Icon. Showstoppah. Main Eventah.

With this Blu-Ray, I know have as many of Sony’s winning next-gen format as I do of HD DVD. Of course, I’ll probably get rid of some of each, so we’ll see who eventually reigns supreme in my collection.

I first saw this movie on Thanksgiving. Scott and I were big comic book fans as kids and we had fun watching this. Eventually the Blu-Ray price drop to like 15 bucks and I decided to snag it. I hated Ang Lee’s metaphor for child abuse and wanted an actual HULK SMASH flick and that’s exactly what I got here.

I loved the tributes to the Bixby/Ferrigno Hulk TV series, from the use of the “Walking Away” music to Big Lou himself doing the voice acting for the CGI Hulk. This film is definitely a tribut to the classic Hulk show in the same way Superman Returns was a tribute to the the Richard Donner films. Edward Norton is an excellent Bruce Banner and he even looks a bit like Bixby.

One thing they really changed in this film from the original comic mythos is the Abomination, who is the big bad guy here. This Abomination has nothing in common with the comics’ Emil Blonsky. The personality, origins, appearance and actions are completely different, but it still works really well in the context of the film. This is also the first film besides Empire Records that I’ve liked Liv Tyler in…but with ER It was more I liked everything else and she happened to be in it. William Hurt is an excellent General “Thunderbolt” Ross and he was one of the best parts of the film.

There aren’t a lot of special features worth watching here. I liked the deleted scenes, if only for Doc. Samson getting a lot of screen time in them. However, there was no documentary on the Hulk comics included, which was a big surprise. Most comics movies have that, so not having one on this BRD was a big let-down.

The actual film was entertaining crap. It’s a pretty shallow film with a lot of violence and no real character development. Banner is tormented. Betsy Ross loves him. General Ross hates him. Abomination wants to kill him. It’s your typical summer blockbuster, but at least it is well done and fun.

The Incredible Hulk stays in the collectiona s I seem to have a weakness for a lot of comic book films, but it’s pretty much for fans of the comic of the 1960’s TV show.

Is It Worth Keeping? Yes
Rating: 6/10

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under DVD of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.