i am 30 minutes in to the movie, i have watched this three times since i first saw it around a year and a half ago on Virgin Media movies on demand. as with this movie, as i always feel watching it, it has been excellent, these first 30 mins are brilliant, but i still have to dread the CGI joke it becomes...
From the moment that Bruce/David Banner chooses to become the hulk in the walkway after defending Betty Ross, the movie becomes a joke, let me explain why...
Bruce Banner is a pacifist a scientist, not a man of war, the story to my current recollection is, that he risked his life with Gamma radiation to find a cure for cancer, perhaps a family member died of cancer, we never hear anything of his mother, soo perhaps her. so a man willing to do this is not a man who will willingly kill, Edward Nortons portrayal of Bruce/David is brilliant, David is Bruces pseudonym when running from the Army. Edward portrays him as a wirey fighter who would still prefer peace, but i think the producers had other ideas.
William Hurt is a fine actor (Lost in Space and i can't remember but i had seen him in something else he was good in) but no one told he who is character was.. Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, A man who hates everyone and hates himself, a man who thinks he has squandered his life but did it because it was greater good 'necessary' , the only thing in his life is Betty, the one good he gave to the world to make up for the evil he has done. she is his core. His father was a general he is a colonel, Betty is his hope that he might be good. (that through her existence he might show others that deep down he is good inside).
also his makeup was quite bad, you could easily see it was fake.
but back to the crux of the matter, Bruce is a pacifist, he feels the guilt of every life the Hulk takes, he will do almost anything to rid himself of the killer that lurks inside. Colonel Ross is not the villain of this story, the Hulk is, Bruce Banner and the Hulk are both Hero and Villain, the pacifist and the monster, locked inside, the struggle to control the monster, inside Bruce, not let's have a fight with Computer Generated (Images) monsters. okay so he fought a monster like him, but not like him, but wouldn't have been better to have him continue his search to find a cure? instead of the boss fight at the end, you can do that with EVERY marvel character, but not this one, the Hulk's story is soo different that you can't do that, Bruce needs the strength to beat the monster inside not jump out of a plane hoping to become him to 'save the city'.
Tim Roth's acting in this was as usual excellent, although, the order was wrong in which the fight in relation to the plot was shown, it should have been around 50 minutes in, and the rest should have been, banner running, i liked the pace of transformation of Roth's character, but then the movie should of been 3 hours long in this case.
Liv Tylar' s acting was neither bad nor good, Betty is a an army brat genius, but she hates war, she is politically motivated against war and the army, she is friendly but will sabotage a weapon that kills without second thought. i think she should have been made a hacker, not neopunk style, but know her way around a terminal.
the nods to the tv show were amazing, it eased me that i would be seeing something that was a tribute to the greatly fondly remembered Bill Bixby, but the end marr'ed the begining, so sad...
they could fix this with a sequel, it is not unrepairable... tell the Hulk's story..tell Banner's story
Keep Edward Norton, he is a very good actor and CAN be great in this role.
sad music plays...
Dava
