And I was prepared to be critical. We’re talking about one of my very first comic book loves. (Not my fault the school library had a big hardbound collection of the early issues…) So lets get on to the good, not so good, and the super spiffy.

  • The scene transitions were too self conscious and artsy. When *how* the story is being told is occuping more of my time than what the story is actually *telling*, there’s a problem.
  • Cameos! (Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno no less… hee!) And, erm, Gavin. (For the Angel fen out there)
  • Eric Bana’s performance wasn’t “wooden”. That’s the way the character was supposed to be. They even devoted exposition time to beating us over the head with that fact.
  • And speaking of getting beaten over the head, Ang Lee needs to take lessons in subtle from Marti Noxon. Foreshadowing’s cool, but dude - restraint is your friend. You don’t have to light Bruce with green light every other scene. We’re already hip to The Big Secret.
  • David Banner was a great baddie - very much in the vein of the early Marvel villans without being too comic book-ish. Though when his skin morphed all orange and scaley, I leaned over to Paulie and snarked “funny, he doesn’t look like Ben Grimm” - but it was just a fake out. And, I’d say, a nice -ne.
  • I want a sequel, and I want fic, and I want them both very soon. :) I’d like to say I’ve got ideas for some spiffy manips, but I want to tie up at least some of the pieces I’m working on right now before starting anything else new. (My WIP folder is getting a wee bit bloated.)
  • The emotive range they got out of the cgi Hulk was just *amazing*. He was a full character, not just a special effect.
  • Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliot are great to watch, and not just because they’re both of the pretty. I never identified with Betty prior to this, but I do now.
  • Betty Ross and Lois Lane need to have a sit down bitch session about their emotionally distant, overbearing, military type fathers.
  • The back story they gave for *why* the Hulk happened was a great improvement over cannon. (Which, originally, was little more than Bruce was in the wrong place at the wrong time.)
  • Speaking of cannon, the bit with Bruce’s mind being “clouded” and non-lucid as Hulk - dead on. They did such a good job with it that I’m itching to see how they would handle a lucid Bruce!hulk, as opposed to angry!Hulk.