Incredible Hulk! ZOMG...
Most people have been raving about how awesome the special effects, action sequences, and general "dude, omg!" factor of this movie is, but I think they've completely glossed over the fact that Edward Norton and Liv Tyler have some serious chemistry going on.
Don't get me wrong-- the action aspect of this movie was fantastic, (I was literally gripping my arm rests the entire time), but what I was surprised by was that it had actual emotional content going on between our two leads.
In practically every single superhero film out there, the love interest tends to suffer from being the requisite damsel in distress. From Spider-man's Mary Jane (blah), Batman Begins' Rachel Dawes (the whole point of Batman is that he *doesn't* have a love interest), Punisher's Amanda Castle (vomit-trociously, horrendously cheesy chemistry), to Superman Returns' Lois Lane (played by the non-feisty, non-sharp, non-rapier witted blonde Kate Bosworth), non-superhero women have all basically been presented as pretty furniture that needs to be saved every now and then.
The thing about comics is that the women have had decades to evolve a personality. MJ in prose is a firebrand; she's witty, sexy, smart, and funny. Kirsten Dunst as MJ was... not.
I mean, Hollywood chooses its women based on their popularity and how pretty they look next to their leading men (not a bad thing, certainly, but IMHO shouldn't be the deciding factor in handing out roles).
Now Hulk, on the other hand, has smokin' momma Liv Tyler next to method actor Edward Norton. Honestly, this girl is so hot they had to put dorky glasses on her to make her less so. Edward Norton, on the other hand, is decidedly not hot in this movie (method actor, remember? He's channeling science dork homeless guy in this flick).
But you know what? Miracle of miracles, they actually make it *work*. I have never seen this much chemistry in a superhero movie *ever*. Like, *ever*. I almost felt like it was back in the nineties and I was reading Peter David's run on Incredible Hulk again.
(Incredible Hulk #400, Peter David, Jan Duursema)
Okay, so that was a lot cooler in the 90s than it is now. But still, the point is that they were able to squeeze the emotion out of almost 500 issues of comics, run it through a Hollywood (tm) blender, and still have it come out *pure*.
And by pure, I mean stomachable.
And by stomachable, I mean like NOT turning MJ into some floozy who jumps from guy to guy while constantly bitching and crying.
The dynamic between Tyler and Norton puts this movie solidly in my top 3 superhero movies of all time, right behind Batman Begins and X-Men II. No mean feat! :D
Don't get me wrong-- the action aspect of this movie was fantastic, (I was literally gripping my arm rests the entire time), but what I was surprised by was that it had actual emotional content going on between our two leads.
In practically every single superhero film out there, the love interest tends to suffer from being the requisite damsel in distress. From Spider-man's Mary Jane (blah), Batman Begins' Rachel Dawes (the whole point of Batman is that he *doesn't* have a love interest), Punisher's Amanda Castle (vomit-trociously, horrendously cheesy chemistry), to Superman Returns' Lois Lane (played by the non-feisty, non-sharp, non-rapier witted blonde Kate Bosworth), non-superhero women have all basically been presented as pretty furniture that needs to be saved every now and then.
The thing about comics is that the women have had decades to evolve a personality. MJ in prose is a firebrand; she's witty, sexy, smart, and funny. Kirsten Dunst as MJ was... not.
I mean, Hollywood chooses its women based on their popularity and how pretty they look next to their leading men (not a bad thing, certainly, but IMHO shouldn't be the deciding factor in handing out roles).
Now Hulk, on the other hand, has smokin' momma Liv Tyler next to method actor Edward Norton. Honestly, this girl is so hot they had to put dorky glasses on her to make her less so. Edward Norton, on the other hand, is decidedly not hot in this movie (method actor, remember? He's channeling science dork homeless guy in this flick).
But you know what? Miracle of miracles, they actually make it *work*. I have never seen this much chemistry in a superhero movie *ever*. Like, *ever*. I almost felt like it was back in the nineties and I was reading Peter David's run on Incredible Hulk again.
(Incredible Hulk #400, Peter David, Jan Duursema)
Okay, so that was a lot cooler in the 90s than it is now. But still, the point is that they were able to squeeze the emotion out of almost 500 issues of comics, run it through a Hollywood (tm) blender, and still have it come out *pure*.
And by pure, I mean stomachable.
And by stomachable, I mean like NOT turning MJ into some floozy who jumps from guy to guy while constantly bitching and crying.
The dynamic between Tyler and Norton puts this movie solidly in my top 3 superhero movies of all time, right behind Batman Begins and X-Men II. No mean feat! :D