Saturday 15 March 2008

TRAILER PARK: The Incredible Hulk

Saturday 15 March 2008

Background: Directed by Louis Leterrier (The Transporter), this is a reset of Hulk (2003), with Edward Norton stepping into Eric Bana's shoes as Bruce Banner, now on the run from the US Army. It co-stars Liv Tyler (replacing Jennifer Connelly as Betty), William Hurt (replacing Sam Elliot as General Ross) and Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky – a soldier who mutates himself using gamma rays to become the Abomination...

Review
: I rather liked Ang Lee's effort, but I can see why many hated it. It was quite ponderous at times and didn't deliver much in the way of spectacle until the fun finale. A semi-sequel from the director of The Transporter films doesn’t sound too promising, but the presence of Edward Norton in the cast (who also wrote the script, being a big comic-book fan), has me intrigued.

The trailer's lateness fuelled rumours that the film was awful, or at least having problems in post-production -- with reports surfacing that writer-star Norton was interfering in the editing room. A day after the trailer's release, Leterrier revealed to Empire magazine that many of the CGI shots in the trailer aren't even finished. But, how does it look so far?

I'm not terribly excited, to be frank. The trailer is a bit vague and doesn't really build any clear direction as to where the story or characters might be headed. There's not much sign of characterisation or storyline. It's basically a bunch of clips, climaxing with the beginning of a city street punch-up between Hulk and Abomination -- that reminded me of the Neo versus Agent Smith fight in Matrix Revolutions. Banner even plummets from the sky, to make a crater in the asphalt, as Neo did.

I'd be lying if I said the sight of Hulk versus Abomination didn't thrill me at the end (love the music, too), but there was nothing else of merit in the trailer. I suspect Ed Norton will do a better job than Eric Bana, but that's just a gut feeling. It was also nice to see the CGI Hulk has been made less sympathetic-looking, and now resembles a frightening monster.

It's clear that this "sequel" is going to be big, brainless mayhem -- in stark contrast to Lee's intellectual approach -- and that’s fine. I'm not a movie snob. Big summer blockbusters are meant to be pure escapism. I really hope The Incredible Hulk is lots of fun, but this trailer just didn’t get me psyched.

Prediction
: Oh, it'll be a hit – but I don't think it'll beat Hulk '03s takings, if only because audiences have already seen a CGI Hulk now. In the superhero movie stakes, The Dark Knight is the connoisseur's choice this year, while Iron Man looks to be the unexpected pleasure. Hulk is playing quality catch-up in every respect, with the trailer just selling the idea of watching two behemoths street fight.

HD 480P
(44 MB)
HD 720P (98 MB)
HD 1080P (152 MB)

To play: download the file and rename it to "whatever.mov".