THE
INCREDIBLE HULK
By
Jacqueline Monahan
Jacqueline
Monahan is an English tutor for the GEAR UP program at
UNLV. She is also a consultant for Columbia College
Chicago in Adjunct Faculty Affairs.
jaxn8r@msn.com
Dr. Bruce Banner is back and he’s taking anger management classes. The mean,
green, pissed off machine is still ripping his pants, going shirtless, and
throwing forklifts around like they were bottle tops, but now he’s learning
to take some control of his situation in an effort to tame the beast within.
The second installment of the latest Marvel franchise starts with a
two-minute recap of the first film, before settling on a colorful but
crowded neighborhood in a foreign country.
Banner (Edward Norton) has
exiled himself to Brazil, quietly working in a rundown bottling plant by
day, emailing a mysterious scientist, Mr. Blue (Tim Blake Nelson) about
possible antidotes to his condition utilizing the country’s exotic plant
life, and learning biofeedback to control his pulse and impulses. The
antidotes yield only short-lived results, as Banner finds looking under a
microscope, his green-tinged blood turning back to normal for a moment
before suddenly bursting into a green mini-explosion that actually breaks
the slide it’s on. Mr. Blue (Banner is Mr. Green) is an egghead scientist
trying to find the antidote to Banner’s blood anomaly by growing his own
hefty supply back home.
General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) picks up Banner’s blood
trail through tainted soda and intercepted e-mails and accompanies a small
army to capture him. General Ross wants the power to be used to make
soldiers into organic weapons, or what he calls, “biotech force
enhancement.” The Army’s going green everyone. Let’s throw a war to
celebrate!
Leading the way in the hunt
for Banner is Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a Russian-born, British trained
combatant who has a run-in with The Hulk and brazenly asks, “Is that all ya
got?” before being slammed into something very hard that shatters his
skeletal structure like a hammer to bone china. Even this does not deter
Blonsky, who miraculously recovers (I won’t reveal how) and seeks to enhance
himself in a similar fashion. He is after all, what General Ross envisions
in a future soldier – an organic killing machine, for whom Banner’s curse
would become a prize; extreme strength and power transforming even the
inexperienced cadet into an unstoppable and ruthless weapon. Blonsky’s
already halfway there, and now he wants what Banner’s got.
Escaping to the States, Banner
becomes one of the most wanted men in the country, having committed no other
crime than being a test subject of a failed experiment. He haunts old
stomping grounds, reconnects with Professor Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), an old
flame, not to mention the General’s daughter. He meets the mysterious
scientist, Mr. Blue, confronts the General, and ultimately battles Blonsky,
who has become his own gamma-ray enhanced weapon of destruction, deadliness
pumping through his veins like an energizing poison.
Betty Ross is also a scientist, specializing in cellular biology; her
eyeglasses verify this, making her look serious and smart. She is a unifying
force between Banner and his alter-ego – they both like her – and her
father, whom she opposes but shares a blood bond with. She’s a source of
conflict for the three and serves as a constant reminder of what Banner has
given up. A near sexual encounter almost invites the green guy into the room
and must be abandoned.
Meanwhile, Blonsky morphs into
The Abomination, a spiky, overgrown creature who dwarfs the Hulk as they
battle through Harlem throwing machinery like spitballs and roaring their
rage in pure animal agitation through the streets in a grudge match that can
level a city block in a matter of minutes. Will General Ross finally realize
the dangerous forces he’s attempting to harness? Has The Hulk met his match?
Will Banner and Betty ever be happy together? The answers will be made
apparent in a slew of future cinematic Marvels to be sure.
Edward Norton has a calm logic as Banner; low-key and careful, extremely
smart. William Hurt starts out as a one-track warrior, victory his only
goal, but does some morphing of his own. Liv Tyler’s Betty is loyal to her
man/hulk, no matter which incarnation he happens to inhabit at the moment.
Tim Roth’s Blonsky is a willing guinea pig with a collection of facial
expressions, none of them genial.
Director Louis Leterrier
(Transporter) keeps the action flowing and the creatures in shadow to lessen
CGI detection that can (and certainly did) hurt this film’s predecessor.
Cinematographer Peter Menzies lenses the multi-level Brazilian neighborhood
as if it were a sophisticated mousetrap; narrow alleys, rooftops, broken
steps, and sudden drop-offs make for a dangerously exhilarating pursuit.
Writer Zak Penn (with some
help from Norton) gives a nod to Bill Bixby through a televised snippet of
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and to Lou Ferrigno in a cameo role, both
original Hulks. Muppets are also flashed onscreen to remind the very
trivia-minded among us that one of Kermit’s famous theme songs is “It’s Not
Easy Being Green.”
Bruce could surely print that on a banner of his own.
