My Thoughts on "Hulk" (2003)
To be honest with you all, I wasn’t even sure if I should even write this or not. I wasn’t sure if I should even write a review of Hulk or not. I was just thinking that maybe I could talk about in the foreword of one of my reposts. But, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I did have more to say about this movie than I could fit into a foreword without going on a long tangent and veering off topic. I’ve never written a review of this movie in the past that I could just repost on here. Plus, I had already seen a lot of reviews of this movie on YouTube already, and I wasn’t even sure if I had anything new to bring to the conversation. But then I thought, “you know what? Fuck it.” I’ll just write a review of Hulk, even if so many people have talked about it already.
For those that don’t know, and I really don’t know how you couldn’t know what this movie is if you clicked on it, but in case you don’t, Hulk is a 2003 Marvel superhero film, directed by Ang Lee, written by James Schamus, John Turman, and Michael France, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Avi Arad, James Schamus, and Larry France, and starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, Nick Nolte, and Josh Lucas.
The basic plot of it is that mild-mannered immunologist, Bruce Krenzler (Eric Bana) and his colleague and former girlfriend, Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) are working together on a nanotechnology that they call “nanomeds,” which they hope to use in the medical field to enhance the immune system of human beings, repair damaged organs (including skin), and regrow lost limbs. So, these things would have applications for people who have immune system deficiencies, who have failing organs like a failing kidney or failing kidneys, or a failing liver, or a failing heart 🫀, who have cancer, or severe life altering or life threatening injuries, such as amputees.
They test these nanomeds by shooting gamma rays at their test subjects (so far only frogs 🐸) to create enough physical trauma for the nanomeds inside the body to respond to and repair. But, they haven’t exactly have been working as well as they had hoped, as the nanomeds have killed all of their test subjects so far. One day, an accident occurs, which causes Bruce to be hit with gamma radiation ☢️ and inhale some of the nanomeds, and that unleashes something inside of him that had been there since his birth. A powerful force that was created and is triggered by his repressed emotional trauma, the Hulk.
The presence of the Hulk inside of him completely upends Bruce’s life as he not only finds himself in the crosshairs of Betty’s military father, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Sam Elliot) and the entire US military 🇺🇸, but also in the crosshairs of the greedy defense contractor, Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) who wants to extract and exploit the Hulk’s power for his own ends. He wants to patent it for his company, Atheon—which I can only guess is supposed to be like the defense company, Raytheon in our world—and then use it to make super soldiers and profit from it 🤑. He did previously want to patent the nanomeds and use them for military purposes since you know, nanomachines that instantly regrow limbs or repair damaged tissue of any kind would be very useful for soldiers on the battlefield. But the Hulk is a much bigger prize and that would yield wider rewards. I mean, the Hulk is partially the result of the nanomeds, so I guess, Talbot is still technically trying to profit off of the nanomeds 🤑.
It also unlocks Bruce’s past, the past that he had repressed for so long. For one thing, he learns that his last name is Banner, not Krenzler, and he learns that he grew up on a military base with his parents, and that his dad, David Banner (Nick Nolte) was also an immunologist as well as a geneticist and that he experimented on himself, enhanced his own immune system by altering his DNA 🧬, and that he passed those genetic changes 🧬 onto him. He also learns that his father killed his mother, and purposefully caused a gamma reactor meltdown ☢️ at the base as an act of revenge for General Ross (I don't think he was a general yet, I think he might've just been a major at the time) removing him from the scientific project to create super soldiers, and preventing him from creating a cure for his son’s genetic abnormalities 🧬.
Well, actually, I don’t know if Bruce ever finds out all of that I just said, but he does find out that his name is Bruce Banner and not Bruce Krenzler, and his father is the source of his trauma, and is the one who ultimately created the Hulk. Although to me, they all had a hand in creating the Hulk. David obviously altered his own DNA 🧬 for that super soldier program he was working on for the military, and he passed those genetic alterations 🧬 onto Bruce. And that combined with the emotional trauma he experienced from seeing his dad murder his mom ultimately created the Hulk, and he unknowingly kept it locked inside of him, buried deep within his mind, right up until adulthood due his brain 🧠 blocking out those memories as a defense mechanism because they were just too painful for him to confront head-on.
Then, when he inhaled the nanomeds and was exposed to the gamma rays, it unleashed the Hulk, allowed it to manifest itself in the physical world thanks to the nanomeds responding to Bruce’s emotional trauma as if it were physical trauma. Emotional trauma that Bruce is forced to confront for the first time in many years after David reenters his life, and causes those repressed memories to rise back up the surface.
So now, Bruce must figure out a way to keep the Hulk under control, and prevent it from hurting or killing anyone (even if the Hulk doesn’t actually kill anyone in this movie, unless you count Talbot) or causing anymore damage than it already has after being unleashed, while also evading the military, and preventing David from getting his hands on it and using it for his own evil ends.
