The Incredible Hulk Trailer, At Long Last

The first Trailer for Ed Norton’s The Incredible Hulk has finally hit the interwebs, and in grand Hulk tradition, it is not without its share of controversy. The first Hulk film, released in 2003 and helmed by Ang Lee, is almost universally reviled as just a terrible movie, though it fared somewhat better amongst critics and at the box office than most people remember. Even those who admit to enjoying the first movie (me, for example) qualify that they like the movie despite its flaws. Promotion for the 2003 Hulk film was a mess in and of itself, with a Superbowl ad that contained unfinished footage. The new Hulk film labored in the shadow of the old, which got bigger and darker with each passing year. The internet waited eagerly, waiting to sink its claws into the reboot. And to top it off, Iron Man was busily whipping comic movie fans into multiple nerdgasms with its combination of all-star cast and excellent practical and computer generated effects. As The Incredible Hulk’s release date grew ever nearer, many took the lack of even a teaser trailer as signs of more problems for Hulk and his movie.

But now the trailer has been released, and the response is… Pretty much exactly what was expected. Fans across the ‘net were pretty much evenly split between excitement and complete disappointment. A main point of contention was, of course, the computer generated Hulk and Abomination. The rather late release of the trailer convinced many that this was finished art, and with this assumption thereby confirmed as “fact,” sent them skittering across everywhere sowing doom and gloom. Some chose to question the late start of the hype machine, stating that there was no way they could get people interested in the film with under 3 months left before release. After all, Marvel’s been shilling Iron Man for a year solid. Has Marvel lost confidence in Hulk’s box office chances after one poor showing?

I say that all this nay-saying is pointless. Marvel, Louis Leterrier, and Ed Norton know exactly what they are doing, and The Incredible Hulk is shaping up to be an excellent movie.

When I first saw the trailer, I was stunned by how good it was. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it met all my expectations and exceeded them. Norton’s Banner was exquisite. He finally brought some life to Robert Bruce Banner. Eric Bana’s Banner was subdued, timid, almost lifeless. Banner may have been a repressed man, but he was still a confident scientist as an adult. He had emotions, he just hid his more violent ones away from the world. Norton gives us this Banner. He’s emotive and alive, but evasive, as if he’s always hiding something, which he is. He’s haunted, but not broken. We were then treated to some exposition-y glimpses into the plot. Banner’s trying to rid himself of Hulk. The military is trying to weaponize the Hulk as the ultimate atomic weapon. Emil Blonsky is the barely controlled, unstable attempt at creating a new “Hulk.” Abomination predictably goes berserk , and only Banner as Hulk can stop him. A nice bit of visual flair is Banner dropping from a chopper like a bomb. This sequence reveals that the plot is, apparently, an amalgamation of themes from the 616 and Ultimate Hulks. Like in the mainstream Marvel Universe, Banner is on the run from the military, darting from shadow to shadow as he tries to avoid both capture and his next Hulk out. All the while he dreams of returning to Betty, his true love. But as in the Ultimate Universe, the military’s interest isn’t in stopping a menace, but harnessing it to serve as the ultimate weapon. All liberally sprinkled with details from Bruce Jones’ controversial Hulk run. The yoga? All Bruce Jones.

This brings us to the first point of controversy amongst fans, the computer generated Hulk himself. I won’t lie, I was somewhat disappointed with the Hulk model when I first saw it. First off, Hulk has hit the lip gloss way too hard. Secondly, he has a weird tiger-stripe look going on. The last issue I had with the CG Hulk is somewhat ephemeral. Hulk just looks young. It’s like they’re making I Was A Teenage Hulk or something. However, these issue promptly disappeared when I saw the Hulk in motion. While moving, Hulk looked like everything I wanted. It was almost jarring. I assume this is due to different shots being at different levels of completion. This is backed up by Leterrier himself in his comments on the trailer, found here. Though Leterrier was satisfied enough with the computer effects to release a trailer, he makes sure to explain that the effects are still a work in progress. With that in mind, I give the new CG Hulk a thumbs up. Plus, I rather think it looks similar to Sal Buscema’s Hulk, one of the classic interpretations of ol’ Jade Jaws.

I can definitely see a resemblance.

As for the Abomination, I thought that, if anything, he looked more polished than Hulk himself, though some have noted a certain “jerkiness” in his movements. Some have made a point of the fact that this Abomination looks different than the one in the comics, with many pining for Blonsky’s famous finned ears. I don’t think this is such a big change, especially since the Blonsky Abomination is dead (for now), but there is something about the new Abomination that struck me as odd. namely that he looks just like DC’s Swamp Thing. I would have preferred something closer to Jeph Loed and Ed McGuinness’ A-bomb, but that was probably highly infeasible.

Sorry, got carried away, there.

In his commentary on the trailer, Leterrier says that he waited so long to release a trailer because he did not want to release something he was not happy with. He hoped to avoid a repeat of the disastrous Superbowl ad for Ang Lee’s film. This move, however, has drawn criticism in the face of Marvel’s constant pimping of the Iron Man film. I, however, feel this is a good move by Marvel, and comparing the Iron Man and Hulk films’ advertising needs is like comparing, well, Iron Man and Hulk themselves. Iron Man is a new arrival to Marvel’s film stable, and, though some may dispute it, Iron Man is less well known amongst casual and non-comic readers than multimedia stars Hulk and Spider-man. Yes, Iron Man had a cartoon or two and a built-in theme song by Black Sabbath, but Hulk has had several cartoons, as well, and a fondly remembered live action TV show. Hulk also has a well known, if not well liked, movie already under his belt. Marvel has to build up Iron Man’s cache with audiences, and they are doing a wonderful job. Hulk, however, already has that cache, and the biggest part of it may be his almost-flop film of 5 years ago. People will see this film just to see if it’s as bad as the first. Marvel already has guaranteed butts in seats. They just have to make sure that this time, those butts bring their friends and not warn them away in droves. This trailer is a big step in the right direction.

A trailer may not tell the whole picture of a film, however. I mean, the Punisher trailer made that piece of crap look epic. We won’t know just how well Marvel has pulled off its reboot of the Hulk movie franchise until the film hits theatres, but for now, I have hope.