The Film

The movie everyone was intrigued by — Ang Lee doing an event movie — did capture some of Spider Man’s ‘indie blockbuster’ flavour, but the story of Bruce Banner’s giant green alter-ego was savaged by audience hype fatigue. In between payoff CG action scenes, Lee and co manage to explore — albeit shallowly — some of the deeper themes of Banners’ plight.

The Sight & Sound

The movie is far too dark, and not in the Freudian sense. During the night time scenes (ie the dog fight), you’ll be straining to see anything, even though it’s all perfectly visible during the extras.

The Extras

A fairly entertaining commentary by Ang Lee is nicely bookended by some interesting (if a little hammy) docos. In fact, they’re more informative for behind the scenes stuff like compositing the actual Hulk — you’ll be fascinated to learn that Lee himself wore the motion capture suit to record the Hulk’s future movements (for the CG teams) to make sure he got just the result he wanted.

Other docos concentrate on the music, Hulk history, deleted scenes and the experimentation that led to the comic book, split screen inspired editing; most of the material is repeated on an extended ‘making of’ on the bonus disc.

The Worth

An essential buy for CG geeks and budding special effects gurus, but the film doesn’t warrant multiple viewings.

3.5 out of 5

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2004 at 12:00 am and is filed under DVD Reviews, Film, Filmink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.