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(This is another poster for Hulk.)
This is actually the second adaptation of the Incredible Hulk comic books after the highly popular and successful 70s TV show, The Incredible Hulk that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers still remember, starring Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, who does actually cameo in this movie along with Stan Lee. He also cameoed in the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie in the MCU, but his cameo in that movie was cut out and only exists as a deleted scene.
The funny thing is that in both movies, Lou Ferrigno plays a security guard. I’m pretty sure he’s even wearing the same costume in both movies. That sort of leads itself to the idea that The Incredible Hulk (2008) is a sequel to Hulk (2003), albeit a very loose one, or it lends itself to the idea that Lou Ferrigno’s security guard character is a character that just exists across the multiverse. Since Marvel has a multiverse now on film as well as in the comics.
Now, you may have noticed that when I was talking about the Incredible Hulk TV show that I said that Bill Bixby played David Banner, and not Bruce Banner, well that’s because they changed the character’s name for the TV show. They changed it because the network thought the name, Bruce sounded too “gay-ish 🏳️🌈,” homophobic a bit much, CBS. So, when it came time to do this movie, they decided to name Bruce’s father, David despite the character’s name being Brian Banner in the comics, as a nod to the TV series since the TV series was so important to the legacy of the Hulk. It’s the reason why the Hulk became an A-list character, and why he is so engrained in pop culture.
The Hulk would not have been as popular as he was without the TV series, and they probably wouldn’t have even tried to make a Hulk movie had it not been for the TV series. This had been a project long in the making, and had been stuck in development hell for many years. It went through numerous writers and directors, which partially explains why this movie has so many producers. My guess is that Gale Anne Hurd (one of James Cameron’s ex-wives, and the producer on two of his earlier films, The Terminator and The Abyss) is a carryover from one of the previous versions of the movie.
There are a couple of videos that have talked about this movie’s productions and explored some of the scrapped versions that were made in the 90s, which you can watch by clicking on the links here and here. That last one that I linked to is by a YouTuber who isn’t really a fan of this movie in particular, so keep in that mind when you’re watching it. He complained about the quieter and more contemplative moments like when the Hulk is sitting down on top of a mesa, looking at the plants 🌱, trees 🌳, and the algae growing on the rocks 🪨, can you believe that!?
Those are some of the best moments of the film that show us that the Hulk is not just mindless monster who smashes stuff, but is a manifestation of Bruce’s inner turmoil, and the Hulk really just wants to be left alone. He only really acts violently in self defense when others are violent towards him. Every violent confrontation that the Hulk gets into this movie, whether it’s with the military, Talbot’s security detail, the Hulk Dogs, or David himself, the fight is always initiated by them.
The Hulk is just responding in earnest to what they’re doing to him, and responding ten fold since he’s this indestructible being with limitless power and a pretty short temper. The reason why the Hulk stares at plants in that scene that Dan’sWRLD complained about at the beginning of his video is that nature subconsciously reminds him of his mother, Edith Banner (Cara Buono), and his mother kept him at peace, so he associates plants and nature with his mother, and therefore they keep him at peace. That’s why Bruce has all those plants in his house before he turns into the Hulk for the first time, including algae which he waters 💦 by wearing it a spray bottle.
That’s what makes this movie so interesting and sets it apart from other Hulk adaptations is the fact that it delves into Bruce’s inner turmoil, and that it does explore why he turns into the Hulk, what the Hulk even is, and why he feels that the Hulk is more of a cure than a blessing. Things that the MCU never really delves into. And it took Ang Lee to do it.
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For those that don’t know who Ang Lee is, he is a Taiwanese director 🇹🇼 who came to America 🇺🇸 to work in Hollywood. The movies he’s probably known for most besides this movie are Sense & Sensibilities, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi, and Gemini Man. He’s made other movies in his more indie days such as The Wedding Banquet, which also explores the gay experience 🏳️🌈 similar to Brokeback Mountain, but from a Taiwanese perspective 🇹🇼. It focuses on a Taiwanese gay man 🇹🇼⚣, and features a nearly all-Asian cast. He made that movie in 1993, that was before he made the jump to Hollywood with Sense & Sensibilities which was his first Hollywood film if I’m not mistaken. It was his first movie to feature an entirely non-Asian cast that’s for sure, since pretty much everybody in Sense & Sensibilities is white 👱🏻♂️👩🏻.
Hulk stands out in his career, both in Taiwan 🇹🇼 and in Hollywood, because it is not only comic book movie of his entire career so far, but it is also the only film that comes close to being a blockbuster. I mean, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was kind of a blockbuster maybe, but it’s not quite the same as a Hulk movie. You know, a wuxia movie is not exactly the same thing as a Marvel superhero comic book movie. Same goes for Life of Pi, which was kind of a blockbuster, but not quite since it was mostly a prestige drama about a man ♂︎ being stranded in the middle of the ocean on a boat 🚣🏼♂️ with a tiger 🐅, and him developing a bond with that tiger 🐅 out of sheer survival.
