Recently watched The Incredible Hulk. Was so-so. Started out ok. Edward Norton was just ok. The problem is that it gets kind of boring every time he turns into the monster, although there were some ok moments of unintentional comedy. The genius of Iron Man was that he could still be himself inside the suit. Even as much as I like Christian Bale, the growly batman voice gets old quickly.
Many monster movies really fall back into three archetypes: vampire, werewolf, or zombie. Hulk is a werewolf movie. Turns into an animal, struggles to control immense power & aggression & animal appetites, etc. True werewolves have the advantage in that they're not asked to say things like "hulk smash" in the middle of their violent scenes. 28 Days Later was a bit of a werewolf movie, except no one ever turned back. Halloween was a zombie movie (the inexorable pursuit by death itself). The best werewolf movies are long on humans, short on wolf scenes. It would be interesting to see a hulk with almost no green fight scenes.
4 comments:
it's pretty hilarious to me that you deconstructed a zombie movie (28 Days Later) to a werewolf movie. but i buy it.
Hulk bored me to tears. i think i was aware that he could be different sizes based on how smash-y he felt, but watching the movie i was distracted by it. i spent more time thinking about the technology and possible continuity miscues than i did about what was going on in the scene.
I didn't understand the physics. He's bulletproof? Or just heals quickly, wolverine-style? "Hulk smash!"
I didn't understand the "shear ridiculousness" of tearing large metallic things in half. I know enough metallurgy to understand things like M1A1 Abrams tanks don't neatly unzip down the centerline. None of the physics of Hulkishness make sense. I concur with your 3 archetypes as well.
Example of over-doing the werewolve scenes are the Underworld series - first one was enjoyable (esp with Kate B in tight leather), 2nd one was silly to laughable, trailers for the recent one ensure that when it eventually gets in my Netflix queue I'll enjoy it more with a whole bottle of wine.
What's an example of a vampire movie that includes no vampires? Batman, sort of, on a slant? Haunted, driven in the darkness, unable to reconcile?
I don't think Batman qualifies. He's just batman.
But it's an excellent question. Interestingly enough, almost all modern zombie movies stem from a great vampire story, I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, which inspired Romero, who in turn....
Anyway, I'll put a think on non-vampire vampire movies. Event Horizon comes close, with Sam Neill as the vampire. Star Wars almost works, or would work better as a vampire theme if the Sith didn't have their unbelievably stupid max quota policy.
Hm.
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