Planet Hulk

This is the last step of my quest to see all of the recent Marvel movies I missed. Although Kick-Ass sort of counts since Icon is a Marvel imprint, and it's out on home video next week. So anyway I mostly enjoyed Planet Hulk. It's based on the storyline that led directly to the World War Hulk comic I read a while ago, although it ends before it gets to the part that triggers that story. Which might have been a good idea, since it would have made a total downer out of what is a pretty complete and interesting story, if you ignore the fact that they turned Hulk's blood green and he's somehow able to stay transformed the entire time without a single appearance by Bruce Banner. I still don't really get that.

But yeah, it's a pretty classic pulpy adventure story. Hulk is sent to outer space by some dudes, and ends up on a planet they didn't expect, one inhabited by several different intelligent species and where he is captured and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. They attach him with a device that acts as a universal translator, so he can actually be a character and not just a raging psychopath. He forms an uneasy alliance with some fellow captives (uneasy because Hulk is a dick, always), and eventually they escape in the midst of a rebellion. There's some pretty standard scenes of character development that also explain the backstory of how the planet came to be the way it is, with some pretty easily discoverable plot twists and other stuff to keep it from getting too dull. It's far from the most original story ever conceived, but it's told pretty well and it's pretty fun watching Hulk and his pals destroy the crap out of everything. All I've really asked of these animated movies is they don't be boring, and Planet Hulk managed that pretty well. It's an old school kind of plot, fairly well animated, and well voiced by some veteran actors. Completely serviceable film.

Hulk Vs

Do you see that on the cover? TWICE THE CARNAGE! Awesome. Hulk Vs is really two shorter films combined, "Hulk Vs Wolverine" and "Hulk Vs Thor", complete with their own titles and credits. Or as they might also be called, "Hulk and Wolverine Fight Some Random X Villains and Also Deadpool I Guess" and "Thor and Loki Save Asgard from Loki's Own Dick-Like Behavior Involving the Hulk" respectively. It was actually animated by Madhouse, a Japanese studio, and the result is a slightly different (and less messy, if also less smooth) look for the project.

Hulk Vs Wolverine is the shorter of the two features and begins with a pretty decent fight between the two characters. Much more blood than I expected from an animated Marvel movie, which definitely enhanced what they were going for. I understand the desire to keep things okay for the kiddies, but it really strains the disbelief when Wolverine plunges three blades directly into a person's chest and they all come out dry as a bone. The movie then jumps around a bit, briefly portraying another take on Logan's origin (oh boy) and then having him and Banner facing off against a group of mutants including Sabretooth and Deadpool. The latter is played by Nolan North, who does a decent job with a goofy script for the character, though it's not really an interpretation of the character I liked. Even when he's not getting wildly changed for no reason like in the Origins movie, he never seems to come off right when people give him a voice. He's basically a jerkier Spider-Man with guns. Yeah, Deadpool talks a lot, but he's also mentally and physically scarred as all hell. And why is he so skinny here? It's just not the Deadpool I remember reading. Oh well. There's a bit of plot and a lot of fighting, and the movie ends without actually resolving its central premise. Not bad, not great.

Hulk Vs Thor was a bit better. It begins with Loki summoning Bruce Banner from Midgard, using spells to separate him from the Hulk identity, and then merging with it to take on Thor. The two fight for a while (making the title even more of a lie, since it's really Loki in Hulk's body Vs Thor), but eventually Loki loses control of Hulk, who goes on a rampage all over Asgard. It's kind of a cool idea, and they do some decent stuff with it. Thor and Loki have to team up to somehow get Banner back into Hulk, and they actually interested me in Banner's struggles with the burden of his alter ego for what seems like the first time in a while. There's some pretty solid animation, and I had a better time watching it than the first one. Thor's pretty cool, man!

