Duncan: Although I’ve seen this a couple times because The Old Lady loves it, I’m honestly still not sure if Ang Lee’s Hulk is a legitimately “good” movie or not. It’s just so wildly uneven and really doesn’t make much sense. However, I do think it’s an interesting movie (which can be said about, oh, 1% of all Hollywood movies), and I also think it’s laudable that Ang Lee made an attempt — albeit, a very strange and not entirely successful attempt — to create something that deviates from the norm.

This is a really weird and unpredictable but watchable mess that doesn’t give a flying rat’s ass about fans. Because why should it? Fans just want something safe. Fans want what they know. Fans are boring. Plus, Nick Nolte gives a fun maniacal performance. In fact, I would argue Nolte seems to be the only one involved who sort of “gets” the tone of the material.
Rating: 80

Steve: I’d agree with you more about Lee’s attempt to produce something out of the norm if the end result was something half decent and not obviously embarrassed by it’s source material. For the majority of the movie, Lee seems to be wrestling with the fact that this is a comic book character, adding “depth” to the story that’s completely unnecessary. When he does give in to the source material, it’s either jarringly different from the rest of the movie (the pop-art comic book panel transitions) or so awful it’s entertaining in that B-movie way (gamma irradiated poodle fight!!) Whatever the case, I don’t think I ever want to watch it again.
Rating: 64

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