journal features

movie review - The Incredible Hulk

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2013.12.15

So, they've rebooted "The Hulk" movies. The Hulk is a comic book character whose a genius scientist whose experimentation with nuclear medicine on himself has led him to an unstable physiology where somehow he transforms into a giant angry monster when pressed. It's not clear where all the extra mass comes from, but in the Hulk form he's also bullet-proof and can do things like leap 20+ kilometers vertically and throw things into orbit. It's not clear whether they intended to set aside the previous two movies when they told this tale but they've certainly switched actors and they've made this movie far more slick and pyrotechnic than the previous iteration.

And in a truly ground-breaking thing for a super-hero thing, they've gone the route of having a villain turn up with exactly the same powers and abilities as our hero. When that villain - made by the military to contain the Hulk - turns out to be worse, the military then turns to the Hulk to combat the villain and at this point I mean come on what are we doing.

Not recommended. I was hoping for more by far.

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov