Hulk is the most misunderstood superhero film of its era and one of the most ambitious. Ang Lee's 2003 adaptation is not the film that audiences expecting a conventional action blockbuster went to see, and the gap between expectation and delivery is the primary reason for its divisive reception. What Lee made is a Freudian family drama about repressed rage and the psychological cost of emotional suppression, a film that uses the Hulk not as a vehicle for spectacular action sequences but as a metaphor for the violence that unprocessed trauma produces. It is a film of intellectual ambition and emotional seriousness, and also a film of considerable dramatic unevenness, with a third act that abandons its more interesting psychological concerns for a confrontation of such narrative incoherence that it undermines much of what precedes it.
At a Glance
Director: Ang Lee
Runtime: 138 minutes
Starring: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Josh Lucas
Release: 2003
Critics Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, ambitious and uneven)
Audience Rating: ★★ (2/5 stars, divisive)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Bruce Banner, a scientist whose father conducted illegal genetic experiments on himself before Bruce's birth, is exposed to a massive dose of gamma radiation that triggers a transformation into a creature of enormous strength whenever his anger reaches a critical threshold. His father David resurfaces after decades of absence, and the film's central dramatic concern becomes the relationship between Bruce's repressed emotional life and the Hulk's uncontrolled rage. The plot is the film's most interesting element in its first two acts, a psychological drama of real depth that uses the superhero framework to explore the relationship between childhood trauma and adult emotional dysfunction with a seriousness the genre had not previously attempted. The third act's introduction of David Banner as a shape-shifting villain is the film's most significant narrative failure, abandoning the more interesting psychological concerns of the preceding film for a confrontation that resolves nothing and satisfies no one.
Characters
Eric Bana's Bruce Banner is the film's most significant achievement, a portrayal of emotional suppression and psychological damage that gives the character a depth and a specificity that more action-focused interpretations have not always managed. Bana plays Bruce's stillness and his disconnection from his own emotional life with a conviction and a naturalism that makes the character feel entirely real. Jennifer Connelly's Betty Ross is the film's most fully realised supporting character, a woman of considerable intelligence and emotional courage whose relationship with Bruce is handled with a complexity that makes her the film's most sympathetic presence. Nick Nolte's David Banner is the film's most divisive performance, either a committed and unsettling piece of character work or a collection of actorly tics that overwhelms the character's dramatic function. Sam Elliott's General Ross is the film's most conventionally effective performance, a figure of authority whose opposition to the Hulk is rooted in a comprehensible if misguided logic. Bana and Connelly are the film's twin strengths, and their chemistry gives the film its emotional centre. Bana's performance is the most underrated in the franchise's history, a portrayal of psychological damage and emotional suppression that makes Bruce Banner feel human.
Tone
Lee pitches the film as a psychological drama filtered through the visual language of comic books, and the approach is more successful than its reception suggested. The split-screen and panel-transition techniques give the film a visual identity entirely distinct from any other superhero film of its era. The film's quieter sequences, in which Bruce and Betty's relationship and Bruce's psychological state are developed with patience and specificity, are its most dramatically effective. The action sequences are the film's weakest element, staged with a visual ambition that the CGI technology of 2003 could not fully support.
Meaning / Themes
The film's central concern is the relationship between repressed emotion and destructive behaviour. The Hulk as a manifestation of Bruce's suppressed rage, and the suggestion that his inability to process his childhood trauma is the source of both his power and his danger, is the film's most coherent thematic statement. The father-son dynamic, in which David Banner's own repressed violence is the origin of Bruce's condition, gives the film a generational dimension that deepens the central theme considerably.
Direction
Lee's direction is the film's most distinctive and most debated element, a work of formal ambition that uses the visual language of comic books with a consistency and a confidence that no other filmmaker has attempted at this scale. The split-screen sequences are the film's most formally interesting passages. The action sequences are the film's directorial weakness, staged with a visual ambition that the available technology could not support. Danny Elfman's score is one of the more underrated in the superhero genre, a brooding and atmospheric piece of work that suits the film's psychological register considerably better than a more conventionally heroic score would have.
Cultural Reception
Hulk received mixed reviews on its release and was a moderate commercial success, grossing over $245 million worldwide but underperforming relative to its considerable budget and the expectations of a major superhero release. Critics were divided between those who admired Lee's formal ambition and psychological seriousness and those who found the film dramatically inert and narratively incoherent. It is now regarded as one of the genre's most interesting failures, a film that attempted something different with superhero material and paid the price for its refusal to deliver conventional entertainment. Its reputation has improved somewhat with time, and Bana's performance is increasingly recognised as one of the most underrated in the genre's history.
Who Should Watch
Those willing to engage with a superhero film that is more interested in psychology than in action will find Hulk a rewarding and frequently surprising experience. It is worth watching for Bana and Connelly's performances and for Lee's formal ambition, approached with patience and an understanding that the third act will not deliver on the promise of the first two.
Final Verdict: A more ambitious and more interesting film than its reputation suggests, and a less satisfying one than its ambitions deserve. Eric Bana's Bruce Banner is the most psychologically nuanced portrayal of the character the screen has produced, Jennifer Connelly's Betty Ross is the film's most compelling presence, and Ang Lee's formal ambition gives the film a visual identity unlike any other superhero film of its era. The third act is a significant failure, Nolte's performance is divisive, and the CGI has dated badly. But Hulk is a film that tried to do something different with superhero material, and that attempt deserves more credit than it has received.
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