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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2008 > April > 17 > Entry
BOX OFFICE SMASH HULK!!!!
Never mind Kermit the Frog, the Hulk has found it’s not easy bein’ green - and that it’s not easy to make much green at the box office. Now I’m getting the impression that Hulk 2008 (The Incredible Hulk) will be like Hulk 2003 (The Hulk) all over again.
The 2003 Ang Lee film with Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and a zany Nick Nolte was met with yawns if not outright anger - and only $132 million at the box office, which doesn’t help when the film costs about that much. Marvel decided to make a “do-over,” casting Edward Norton as the tormented Bruce Banner - a decision Marvel might now regret.
Stories have run rampant that Norton, who rewrote the script, battled Marvel on the tone of the film. According to Entertainment Weekly, Norton wanted “a longer, more detailed film.” Marvel, probably mindful of where longer and detailed got them in 2003, wanted a movie that was leaner and faster. Marvel has supposedly won. The film will be out June 13.
Norton released a statement to EW that said, in part: “I’ve never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit …”
I dunno about you, but to me, that smacks of “Let me talk to my lawyer before I say anything.” It certainly doesn’t make me feel confident about the film, which is already generating negative buzz and new complaints that the Hulk “looks fake!”
Now, a little background is in order here. I am a member of that small minority that was pleased with Ang Lee’s movie. And I am also a member of an even smaller subset of that minority that loved The Hulk. I put it on my runners-up ten best list that year, and I stand by that.
I will allow that the Hulk dogs were silly, and that the pacing was a lttle too meditative at first. Once the movie got going, however, I thought it was fantastic, and I LOVED the ingenious multi-panel editing of the film that made it look like a live comic book. The Hulk got a bum rap.
That said, I’m not angry about it. I understand people probably wanted something closer to the Bill Bixby TV show, where David (Bruce) Banner repeatedly got smacked around by low-lifes, Hulked out, and thrashed people who deserved it. Maybe it would have helped if the Hulk talked like he did in the comic books. At least one “HULK SMASH!” might have netted the movie an extra $30 million.
Will this new movie succeed? I doubt it. It might be more “action-packed,” but I have this gut feeling that a dearth of imagination will sink it. I really wish Marvel had hired a more promising director than Louis Leterrier, who made the Transporter movies and Unleashed. Even if I didn’t like the Ang Lee movie, I would still rather see a noble failure by an artist than a mid-level movie by a competent action technician. But I hope Leterrier proves me wrong.
So what do you think of the new Hulk’s prosepcts? Will you see it? What does a Hulk movie need to be good? Maybe it should have lines from the 80s cartoon like “VOICE IN HULK’S HEAD MAKES HULK WANT TO SMASH” or my personal favorite, “EVERYWHERE HULK GO, PEOPLE SCREAM!!!”
Will you scream for The Incredible Hulk?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Coming Attractions
Comments
By anchy
May 17, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this
I don’t understand why is everybody so eager to criticize. i liked the the hulk 2003 and i am sure that the new Hulk deserves a chance and it will be good if not better. the reporters should have the decency to wait till the movie is out and then trash it or praise it how they see fit. until then we should refrain form hunting a stories where there are none.By ME
April 21, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this
I saw the preview of this recently. I think it actually would have been better to come out originally with Norton … Would have been more real. The first won was really bad, I tried to watch it and turned it off. This preview looked pretty good - but I know we’ll have to wait for your post on it to know for sure …