The Incredible Hulk

And so, with moderate fanfare and some head-scratching, Marvel decided to do a remake of The Hulk, this time letting you know it was going to be much better than its 2003 incarnation by adjectivizing its title: The Incredible Hulk. Of course, "much better" is relative. I find that I am in a minority when I talk about how much I actually liked the 2003 incarnation. Despite the advertisements, the earlier version was about much more than "Hulk smash": it spent some time dealing with the psychological circumstances that led to their being a Hulk, basing it on good part (it seemed to me) on Peter David's wonderful run on the comic. Unfortunately, the weighty mass of preconception that came with just the name "Hulk" combined with aggressive advertisements that focused on fight scenes created expectations that Hulk would just be a video game brought to film. So its slow and artistic moments, its character development, were lost on the fanboys who wanted to see destruction and mayhem. This is not to say it was a brilliant film—it certainly had some flaws—but that I enjoyed it and its potential and found it to be better than the general response to it would indicate.

My nephew and I went to see this latest incarnation last week, him looking forward to carnage and mayhem and me trying to get past the comparison automatically set up in my head. I suppose it's a good thing that, in that comparison's place, The Incredible Hulk spends a lot of time trying to formulate a different comparison, one with the 70s TV show starring Bill Bixby. The opening credits are a flashback sequence, giving a pictorial background to the story—and Edward Norton is doing exactly the Bill Bixby routine as he is irradiated, using a bright green set of crosshairs that aim directly for his forehead. Later in the movie, we get to see Bill Bixby in a cameo clip from The Courtship of Eddie's Father, and we even get to see a hitch-hiking Bruce Banner, trudging through the rain beside a highway, while the memorable hook from the TV show's theme song is played. All of these are a reminder to the audience that this movie is a tragedy—like the TV show, this story is about a man trying to overcome his personal demons that send him into a psychopathic rage and destroys any meaningful relationship he tries to have. Of course, a thoughtful analysis of the first movie would point out that that's exactly what it was about as well.

Edward Norton is pretty solid as the unwilling Bruce Banner. It doesn't take a lot of effort to have a range of emotion from mopey to thoughtfully depressed. Everything Banner does is suffused with a sort of weariness, as if he has done it all before and it's all going to fail; imagine Eeyore as an alter ego. It's only in the action sequences when he shows any other emotion, and even then it is generally limited to panic. Banner is also not a very deep character, but then, delving into the roots of the character is what supposedly killed the first movie incarnation. William Hurt does a fine job of scene-chewing as General Thunderbolt Ross, but again the role does not call for a lot of range as an actor. Hurt is especially strong when he repeats his self-promoting lies as his rationale for chasing Banner and the Hulk. Unlike the TV show however, Ross, as the Hulk's persecutor, never really gets his comeuppance and sort of fades away at the end of the movie, ineffectual and a target of derision for the cameo appearance of Robert Downey, Jr., as Tony Stark. Liv Tyler, as Betty Ross, is petulant and pouty…except before she finds Banner is back in her life. There is a lot missing here—fans of the comics know the relationship between Betty and Bruce, but if you are not up on the relationship, you have to assume a lot. Clearly Banner cares for Betty, but it's not clear for the majority of the movie whether or not this is a spoken affection or if he has hidden it from her. And though it seems pretty clear, there is still room for argument. They spend a lot of time not talking about themselves though there clearly is some emotion between them. It's just never really clearly defined, which may bug people who don't know the story.

Unfortunately, Tim Roth is woefully miscast as Emil Blonsky. It's clear that Blonsky is a bulldog type of character, never letting go of anything until it is defeated. But even when Roth is in his uniform, he doesn't look anything like a black ops soldier. He's short and not very developed…and why would an American soldier have such a broad English accent? Similarly, Tim Blake Nelson is a strange casting for Dr. Samuel Sterns, to whom Banner turns for help in resolving his radiation problem. Nelson is manic in his performance, a geek on speed, and mostly a distraction from the events of his scenes. I'm not saying his role requires subtlety, but he overwhelms what are supposed to be tense moments with Jerry Lewis-like mannerisms: I kept expecting him to paw Liv Tyler and shout "Lay-deeee!"

So, The Incredible Hulk has a lot of one-dimensional roles and a storyline that does not separate itself from earlier incarnations. That leaves the special effects. And frankly, they're "meh." There are three and a half fight/chase scenes, one not involving the Hulk at all (Banner being pursued over the rooftops of a city in Brazil) and the half involving a firefight between Blonsky's team and a Hulk who is never clearly seen. Of the two remaining, the fight on campus is the best, as Hulk tries to overcome the technology that Ross and Blonsky throw at him, including sonic guns. And the much ballyhooed fight between the Hulk and the Abomination just doesn't make sense. I expect a few liberties to be taken with science, but the ones used in the movie are extreme. And the tactics that Ross and the supposedly well-trained Blonsky employ are just ludicrous. At one point, Ross and his helicopter pursue the Abomination across the rooftops of Harlem, firing 50-caliber machine gun shells into the roofs of apartment buildings without any qualms. It was more than my suspended disbelief could handle.

