Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Bruce Banner, a genetics researcher with a tragic past, suffers massive radiation exposure in his laboratory that causes him to transform into a raging green monster when he gets angry.
Ang Lee's Hulk is a genuinely singular superhero film — one of the most artistically ambitious of the genre. Lee's use of split-screen comic-panel compositions and wipes is distinctive and inventive, elevating the cinematography well above average. The film's psychological depth and Freudian father-son themes give it real novelty among superhero pictures of its era. The plot, while ambitious in its tragedy-of-the-self ambitions, struggles with pacing and tonal inconsistency. Acting is solid — Bana brings brooding conviction, Nick Nolte chews scenery memorably — but uneven supporting work holds it back. The ending, however, is a significant weak point: the final confrontation with the Absorbing Man is chaotic, visually murky, and thematically unsatisfying, failing to pay off the psychological weight built earlier.