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Hulk
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (3rd November 2008). |
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The Film
 I think everyone knows the rough origin of Marvel’s not-so-jolly jade giant, The Hulk: mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) accidently becomes exposed to gamma radiation. Instead of being fried on the spot the radiation makes Banner a modern day Jekyll and Hyde – the slightest loss of control transforming the blighted man into a rampaging green monster. Ang Lee’s focus in the film is an attempt to understand the mind of Dr. Bruce Banner – to get a grip on where this suppressed anger stems from. For the most part, it works. Many people seemed turned off by the apparent lack of action spectacle and “Hulk smash!” destruction. Indeed by the seeming lack of the "Hulk". Lee takes his time in setting up the Hulk’s origin, introducing us to all the relevant players and their motivations first. Banner’s loose-cannon scientist father David Banner (Nick Nolte), has passed on his self-altered genes to his son. One violent act of domestic disturbance later and Bruce Banner is left a deeply psychologically scarred child; a scarred child who would grow up to be an extraordinarily emotionally repressed man. Even post-gamma irradiated accident (which comes about, not through self-experimentation but by selflessly saving a colleague) the Hulk takes his time making himself known. It’s around this time that shady military types become interested in Banner; notably Sam Elliot as General “Thunderbolt” Ross. In typical comic-book fashion, not only is he the Hulk’s main nemesis he’s also the father of Banner’s main (ex)-squeeze, Betty (Jennifer Connelly). When Banner does transform, the Hulk is a bravura creation of (then) cutting edge digital technology, smashing his way through tanks, military bases and cities. When the Hulk finally smashes... he smashes destructively well. Bana is wonderful as the emotionally restrained Bruce Banner. He convincingly portrays a quiet man with a bubbling undercurrent of rage-filled id just below the surface. Nolte and Elliot take turns growling and chewing the scenery – Nolte coming out on top by a long shot. His turn as David Banner threatens to overturn the whole enterprise, as he seems to have wandered in from another film entirely ("Tropic Thunder" (2008) seems most likely...) and his somewhat wacky ‘Hulk-dogs’ don’t do him any favours. But considering the leading man transforms into an 8-foot tall rampaging green behemoth, you have to take everything with just a little pinch of salt. Recently the feeling one gets from Marvel in regards to Lee’s much-maligned "Hulk" is that the film is some kind of unwanted step-child. Sure, it confounded those who were expecting wholesale destruction and didn’t do overly amazing numbers at the box office but it deserved more than to be dismissed outright. Lee brought his own approach to the property, imbuing a kind of melodramatic Greek tragedy into this atomic age Mr. Hyde. And two years before "Sin City" (2005) he really attempted to bring a comic book straight to the big screen with split screens, wipes and artificial crash zooms. 2008’s "Incredible Hulk" was labelled a ‘soft-reboot’ of the franchise, with a more action-oriented director (and one with less personal vision). I prefer to think of the two as ‘Vol.1’ and ‘Vol. 2’ respectively; two very different approaches to the same character, acting as companion pieces or alternative takes rather than competing. Perhaps Lee’s deeper; more thoughtful psychological approach would have worked post-"The Dark Knight" (2008), with its bleak introspection into the character and wider world. Just with more tank throwing.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this image is mastered in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been created using VC-1 compression. This is the same HD transfer used on the previously release HD-DVD version of the film. The image is incredibly sharp, with detail that holds up real well right down to the minute. I was impressed with the colors, which are vibrant and pop off the screen especially the green tones. Skin tones look good, the CG holds up but having seen the updated Hulk in this year's film the CGI has been boosted significantly. I found that blacks are solid but some of the transfer, especially dimly lit scenes were too dark. Despite this there's a considerable amount of depth to the transfer and as far as HD images go it's fantastic. Viewers should also note that the ratio is incorrectly listed on the case as 2.35:1 when in fact it's 1.85:1.
Audio
A total of eight audio tracks are included on this disc (the most I've seen on a Blu-ray release) they include one in English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 presented in 48kHz/24-bit as well as DTS 5.1 tracks in French, French Canadian, Castellano Spanish, L.A. Spanish, German, Japanese, and Italian. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD track, and boy is this an amazing track! If you have a HD home cinema set-up my recommendation is that you pop this disc in, crank the volume up and strap in and be prepared to be blown away. The mix is aggressive, immersive and action packed. The sound field feels rich and full of active sounds that make use of the 5.1 space. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, range and depth are excellent and overall this can easily be considered reference quality. Not only are there a lot of audio options there are also a lot of subtitle options which include English for the hearing impaired, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Chinese (Traditional Mandarin), French, French Canadian, Castilian Spanish, L.A. Spanish and German.
Extras
Universal has included a series of extras such as an audio commentary, a collection of featurettes, deleted scenes and a picture-in-picture commentary. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a feature-length audio commentary by director Ang Lee. Lee tries to maintain your interest by offering a tremendous amount of information based on this production but combined with the film's length and the fact that Lee is only person on this track it gets a bit tedious... In saying that there's a lot to take in, and Lee covers the production process commenting on his involvement in the film, casting and shooting as well as Lee playing the Hulk in motion capture for the rampage scenes. Next up is "The Making of Hulk" a series of four featurettes with a total runtime of 23 minutes 43 seconds and cover the following: - "Cast and Crew" takes a closer look at the film's cast and crew, as they comment on the production and their participation in the film. - "Stunts & Physical Effects" takes a look at the film's incredible action stunts and shooting those scenes. - "ILM" takes a look at the visual effects of the film and what ILM brought to the character of the Hulk. - "Music" finally looks at the film's score, which is rather interesting as it's not a conventional score for such a film. Following that is "The Evolution of the Hulk" featurette which runs for 16 minutes 17 seconds. This is my favorite extra on this disc and covers the history of the character as well as it's development to feature film. "The Incredible Ang Lee" featurette runs for 14 minutes 28 seconds and takes a closer look at the enthusiasm that director Lee brought to the production and is basically key cast and crew telling us how amazing he is and how much fun it is working with him... yawn. "The Dog Fight Scene" is a featurette that runs for 10 minutes 9 seconds and takes a look at the scene which features the bad idea of using "Hulk-Dogs" and shows a breakdown of how the scene came together from conceiving the scene, to shooting the sequence to visual effects and finalizing the scene for the film. "The Unique Style of Editing Hulk" featurette runs for 5 minutes 34 seconds and takes a short look at the editing of the film which used a lot of wipes and picture-in-picture shots that gave the film a comic book panel look. There's also a series of 6 deleted scenes which runs for a total of 5 minutes 51 seconds as they are presented in a reel. The scenes include an explanation of the nanomeds, Bruce calls Betty and tells her that he's been thinking about her dream, a scene of Bruce in a science lab in 1986 being picked on for being a nerd, General Ross calls the mayor about his military visit, Bruce tells security about a poodle in the building and Betty comes home to discover men taking her files. A Blu-ray Exclusive Feature is also included and comes under the "U-Control" section of the disc, this feature requires a Profile 1.1 player or greater. This portion of the disc remains unreviewed at this time as the reviewer currently has a Profile 1.0 player and cannot access this feature, the feature in question is a picture-in-picture commentary that takes the "Hulk Cam: Inside The Rage" featurettes from the previous releases of this film and features them popping up as the film plays. The disc also features "My Scenes" which allows viewers to bookmark their favorite scenes.
Overall
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