What I left the movie with was a deep sense of ambivalence. It was a diverting way to spend an afternoon perhaps, but even my Marvel zombie nephew just sort of shrugged this movie off. There was very little memorable about it, and I suspect that has nothing to do with the acting, but the writing. It's not even very good eye candy.

Kung Fu Panda

I have documented here my growing interest in the current run of martial arts films, which, as I think about it, seems to run a broad gamut—from the epics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero to some of the more comic ones, like Kung Fu Hustle. I've never seen any of the so-called chop-socky movies, in part because when they were played on Saturday afternoons when I was a child, I had no interest in what appeared to me to be really poorly put together films on the cheap (which also explains why I've never sat through an entire episode of Doctor Who not made in the 21st century). But now that I have seen the heights that can be reached with the martial arts genre, my horizons have expanded, and I'm willing to take some risks. In fact, Mrs. Speculator and I are looking at using our new DVD subscription service to find some of the better made chop-socky movies.

So along comes Kung Fu Panda, right in my wheelhouse. First, it's animated, and it takes a great deal for me not to see first-run (that is to say "first in a series") animated movies. I haven't seen Madagascar or Ice Age because the subject matter just did not appeal to me, but I'm pretty up to date with everything in the last decade (except Persepolis, which wasn't here long enough for me to catch…must add to movie queue). And it's got Jack Black, a man whose comic talents I have admired since what I consider to be his break-out movie, High Fidelity. And it appears to want to follow the growing tradition of serious-minded or seriously-intentioned martial arts movies. And yeah, it's got a panda. Who doesn't love pandas? But more importantly, it's got a snow leopard!

The movie starts with what is clearly a dream sequence, as Po the panda (voiced by Jack Black) saves his town from marauders, getting the attention and then admiration of the Furious Five, students in the local dojo and each representative of their school of kung fu—mantis, snake, crane, monkey, and tiger. The animation in this sequence is breath-taking, stylish in the way that the very best Samurai Jack episodes are stylish and engrossing. I was jarred as the dream sequence comes to an end, as they all must, and the animation resorts to what is more like the standard CGI we see in animation today. This is not to say that the animation is not lush and beautiful, but it is distinctly western and, well, normal, compared to how the movie starts.

Then we are given the back story for Po, the son of a noodle merchant who idolizes the Furious Five, who really are heroes in his home town. When the local dojo master, Oogway (voiced by Randall Duk Kim), has a vision that an old enemy is about to escape from prison, he decides it is time to name the Dragon Master, the martial artist who will be given "the secret to ultimate power." The town gathers at the dojo to watch the tournament, fully expecting one of the Furious Five to be named. Po tries to attend, but comic forces keep him from arriving on time to get a seat, and his Wiley Coyote attempts to get in the dojo result in him gathering Oogway's attention and ultimately the title of Dragon Master.

For Po, this is a dream come true. For the inscrutable Oogway, it is circumstances simply as they must be. But for Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five, it is an abomination and they are dead set to have Po quit his training so that a real hero can step and save the town from its potential destruction. Shifu terrorizes and mocks Po, and the Furious Five attempt to ignore him. And meanwhile Tai Lung the snow leopard (voiced by the awesome Ian McShane) does escape from prison and is makes his way to the valley.

What follows is, in some ways, pretty predictable. Shifu and the Furious Five learn lessons about judging books/pandas by their covers. Po learns to believe in himself. And Oogway remains inscrutably zen. But along the way, some pretty amazing things happen: we learn the back story of Shifu and Tai Lung, told in flashback and employing a third animation style, a sort of mix between the dream sequence and the "normal" mode. Shifu is gently scolded by Oogway, then figures out the methods by which he can train Po to meet his potential as the Dragon Master. And there is just stunning martial arts, beautifully choreographed and then animated, lovingly mixed into the story. My only real regret is that we are given hints that the Furious Five have individual personalities, but they are never developed very far. It's a shame as several of them feel as though they could support their own movies, but they really are more plot devices than characters in this story.

I'll not give away any spoilers, but the movie really doesn't do anything surprising plot-wise. But it is the characterization and the stunning animation that make this so wonderful. It simply is lovingly crafted and a joy to watch, even as it goes where it has to go. Somehow, amazingly, Black and Hoffman seem to have a good chemistry that works through their characters and also add to the sense of fun that pervades the movie. And it has one other feature that makes it stand out against a lot of current animation, which was pointed out to me by other reviewers: the humor is confined to the movie. There are no references to our non-animated world that jar you from the setting of Kung Fu Panda. While such moments are funny, part of their humor comes from the disjunction of a fantasy character making references to 21st century pop culture. Kung Fu Panda instead relies on its own story and its craft in telling the story, to grow jokes from the ground up, making the movie that much more timeless in its theme and effort. The best Pixar movies operate in the same way, and it's nice that that philosophy has moved from just that studio.

So, while its story is generally light and airy, Kung Fu Panda is extremely well told, and its animation ranks up there with the work in Ratatouille, though not as complicated. I strongly recommend this movie, not just as an appetizer for the upcoming WALL-E but for its own virtues. I can easily see owning this and going back to it on occasion, much as we do for The Incredibles and will for Ratatouille.