The Cinema of the Four

The Incredible Hulk

Crime, as any criminal expert knows, often fails. Criminals are a persistent lot, however, an d always apt to try their schemes again.

Movies, as any movie expert likewise recognizes, also fail on occasion. And like their criminal counterparts, movie producers will occasionally try, try again.

Consider the movie career of my great-grandfather, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who has been portrayed countless times as one movie producer after another tries to get him right. Rumor has it that Mr. Madonna, Guy Ritchie, is soon to try again with a “street-fighting Holmes,” so the trend continues to this day.

Some much “younger” public figures are only on their first or second go-round, one of them being Bruce Banner, “The Incredible Hulk.” The first movie version of the Hulk, a few years ago, had a great opening but a lukewarm reception from critics and Hulk-a-maniacs. The character was plainly one that people wanted to see, but that particular presentation just wasn’t up to what it could be.

Enter this weekend’s Hulk, whose alter ego Bruce Banner is played by Edward Norton. The Hulk savvy among my associates are finding it a more palatable take on the character. Movie inspector Athelney Jones IV, in his usual fashion, maintains that the first Hulk movie, with it’s more complex pseudo-science and Jennifer Connelly made for a superior product. Yet while that film may have been more ambitious, this new Hulk film is more loyal to its source material. It also pays homage to the Hulk TV series of decades past, without being too loyal or cloying (as “Superman Returns” was to the Christopher Reeve version).

When the main character is a big green guy who hits things, one doesn’t expect anything more than an action movie, and at its heart, that’s what “The Incredible Hulk” is. Its battling monsters outpace “Cloverfield” and any other building-destroying behemoths we’ve seen of late, and it crams more into its hour and a half than the first did in a longer run time. All in all, its a fine ticket purchase in an already good movie summer.

What Great Grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“I expect those cries about a monster, of which our visitor has spoken, were nocturnal reminiscences..."