Smashing puny humans since the '60s

So yeah I saw The Hulk this weekend with much trepidation since pretty much every reviewer was trashing the hell out of the movie. They said it was slow, ponderous, filled with pseudo-philosophical overtones and the protagonist looked like a great big Gumby doll. They complained the movie was not at all the sort of summer popcorn fare that the hype had built the movie up to be. They generally whined and complained and gave the film a big ol' thumbs-down.

Well, they were right about a few things. The movie is certainly not a completely empty-headed popcorn-fueled summer superhero film and the pace can occasionally be glacially slow.

And there's nothing wrong with either of those points even though most critics seem to think there is. I personally tend to be snobbish in my movie taste and sneer at the rest of the summer fare alongside Slate and Peter Travers and The New Yorker to name a few. This time though I think the critics both expected too much and too little from Ang Lee. Looking at Lee's past few films the quiet meditative tone of the majority of the film is completely keeping within his style and even when the battle sequences explode with fury there is still a balletic lightness to the movement.

The story is actually better than the origin in the comics -- which is rare in superhero movies -- and the back story involving Bruce Banner's dad adds a weight and gravitas lacking from the original comics. (Note that I source the originals and not the later John Byrne or Erik Larson runs...though god save me for having THAT sort of knowledge at my fingertips!)

Overall the movie I saw had pretty damn good CG (check out Nick Nolte rubbing The Hulk's face), a more than adequate story and a pretty satisfactory plot arc that ended conclusively yet openly in a way I found quite adequate.

A main function of criticism though is not to state whether something is intrinsically "good" or "bad" and sometimes I think critics -- myself included at times -- forget this. So I will say that The Hulk is successful in what it attempts to accomplish and doesn't seem to be overly swayed by marketing expectations or worries of ham-fisted blows by overly sensitive critical minds.