On to film two!
Before I watched this film I wasn’t actually sure if I had seen it or not. I knew I’d seen the Eric Bana one from a few years previously (I enjoyed it immensely, loved the comic-book stylings), but I wasn’t at all sure if I had seen this one. As soon as it started it became apparent that I had never seen it. Rather than beginning with the origin story, the film starts with a counter charting the days since Bruce Banner had “Hulked-up”, focusing on his efforts to tame the beast inside him. I’m not sure if the Eric Bana film is considered canon and that tells the origin story, as the snippets of Edward Norton’s Bruce working with Gamma radiation in this new film is a totally different scenario to the old one.
I think the film struck a perfect balance between the man and the beast. The portions where Bruce is Bruce and he’s trying to re-connect with Betty or find a cure for the Hulk were tenderly done. By contrast, the Hulk sections were hard-hitting and brutal – I felt my ribs crack when Hulk kicked Emil Blonsky into the tree. The build up of suspense was also pretty good – The first time we see the Hulk, we don’t really see him at all. We see big, powerful, green shadows smashing shit up, slowly revealing more. We don’t fully see the big guy himself until nearly half-way in when Bruce is inhaling tear-gas while trapped in a glass bridge… That’s sure to make him angry, and you don’t want to make him angry.
Ultimately, the theme was much the same as most Super-hero stories. A normal guy has a terrible alter-ego or ability or super-power that he resents, and wants to be rid of it. The impression is given that he has somehow banished it and cured himself so he can live out a normal life, only to willingly want and need to regain the power inside him to save the day. But even though it was a little clichéd, I loved it.
