Given the huge success of Lou Ferrigno on the telly, this ought to have been a no-brainer for Ang Lee, but what on earth possessed him to cast Eric Bana(l)? He’s as wooden as a spatula as the scientist “Banner” who finds himself on the wrong end of some radioactive experiments. As a result, now when he gets a bit of a strop on, he turns bright green, breaks free from (most of) his clothing and goes on a rampage that even a battle tank cannot stop. There are a few enjoyable enough action scenes, but far too much of this film focuses on the antics of his loyal girlfriend “Betty” (Jennifer Connolly) who is trying to stop her dad “Gen. Ross” (Sam Elliott) from eradicating this increasingly dangerous monster in ripped jeans. As if that wasn’t enough on the melodrama front, we also have his own duplicitous father (Nick Nolte), with whom he has had little to do throughout his life, trying to find some way of cloning his quirk for his own nefarious purposes. This probably looked ok on a storyboard. There are threads to the plot that present an enigmatic backstory, that explain the current predicament and then we cut to the present chase, but none of it really gels. There isn’t a scintilla of chemistry between Bana and Connolly; Nolte is simply going through the motions unchallenged by the part or the script and Elliott should have auditioned for the “A-Team” instead. As you’d expect with Marvel, it tees everything up for a sequel but that really ought, even then, to have been more in hope than expectation. The production values aren’t really that much better than it’s television equivalent and though it’s not terrible, it tries to simplistically psycho-analyse a little too much and forgets to entertain.

I mean, what was everyone expecting? They hired a director who does mostly Asian art-house movies to helm a comic book movie about a green monster who smashes things when he gets angry. Of course Ang Lee was going to delve into Freudian concepts, overtones of Greek tragedy, and strange editing choices. My issues with Hulk are more focused on its painfully slow pace and messy third act. Yes, the whole movie seems a bit pretentious, but you have to at least admire the intent and ambition to make this movie, even if the execution is wonky.

Ang Lee helped revolutionize superhero related films forever with Hulk (2003). Rather than just have the hero try to save the world, Lee and James Schamus decided to have Bruce Banner deal with his Freudian psychology, specifically the repressed memories he had thirty years ago about his father. The acting talents of Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte, Sam Elliott and Josh Lucas are perfect for the five main characters. Bana was able to do intentional wooden acting to hide his character's repressed emotions while Connelly conveyed kindness as her Oscar winning role from A Beautiful Mind (2001). What I loved about Lee's interpretation is that he did not care about faithfulness. He cared about showing a cerebral kind of superhero film that later got imitated with The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012), Watchmen (2009), Logan (2017), Dawn of Justice (2016) and Suicide Squad (2016). Ang Lee is one of the best directors to have ever lived and Hulk is one of many films he directed for great proof.