Emo Hulk?
So, in case I haven't made it clear, I am a comic book person. They're the first things I remember reading, when I was old enough to pick what I wanted to read. I started with Archie (I was always wanted to be Veronica-why not? She had money and clothes and the nice house. Who wanted to be nice Betty? Maybe this explains my love for Scarlett O'Hara...) and moved on to Richie Rich (I was seven) and from there moved on to my brother and sister's comics-reading their leftovers. I'm not sure my parents approved, but as I was the youngest of three, I think they had reached the point of not really caring what their youngest child was reading. And so I moved on to Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and (my favorite) the Avengers. Iron Man got tossed in, of course he did, he was one the founding members of the Avengers. The X-Men joined in, Thor as well. I always loved Daredevil (haven't quite forgiven Ben Affleck for what he did to a character I loved) and Captain America as well. My Mom even bought me a subscription to The Avengers when I was 12-I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I got it in the mail, before everyone else! And they knew my name at the comic book store-as I found out when my brother and sister went there to "buy a present for our little sister". And what did they say? "Oh, you must be Susan's brother and sister!". To be fair, I think I was the only ten-year old girl in there, spending my allowance on old comic books-at that point, very few girls read comic books-I certainly didn't know any, as my sister had given them up years before.
So, I think I have comic-book cred. And all of this is a roundabout way of saying there are many things I liked about the new Hulk movie and a few things I did not. First things first-I liked all the nods to the Hulk's history. This movie gives props to people who know the Hulk's history-Bill Bixby in The Courtship of Eddie's Father on the TV, the big stretchy purple pants Liv Tyler bus for Ed Norton (which he refuses to wear), which are a nod to the purple pants the Hulk and Banner always seemed to wear, even the cameo by Lou Ferrigno as a big security guard were all acknowledgements of the Hulk's history-sorry Eric Bana, you got dissed.
What else did I like? Ed Norton is a really good actor. If you missed his debit movie in Primal Fear, I suggest you get it-it's also notable as the movie in which Richard Gere reinvented himself. No one does tortured better better than Norton-and Bruce Banner is nothing if not tortured. When his heartbeat gets raised, he transforms into a green behemoth with no control-although in this movie, he's a bit like Frankenstein's monster. And Banner hates himself for this, and for knowing that if the government gets its hands on him, they will do their best to reproduce and weaponize him. All he wants to do is get rid of the monster in his blood and to be left alone-and the movie does a good job of showing this-but unfortunately by almost the end of the movie, I wanted to punch Norton just so he'd turn into the Hulk again. I felt for him, I really did, but he just looked so mopey through the whole thing, it was annoying. Finally at the end, Banner acts like a hero. Granted, he never wants to unleash the Hulk, so he's required to be passive but it just got tiresome. When he insists that they let him fall out of the copter so he'll transform to fight the Abomination (and I just don't know what to say about that scene. He falls and it's clearly a reference to several other scenes of sacrifice in movies and it was pretentious) but the fight scenes with the Abomination were good. I'm still a little confused as to what Tim Roth is doing in this movie, indie guy that he usually is, but he gives a great tough guy performance-I never would have pictured as British Army material. Kicked out the British Army for selling drugs or insubordination, yes. Sticking it out to make officer? No. And I'll also say this, the final scene (ignoring the Tony Stark/General Ross bit) was cool. Finally Banner knows he's going to turn into the Hulk-his eyes flash green and hemay not want to be the Hulk but at this point, the Hulk takes over and Banner smiles. That smile is very cool and it has flashes Norton's best performances in it. It's enough to make me sorry he's not playing Stephen Collins in State of Play.
So, those are the things I liked, which brings me to a sore point. Does every woman in a comic book movie have to be a wuss? Is that necessary? And if there is an Avengers movie in the works, how on Earth will that attitude fit in with Janet Van Dyne, rich and smart (usually, except when it comes to her on-and-off again husband, the Amazing Ant-Man) was one of the founding members of the Avengers-and she is no wuss. The Wasp would take on anyone-and toss in many smart-ass comments along the way. All this is to say that Liv Tyler's character was tiresome. Really tiresome. She's in love with a guy who turns into a monster-shouldn't she be trying harder to get him instead of crying all the time? She's a molecular biologist, for crying out loud. She should meet up with Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy, two characters also turned into extreme wusses in their movies. Honestly, if they make an Avengers movie, what will they do to the Wasp? The Scarlet Witch? The Black Widow? The Widow is a bad ass and if they turn her into another female character who sits around and whines about who she is and what she's done, instead of DOING SOMETHING about it, I won't be happy.
