(no subject)

[williamjm]

For some reason I seem to be compelled to see every single comic book superhero movie that comes out at the cinema. I'm not sure why since I've never actually read comic books. I suspect Marvel must put subliminal messages in the trailers, or something - that's the only possible explanation I can find for why I went to see Ghost Rider or Elektra.

Anyway, today I went to see the Incredible Hulk film. It was quite a good film, but never really showed signs of being any more than just quite good. I think the franchise's biggest problem is that even if it has a great actor like Edward Norton in the lead role, any depth or characterisation he might bring to the role goes out the window as soon as he turns into a huge green CGI thing. CGI monsters can have some personality (see Gollum [1] or King Kong) but there isn't any here. Similarly, although Tim Roth is a reasonable villain when he's human he just looks like a cartoon when he turns into Abomidnation. It's not the fact that he looks silly, it's the fact that he doesn't really have any more than rudimentary expressions. Hellboy looks just as silly as the Hulk, arguably, but because we can see Ron Perlmann in Hellboy he works a lot better as a protagonist whereas I can't see anything of Norton in the Hulk. I think the film would be more interesting if the main character just turned into a human berserker when he got angry, although obviously it wouldn't really be an Incredible Hulk film then. It was an entertaining film, Norton was good (although far from his best), Liv Tyler wasn't too bad (although I'd have preffered Jennifer Connely to return in that role), the early chase scene in the favelas was good and there quite a few amusing scenes ("You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry") and some good cameos (the 1970s Hulk as a security guard, one of the better Stan Lee cameos and Tony Stark).

While at the cinema I also saw another superhero trailer for "Hancock" which doesn't seem like the smartest concept for a big-budget movie. I can see why having a superhero movie about an unpopular uncharismatic superhero might seem like an original idea (if you ignore the films that have used elements of that before) but somehow I can't imagine audiences being particularly keen on seeing a superhero movie about an uncharismatic superhero. I'm not sure I'm particularly keen to see it either, although that might just because the film company don't have as good subliminal messages as Marvel ;)

[1] The very instant I started typing 'Gollum' my mp3 player randomly decided to start playing part of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

Comments

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

I thought it was OK, but strangely passionless. You could actually see the boxes being ticked on the marvel movie checklist -- emotional cripple scene goes here, kooky character goes here etc. etc. Yawn.