True story: I was drunk when I saw Ang Lee's Hulk ...which might explain why I liked it. Apparently, you weren't supposed to.I am very seldom inebriated at the movies! It was a fluke, really. There was this jumbo frozen margarita and then another one and before I knew it I was in the Empire 25, hugging some startled friends who happened to show at the same movie but probably weren't expecting wobbly manhugs at the opening night of a superhero blockbuster. And then I was gobbling popcorn like I had not just eaten way too much Mexican food at El Azteca while I waited for Bruce Banner to get really angry. The next thing I remember was thinking 'why isn't he getting angry?' Then I think there were some mutant dogs and some CGI nudity that was just as prudish as actual flesh nudity in the movies. I do remember that. And then the Hulk started hopping around in the desert and I was 10 years-old again reading comic books.
And thus concludes my tequila soaked memories of that evening!
I recognized even at the time that Hulk had some problems -- like way too much time dilly-dallying before the action and the casting of Jennifer Connelly as the weepy girlfriend (seriously. does any actress need to branch out more?) --but I basically enjoyed it. So now they're trying a reboot with The Incredible Hulk. Here's the new trailer.
It doesn't do anything for me. I might be the only one thinking: Do Ed Norton and Liv Tyler really want to be the poor man's Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly? I mean look at Julianne Moore trying to be Clarice Starling after Jodie! It's not always wise to take over a role that someone else originated. Not that you couldn't improve on Bana & Connelly in that movie, mind you. Clarice Starling was perhaps a bad analogy. It's more like Christian Bale taking over for George Clooney. Or maybe even George Clooney taking over from Val Kilmer. We'll see.
Maybe it doesn't matter who plays it. In Batman movies, the pointy cowl hides the man in the suit real well and CGI disposes of the actor altogether in Hulk. It's a paycheck for Mr. Norton either way.
*
