MUBI

The film plays more like a big budget experiment which goes with the scientific nature of the film, but proves disappointing. I think the film was just a bad fit for a independent art film director to direct a big budget Action-Adventure comic book. I don’t think it was a totally dumb idea. I guess the studio saw the story has a lot of internal emotional turmoil and felt that Ang lee get’s such emotionally rich performances from his casts in previous films this was right up his alley. Especially since this film revolves around controlling one’s emotions and since he directed CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON he knows how to do action

I think what really went wrong was what goes on a lot of times with these films.i think it helps to not only have a director but also writers who are actually fans of the characters they are making a film about. They should have prior knowledge of the Graphic novels, the characters and the world they inhabit. So they have previous knowledge and in turn know what the audience will be looking for.

The film isn’t all bad. I like the comic panel sots that move the story along. I enjoyed Sam Elliott as General Thunderbird Ross. Nick Nolte is enjoyable as he is clearly in a totally different film then everyone else. So whenever he is on screen the film is a riot and comes to action. Jennifer Connolly is good but has nothing to do but to really be the damsel in distress and show her statuesque beauty.

Those are about most of the nice things I can say about the film. To me the film plays like a new age spiritual seminar using obvious digital animation special effects to show the films philosophy thesis on anger. It’s almost like the film is trying to educate and share it’s beliefs then entertain which is fine but not when it is a superhero movie.

The action sequences are actually not exciting at all and by the time the hulk dogs came around. I was rolling my eyes especially since they appear early in the movie.
Eric bana was not the right choice not that bruce banner has no charisma but his performance more presents the character as a blank slate then a conflicted timid scientist.

I wanted to like it, but when I saw it on the big screen on opening night. I was devastated at how bad it was now after much soul searching I can look at it and se the little successes of the film but I would advise you to skip it or if you must wait for it on tv.