as Betty and Bruce, but has since moved on to a private corporation, Atheon. He returns to the lab, flirts with Betty and offers her and Bruce an unlimited budget if they will bring their research to his corporation. They both refuse, but Bruce's anger begins to rise anyway. Later that day, an experiment goes horribly awry. Bruce is exposed to massive doses of nanomeds and gamma radiation. Unlike the other test subjects, however, he doesn't die. In the hospital, he is visited by a strange bearded old man who had earlier begun to work at the lab as a janitor. Although Bruce doesn't recognize him, it is his father. His father suggests that Bruce has secret reserves of power hidden within him, then disappears. After being released from the hospital, Bruce returns to work. He hears a phone message from Betty in which she discusses a meeting she had with now-General Ross about Talbot's offer. Bruce's rage spirals out of control and he transforms into the Hulk, a superhumanly powerful, green-skinned creature. He destroys the lab and throws the gamma radiation generator into the parking lot. When he sees his father observing his rampage, the Hulk leaps away in confusion.
Because Bruce was the last person in the lab, he is under suspicion for destroying it and is placed under lockdown by Ross. Betty goes to see David. He tells her as well about Bruce's power before curtly showing her the door. Upset, Betty drives to her cabin in the mountains. David has created a trio of superpowered gamma dogs using equipment purloined from the labs. Using a scarf she left behind, he gives the dogs Betty's scent and sends them to kill her. He then calls Bruce to tell him he has done so, in order to coax the Hulk out of him. Just then, Talbot arrives to confront Bruce. Ross has ordered Talbot to leave Betty and Bruce alone, enraging Talbot. He tries to beat Bruce by pushing him as Bruce tells him to get his hands off of him while warning him that his father is going after Betty. In response, Talbot realizes that what makes Bruce think he can go behind his back while accusing him to get Ross the cut him out. Bruce pleads to listen about Betty in trouble, but Talbot ignores and calls him a "pathetic freak" considering Bruce isn't in much of a position and accused him for making "stupid threats" to anyone" by trying to choke him. However, Talbot manages only to anger him enough to cause another transformation into the Hulk. Hulk beats Talbot badly then escapes the Army guards to find and protect Betty. At the mountain cabin, he fights and kills the gamma dogs. Exhausted, he transforms back into Bruce before Betty's eyes. The next morning, the Army arrives and sedates Bruce. Betty, unsure of what to do, had called her father during the night.
By now, Ross knows who Bruce is. He has Bruce and Betty taken back to the New Mexico base where David and he had worked earlier. Betty and Bruce walk the grounds in an attempt to understand how Bruce became who he is. Before any real breakthrough can be made, Ross' superiors place Bruce in Talbot's care. Talbot has assured them he can find out what causes Bruce to become the Hulk, and harness that power for the military. Betty leaves the base. Talbot taunts Bruce then knocks him out. Bruce is placed in an isolation tank so Talbot can perform tests on him. As Talbot probes, however, he unleashes the Hulk. The Hulk breaks free of the tank and begins to wreak havoc on the Army base. In the process, Talbot is killed when the Hulk's thick skin causes a deflected grenade to explode in his face. Ross decides to free Hulk from the base and then destroy him outside. The Hulk destroys four heavy Army tanks and leaps off into the desert to hide. Ross and his forces find him and he leads the Army on a chase throughout the Southwestern United States, battling briefly with a small unit of Comanche choppers. Firing on a series of rock towers to bury him, the Hulk escapes and heads in the direction of San Francisco. There, he proceeds to wreak havoc in the city until Betty arrives and calms him down. He transforms back into Bruce.
David uses the restored gamma radiation generator and nanomeds to make himself into a superhuman being. He is now able to adopt the physical properties of anything he comes in contact with. He contacts Betty and agrees to turn himself in to General Ross if he will be allowed to see Bruce. Ross agrees. Father and son meet in an abandoned warehouse. David tries to persuade Bruce to accept his power and join him, but Bruce refuses. David taps into a powerline and becomes a living being made of electricity. Bruce transforms into the Hulk and the two men battle. They eventually wind up at a secluded lake. David decides to absorb all of Bruce's power for himself. However, Bruce's power is so immense that David cannot contain it all and mutates into a grotesque blob-like creature. Ross then has the Army drop a massive bomb on the battlefield, killing David.