Can we please get some good female characters? The X-Men movies did good job with their good and bad mutants (I'm going to ignore the third one, which I hated)-is it so hard to do it again?
So, I think I have comic-book cred. And all of this is a roundabout way of saying there are many things I liked about the new Hulk movie and a few things I did not. First things first-I liked all the nods to the Hulk's history. This movie gives props to people who know the Hulk's history-Bill Bixby in The Courtship of Eddie's Father on the TV, the big stretchy purple pants Liv Tyler bus for Ed Norton (which he refuses to wear), which are a nod to the purple pants the Hulk and Banner always seemed to wear, even the cameo by Lou Ferrigno as a big security guard were all acknowledgements of the Hulk's history-sorry Eric Bana, you got dissed.
What else did I like? Ed Norton is a really good actor. If you missed his debit movie in Primal Fear, I suggest you get it-it's also notable as the movie in which Richard Gere reinvented himself. No one does tortured better better than Norton-and Bruce Banner is nothing if not tortured. When his heartbeat gets raised, he transforms into a green behemoth with no control-although in this movie, he's a bit like Frankenstein's monster. And Banner hates himself for this, and for knowing that if the government gets its hands on him, they will do their best to reproduce and weaponize him. All he wants to do is get rid of the monster in his blood and to be left alone-and the movie does a good job of showing this-but unfortunately by almost the end of the movie, I wanted to punch Norton just so he'd turn into the Hulk again. I felt for him, I really did, but he just looked so mopey through the whole thing, it was annoying. Finally at the end, Banner acts like a hero. Granted, he never wants to unleash the Hulk, so he's required to be passive but it just got tiresome. When he insists that they let him fall out of the copter so he'll transform to fight the Abomination (and I just don't know what to say about that scene. He falls and it's clearly a reference to several other scenes of sacrifice in movies and it was pretentious) but the fight scenes with the Abomination were good. I'm still a little confused as to what Tim Roth is doing in this movie, indie guy that he usually is, but he gives a great tough guy performance-I never would have pictured as British Army material. Kicked out the British Army for selling drugs or insubordination, yes. Sticking it out to make officer? No. And I'll also say this, the final scene (ignoring the Tony Stark/General Ross bit) was cool. Finally Banner knows he's going to turn into the Hulk-his eyes flash green and hemay not want to be the Hulk but at this point, the Hulk takes over and Banner smiles. That smile is very cool and it has flashes Norton's best performances in it. It's enough to make me sorry he's not playing Stephen Collins in State of Play.
So, those are the things I liked, which brings me to a sore point. Does every woman in a comic book movie have to be a wuss? Is that necessary? And if there is an Avengers movie in the works, how on Earth will that attitude fit in with Janet Van Dyne, rich and smart (usually, except when it comes to her on-and-off again husband, the Amazing Ant-Man) was one of the founding members of the Avengers-and she is no wuss. The Wasp would take on anyone-and toss in many smart-ass comments along the way. All this is to say that Liv Tyler's character was tiresome. Really tiresome. She's in love with a guy who turns into a monster-shouldn't she be trying harder to get him instead of crying all the time? She's a molecular biologist, for crying out loud. She should meet up with Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy, two characters also turned into extreme wusses in their movies. Honestly, if they make an Avengers movie, what will they do to the Wasp? The Scarlet Witch? The Black Widow? The Widow is a bad ass and if they turn her into another female character who sits around and whines about who she is and what she's done, instead of DOING SOMETHING about it, I won't be happy.
Can we please get some good female characters? The X-Men movies did good job with their good and bad mutants (I'm going to ignore the third one, which I hated)-is it so hard to do it again?
posted by SHbookworm at 6:03 PM
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