Genre: Action
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt
Storyline: Nearly six months after the ‘incident,’ Bruce is traced to Brazil and the Hulk is wanted dead by the military.
Bottomline: Credible. Incredible. Marvel-ous. Except fraudulently edited by local distributors.
If you’re watching this film in Chennai or Tamil Nadu, you are likely to go green. Angry.
The conmen distributing The Incredible Hulk in this part of the world, Thennandal Films, have chopped down 20 per cent of the 114-minute PG-13 Marvel Studios film. The distributor’s cut is not just stupidly tasteless, it is so random and merciless about dialogue portions that whoever chopped this film down for the distributor needs a kick in the behind from The Hulk himself.
Anyone interested in taking the distributors to court have a willing witness here.
After all, you paid to watch the entire film that Louis Leterrier made for Marvel Studios, not to watch 25 minutes less. Also, Marvel did not make ‘Hulk Part 2,’ as this film is being falsely advertised.
Thenandal Films may not know this but Hulk fans are still quite angry about Ang Lee’s take on the superhero, so passing off a reboot to the franchise as a sequel is not just legally and factually wrong, it is also blasphemous.
We are not sure if the distributors are literate enough to understand because if they were, they wouldn’t brutally cut down a much-awaited superhero film to save Rs.10,000 per print. When you’ve paid 120 bucks, you deserve the full movie. Rental libraries give it for much lesser. The internet gives it for free.
All cinema halls screening the clipped down 90-minute version are party to fraud.
The Incredible Hulk emerges out of the shadows after a nice teasing little build-up with an elaborate long chase across the rooftops and bylanes of Brazil early on in the film, unlike the 2003 version where The Hulk made an appearance 45 minutes later.
Though it maybe unfair to review a film that has been so badly mutilated by the incompetent annachis, one thing we can say about the reboot is that the heart-pounding action sequences will make that destructively childish devil in you grin with glee.
With the intense Edward Norton as Bruce, the gorgeously sensuous Liv Tyler (Marvel seems to have a thing for drenching their superhero girlfriends in transparent clothing in rain) as Betty Ross, an ever reliable William Hurt (as Gen. Ross) and the adequately irritating Tim Roth (Blonsky), the casting seems quite interesting but without having seen 25-minutes of the talking portions of the film, it is difficult to compare it with the complexity that Ang Lee brought to the troubled comic book hero.
The spectacular visual effects in the climax where Hulk takes on Abomination ought to be seen on the big screen.
It won’t be too much fun on DVD. Which is why it is all the more important for the distributors to be honest and give us the whole film on the big screen.
MADRAS INK. 