Bruce's body is never found. Ross keeps in touch with Betty and hopes that, if Bruce were ever to contact her, she would tell him. But he knows she wouldn't. In a South American rainforest, an American doctor provides inoculation shots to the needy. Mercenaries attack his camp to confiscate the supplies. As his eyes begin to glow green, Bruce warns them not to make him angry.
Angry Qualities
- Despite the movie being called "Hulk", he hardly has any focus and screen-time in this movie compared to the other characters. Even the title character himself is never refer to his name in the film and rarely talks like 2 times.
- Bruce's backstory is very disturbing, even for a PG-13 film.
- Speaking of disturbing, the tone of the film is mostly dark, which is weird given the fact that, while some Marvel movies have some dark moments, they also have plenty of funny moments to even out the tone.
- Despite being done by ILM, the special effects are terrible and outdated, especially for the helicopters and missiles.
- The Hulk looks more like an angry Shrek on steroids. His green skin-tone looks ugly, and the CGI is very unconvincing.
- Poor grasp of the source material:
- Rather than Bruce getting exploded from the Gamma bomb from test site, he instead has an accident by getting exposed from a malfunctioning gammasphere.
- Bruce Banner’s parents’ names (Brian and Rebecca in the comics) are renamed to David and Edith.
- In the comics, Brian (David’s counterpart) kills his wife by banging her head to the ground. In the movie, David kills her by stabbing her in a knife.
- Glenn Talbot is now a former military officer-turned-bio-science executive than a major (later colonel) who antagonizes Bruce aggressively rather than a courageous, resourceful patriot who cares about his country.
- The movie uses scene transition effects to simulate comic book panels, but it doesn't work. That would be like making a novel-based movie and put the words of the book on the screen. You just don't do that!
- Not to mention, but in comparison, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse uses some similar effects, but it works out well due to the film being animated, while Scott Pilgrim vs. The World does that as well and closer to its comic predecessor.
- Barely any action sequences, even though this is a superhero film about a green monster who gets angry.
- The film is boring to watch. Most of it boils down to just the characters talking, monotonously.
- Unconvincing Hulk villains (besides General Ross) like Bruce Banner’s father, David and his gamma radiated dogs, and Glenn Talbot.
- David Banner/The Absorbing Man is rubbish and is barely in the movie until the end. He suddenly changes from doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, to just randomly turning completely evil despite him having no build-up, character development or any motivation for his actions (like trying to get revenge on Ross for not letting him cure his son from the "monster" gene) whatsoever.
- Confusing final battle between Hulk and the Absorbing Man, who is Hulk's father by the way, when he tries to absorb his Gamma radiation.
- The film is an insult to the Incredible Hulk show due to its disloyalty and ignorance of the TV show and the comics it's based on.
- It can get mean spirited at times where everyone (particularly his classmates during high school (in the deleted scenes), David Banner, and Glenn Talbot) all physically abused Bruce in order to trigger his anger of the Hulk.
- Glenn Talbot is a rip-off of Kent Mansley from the 1999 animated Warner Bros. film The Iron Giant, and comes off as a middle-aged jerk who bullies Bruce when General Ross cut him out while accusing him of making "stupid threats" to anyone and seeks to torture and use the Hulk's tissue sample to create super soldiers.
- Plus, his death is pretty silly from being blown up in the Gamma Base.
- His appearance looks rather unconvincing and ridiculous with the black jacket, the blonde hair (just to be “kewl”), and the electrical stun staff, makes him not very faithful to what the comics have been.
- The marketing focused more on the destruction and the Hulk rather than the drama and Freudian atmosphere.
- Some of Danny Elfman's score sounds a bit too foreign.
- The pacing isn't that good as it focuses on too much talking.
Calm Qualities
- Despite most of the scene transition effects being weak and conflicting with the film's tone, some of them manage to be actually pretty good such as scenes where there are phone conversations.