The Incredible Hulk

While 2003's Hulk had a lot of big ideas, it ultimately didn't pull most of them off, and it really wasn't a very good movie. Not a bad one in my opinion, but still a failure. For this half sequel/half reboot, they lowered the bar quite a few notches, and the film managed to clear it. It's a solid action movie, not successful at everything it attempts but its errors feel more like stumbles rather than a complete collapse.

Obviously, they recast all of the characters and reinterpreted the look of the Hulk, so they're kind of pushing the last movie aside. But on the other hand, if you ignore the opening montage and a couple other flashbacks, it serves almost perfectly as a direct follow-up to that film's events, with Bruce Banner hiding from the military and trying to figure out how to fix his condition in South America. I was a bit nonplussed by the whole sequence showing him working in a drink manufacturing plant and his blood contaminating the product which leads to the government discovering his location. It picks up a bit from there, as he realizes they're on his trail and goes on the run again. The scene where he's running from soldiers through crowded streets and across rooftops while trying to not get his pulse too high might actually be the most exciting in the movie, not that I really want to undersell the Hulk scenes which are generally decent.

Edward Norton doesn't really remind you of the Hulk when you see him, but he does a very good Bruce, coming off as more intelligent than Eric Bana's portrayal and also seeming to be weighed down by the stress of being the Hulk. They actually got Lou Ferrigno to do the voice of the Hulk, and pull that off well, with him coming off a bit closer to the comic book interpretation than the other movie's version which only roared outside dreams to my recollection. The Hulk model itself doesn't seem as real as the other one did in 2003, but the focus is less on that and more on him just destroying crap. I've never been very impressed by Liv Tyler, though I do think she has more chemistry with Banner than superior actress Jennifer Connolly ever did. William Hurt doesn't really make that much of an impression as Ross, but Sam Elliott didn't either, and Tim Roth did about as much as he could with kind of a dumb villain.

So the movie goes on this way as Banner tries to avoid the military while trying to find a way to fix himself, as Roth's character gets obsessed with becoming as strong as him. Louis Leterrier's direction is competent, and the script is decent, resulting in a very watchable if unexceptional film. There were a few bits I quite enjoyed, and others I didn't. This time they tied the transformation directly to Banner's pulse rate rather any heightened emotional state, which seemed dumb, but it doesn't really break anything. The special effects are pretty competent, resulting in some pretty good action even if the final match up is a bit of a boring one. The end is a bit muddled, but it's set up for further misadventures with one of Marvel's most vulnerable heroes. I was disappointed to find out Norton won't be returning as Banner in Joss Whedon's Avengers movie, and can only hope they find someone who can pull off the part.

World War Hulk

Remember when I said I might read this three years ago? Good times. Anyway, I'm of two minds when it comes to World War Hulk. On one hand, it's pretty darn entertaining to read for the most part, with some cool situations and good action carried by John Romita Jr.'s pencil work and some great coloring. The art is definitely the book's strongest asset. On the other hand, the story's a bit too intellectually vacant to recommend it wholeheartedly. I know it's sort of the Hulk's thing that he's completely blinded by rage, but it's hard to take him seriously when there's holes in his motivations this gaping.

Anyway, before this book, and before Civil War, some heroes tricked Hulk and sent him into space, because he was causing too much trouble on Earth. In Planet Hulk, he lands on an alien world, is forced to become a gladiator, does pretty well for himself, beats the bad guys, and basically becomes the new ruler. But remnants of the old regime blow up the ship he came on, killing tons of people including his pregnant wife. Reasonably peeved, he... decides to blame it on the heroes who sent him there in the first place, and returns to Earth to make war. Come on, Hulk. For one thing, if you ended up happy with your new life on this other planet, why are you still angry at the heroes for sending you away in the first place? And how can you seriously blame the explosion on them? Do you think they programmed the ship to fly you far away, and then blow up quite a length of time later? Does that sound like something they would do, even if they wanted you dead? Could you at least try thinking for a minute? The comic tries to be ambiguous about who should be rooted for, but I found it impossible to be on Hulk's side with the idiocy of his whole quest. Still a fun book, but not a very good one.