Incredible Hulk: Behind the Scenes Footage

Latino Review has some explosive clips from the set of The Incredible Hulk, the latest adaptation of one of Marvel Comics’ flagship characters.

The new version stars Edward Norton as the much put-upon Dr. Bruce Banner, who must control his emotions at all time, lest he let the green goliath known as the Hulk out to rampage against the puny humans who would dare try to hurt him. Co-starring with Norton are Liv Tyler, playing the role of Betty Ross, the one woman who tries to stick by Banner, and William Hurt as General Thaddeus Ross, Betty’s father and a man obsessed with trying to kill the Hulk. This makes for an interesting character dynamic, and the worst potential father-in-law ever. The normally subtle Hurt is an odd choice for the role of the boisterous army commander, but if he can get an Oscar nomination for less than ten minutes of screen time in A History of Violence, he certainly earns the benefit of the doubt.

Everyone involved with the film seems to feel the need to make it clear that this is a different film than the Hulk film Ang Lee made back in 2003, starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly. This may, in fact, mark one of the quickest reboots of a franchise in history - it took the 007 franchise 20 whole films before they finally tried something different.

Lee’s film was not well received, despite it’s respectable box office take, mostly due to its ponderous pace and the fact that there is no Hulk for the whole first half of the film. Truth be told, however, this was likely due to the fact that the technology of creating the Hulk was actually being pioneered by this crew, and the astronomical cost of doing such a thing means they probably couldn’t do as much of it as they’d hoped. The casting of Lee’s film was great, but the script was curious. Nick Nolte was perfect as Bruce’s insane and abusive father, but the final act where he transformed into some weird glowing jellyfish of power was… as misguided choice, to put it mildly. The gamma poodle didn’t help, either. They championed it as “coming straight out of the comic books,” but not everything that sees print is worth saving. They’ve been putting out an issue a month since the 1960s - you’re bound to have some duds.

This is what is concerning about this new film. It’s being directed by Louis Leterrier, who gave us Transporter 2 and Unleashed, but according to the panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Norton is not only starring, but he wrote the script, and he cited his main references as the classic 1970s television show “The Incredible Hulk,” starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, as well as the run of Hulk comics penned by Bruce Jones.

The Bruce Jones connection is potentially dangerous. The general impression is that they’re going with the good part of his run on the title, which was Banner on the run, barely keeping a step ahead of the government, while getting aid from a mysterious benefactor. It was good for keeping tension up, and it’s something that could be very filmable. The trouble is that when it came time for Jones to deal with the Hulk’s supporting cast, he systematically ruined them all, from Betty Ross to the Abomination, turning him from the tragic figure he was into a one-note wife-beating villain.

The Abomination is in this film as well, although he starts out as a spy named Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth. Roth should be able to bring the necessary depth to Blonsky, who is caught in a gamma radiation accident and trapped in the form of a hideous green beast, and thus unable to ever be with his beloved wife Nadia ever again, but if they go with the Jones version, there’ll be no tragedy, just ugliness.

Another cause for concern is the fact that most comic-book film franchises tend to falter when they try to put more than one villain into the story (a notable exception being Batman Begins). In addition to Blonsky, there’s another villain by the name of The Leader, aka Samuel Sterns, to be played by Tim Blake Nelson. Nelson is an excellent choice for the lowly soul whose own gamma treatment mutates him into a twisted genius, but will the synergy be there between the two villains, or will it be a haphazard pairing, a la Venom and Sandman in Spider-Man 3? That remains to be seen.

In the meantime, enjoy watching stuff blow up. Tis the magic of the movies.