- The quote "You won't like me when I'm angry" is heard near the end, albeit in Spanish. The actual quote in English was heard in commercials.
- Danny Elfman's score is still passable and decent, despite sounding too foreign as mentioned above. It has an Alfred Hitchcock-like vibe.
- The final fight scene between Hulk and the Absorbing Man was by far one of the best fight scenes ever, even though it was pretty confusing. Like, can you imagine anybody going into a thunderstorm by zapping themselves into it? Even then, it was pretty cool to look at, despite the special effects being outdated, as aforementioned in BQ#3.
- The end credits song, "Set Me Free" by the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver, is awesome.
- The "Puny human!" line is pretty hilarious and haunting at the same time.
- Its intelligent and cerebral tone aged well after the release of The Incredible Hulk and Logan.
- Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliott did a great job in their performances as Bruce Banner, Betty Ross and General Ross.
- David Banner's speech at the end is heartbreaking and nightmare-inducing. But, his constant abuse and beating on Bruce from the comics (as Brian) was toned down.
- Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno (who played the Hulk from the live action TV series) make a cameo appearance as a pair of security guards.
- The Hulk's rampage from the Desert Base to San Francisco is very good.
- While poorly executed, the Freudian atmosphere is brilliant.
Reception
The film received mixed-to-positive reviews at the time of release, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 62% "Fresh" rating. However, it received backlash from both audiences and fans, receiving negative-to-mixed reviews with a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, many people today consider this an underrated film.
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe began, it was stated that this movie isn't canon to the MCU and that the 2008 The Incredible Hulk movie isn't a sequel but rather a complete reboot, despite sharing some similarities.
Many critics have re-evaluated the film positively and considered it ahead of its time after the release of The Dark Knight Trilogy by Christopher Nolan as well as the releases of Logan and Zack Snyder's Justice League, similar superhero films with a dark tone and Joker, a comic book film with an arthouse feel.
Video
Trivia
- The film has been in development hell since it was developed in 1990, with multiple script rewrites like:
- The Hulk was about to battle terrorists.
- Hulk pitting against General Ross, the military, the Leader, and Brian Banner (Bruce's father being the source of his son's inner anger), while including Rick Jones whom Bruce had to keep him away from the Gamma Bomb test in the comic book origin.
- Hulk fighting a school of sharks while he can't have sex and would trigger a transformation by failing out of a helicopter (which the scenes would be used in the 2008 Hulk reboot by Marvel Studios).
- Hulk facing 3 convicts who are gamma-mutated in giant insects that cause havoc.
- Hulk facing a convict and archenemy named "Novak", who mutate into a giant humanoid-like Ant Beetle.
- Bruce Banner was supposed to be nerdy-like genius in the 1960s, while it would have him create cells with regenerative capabilities to prove that he is not like his father, whom he considers him a monster and had killed his mother. However, Bruce's anger management issues before the Hulk is born, makes everything worse, while the "Don't make me angry..." line from the live action tv series became Bruce's father's dialogue when he beats his son out of frustration along with the "Gammasphere" element, Bruce and Betty's tragic romance and the black ops were used in the final film.
- Hulk facing the Leader, Zzzax and the Absorbing Man who were depicted to be Bruce's colleagues before there Gamma mutation.
- During the shooting of the film in 2002, actor Eric Bana, decribed the shooting as "Ridiculously serious","silent" and "morbid" and was told by director Ang Lee that he was shooting a Greek tragedy.
- A 70-second teaser trailer was attached to Spider-Man on May 3, 2002 where it has Bruce looking at the mirror during a shower and starts to transform into the Hulk by crashing his house was actually an alternate scene in the final film.
- A sequel was planned to deviate Ang Lee's style as well as to feature Hulk's Gray Hulk persona from his first comic appearance with the Leader and Abomination as the villains that are actual threats to Hulk than General Ross (whom was not as villainous). However, the sequel was scrapped in favor of rebooting the film as The Incredible Hulk that is set in the MCU starting with the Iron Man film, while keeping Bruce hiding in South America from the end of the 2003 film.