Marvel Productions and The Incredible Hulk

Posted on July 17, 2008 by J Tepper
Culture, Industry

After seeing marvelous Marvel characters such as Daredevil, Elektra, and Ghost Rider get not so great reviews on the silver screen, Marvel comics has decided to take matters into their own hands and create Marvel Productions. This new force to be reckoned with in Hollywood has already achieved groundbreaking success with the recent release of Iron Man, as well as the release of The Incredible Hulk. Even fans were unclear how much this new installment had to do with Ang Lee’s ‘Brokeback’ Hulk from 2003. Will it be a sequel or a completely different re-imagining? Marvel did have more creative control over this film than the other; bringing this installment closer to the original continuity. After gaining a solid reputation as a director from his high-octane Transporter movies, Louis Leterrier promised to direct the kind of action-packed Hulk movie that comic book nerds across the planet have been aching for.

When I watched the Incredible Hulk, I was blown away by the intense action, and a very pleasing aesthetic. The new Hulk character design in the movie bares a much closer resemblance to the way he had been illustrated in recent issues — specifically to the way he was portrayed by popular comic book artist Michael Turner, (who just recently passed away at the age of 37). The Incredible Hulk was a non-stop action thrill ride, without a lot of time misspent dwelling on Bruce Banner’s irrelevant psychological issues, despite the obvious. The movie was only about 110 minutes long, unlike its predecessor; it got right to the point, even bringing the viewer up to speed on the story during the opening credit montage. The plot does not really have much to do with Ang Lee’s version. It is based mostly on a mix of the comic book continuity and the 1970’s television show starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno (who incidentally both make cameos along with creator Stan Lee).

There were also rumors of several Easter eggs in the Hulk. For example, in Iron Man, there was a quick view of Captain America’s iconic shield on Tony Stark’s. I kept my eyes peeled throughout the Hulk staying after the credits, only to learn later that the Easter egg featuring an actual appearance by Captain America frozen in a glacier was cut from the movie altogether. While Cap failed to make an appearance in the theatrical release, a nice bit of fun for the fans was the appearance of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Tony informs General Ross about his plans on assembling a team. With the slightest bit of comic book knowledge, we can assume this is alluding to an eventual Avengers movie. In order for that to happen, the Avengers roster might need to be established first in several solo movies like Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and the Wasp, as well as other Avengers like the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Black Widow.

While being a very entertaining movie experience, the ending of the Hulk might leave the viewer with some questions like, “how did all those pedestrians and army guys end up on that roof-top all of the sudden?” or “after seeing how powerful Abomination was, how was Hulk able to simply knock him unconscious by choking him with a chain? He is left alive, so how can something with that kind of strength be safely imprisoned?” Regardless of a few contradictory elements from the movie, I generally declare The Incredible Hulk to be a success, while not as large of a success as Iron Man, this new Hulk movie more than makes up for the last one.

For those of you who enjoy the movies based on comics that have been in abundance over the years, I (and many other nerdy fanboys) strongly urge you to pick up some comics and start reading the stories that spawned these multi-million dollar franchises. These movies, for the most part, are always quite excellent, but ask any reader, and he or she will tell you that the original stories are way better!

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