The only reason it is a blockbuster in anyway is because it made a lot of money 💵, it wasn’t made with the intention of being a blockbuster the same Hulk was. So, I’d say Life of Pi is a blockbuster in the same way something like Titanic (1997) is a blockbuster. The only movie that’s sort of like Hulk in Ang Lee’s career is Gemini Man, but a lot of people don’t like Gemini Man, and consider it to be one of the weaker films in his career. BTW, Gemini Man is another movie that had been in development hell for many years that Ang Lee came onto and made into a reality. Can’t say whether or not the results were worth it because I’ve never seen Gemini Man in full, but what I have seen of it, it doesn’t particularly look promising. Hulk is probably way better than Gemini Man.
But, despite Hulk pretty much being a big budget summer blockbuster, Ang Lee approached the material as if he making an indie arthouse movie like he had done previously. He brought an entire sensibility to the project, pun partially intended. It’s been said in regard to this film that it was “the most expensive independent movie” ever made, even though of course it wasn’t an independent movie at all. It’s a studio movie produced and distributed by Universal, and it was based on a Marvel comic book. I don’t know who originally said that, but it’s repeated in pretty much every YouTube video that I’ve seen talking about this movie. But, it still was one of the most expensive movies that Universal had ever produced at the time, it was said at the time that it was Universal’s biggest movie.
Speaking of which, I should probably talk about the reception of this movie. Despite the enormous hype and marketing push, this movie was not really a huge hit. It only grossed about $245.4 million 💵 against a budget of $137 million 💵, which was barely enough to break even, and it was considered a box office disappointment by industry observers and analysts, and by the studio itself. It also received mixed reviews, with most being negative, as critics and fans at the time were baffled by the direction and the style that the movie went with, and were disappointed by the perceived lack of Hulk action. People just wanted to see Hulk smash. They didn’t want to an artsy, contemplative movie about the inner psyche of Bruce Banner that explored his inner emotional state, and explored how toxic father and son relationships can affect someone’s mental health and emotional development.
But nowadays, people look back on this film fondly, and they appreciate what it tried to do. In the era of MCU glut, when more people are just tired of the MCU, and tired of the vapid movies with little-to-no intelligent thought that only exist to appeal to the lowest common denominator, people appreciate a Marvel movie that does take itself seriously and is a bit darker. And it works with the Hulk because the Hulk is kind of a dark character. Although the Hulk is a hero, he still has a bit of a monstrous quality to him, and there’s a bit of unpredictability to him that he could turn on his friends, and hurt his friends if they piss him off, or if he’s taken over by a malevolent force inside of Bruce or outside.
The criticism that this movie lacks any action or doesn’t have enough action has no merit whatsoever. It actually has plenty of action. We not only get multiple scenes of Hulk destroying stuff, like him destroying the lab at the university or the institute or whatever that was, we see him destroy Bruce’s house while beating up Talbot, we see cause some destruction inside the underground military base, and we see him cause a ruckus in the streets of San Francisco.
Then of course, we got the fight with the Hulk Dogs, which everyone likes clown on 🤡 for some reason (I’ll get to that later), we got the fight with David after he absorbs the electricity ⚡️ and then takes the Hulk to that lake where they have their final confrontation, and of course we got plenty of scenes of Hulk fighting the military or just guys with guns like when he breaks out of Bruce’s room and those security guards (not sure if they’re Secret Service, FBI, US Marshals 🇺🇸, or MPs or what).
One of the few humorous scenes in this movie is when the Hulk goes up against a small company of tanks, and he pulls he turret off of one of them, and in the process, hits himself in the balls 😫. It’s a very subtle joke, and it’s one that you’ll probably miss if you aren’t really paying attention. I didn’t even notice that Hulk hit himself in the balls with the gun turret until fairly recently.
One of the special features on the DVD 📀 and on the Blu-Ray 💿 featured Stan Lee as he talked about how and why he created the Hulk, and in it, he said he was inspired by some of the old Universal monster movies like Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, even though I don’t think that Universal ever made a Jekyll and Hyde movie of their own. Certainly the footage they used in the part where Stan Lee mentions Jekyll and Hyde was from a silent movie from before Universal started making those monster movies in the 1930s.
And since this Hulk movie was made at Universal, they decided to lean into that little bit, embrace the Hulk’s Universal horror inspirations. So, obviously you have a lot of Frankenstein in here, a little bit of The Wolfman, and of course Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I actually wonder if they named the character, Glenn Talbot after the main protagonist of The Wolfman, Lawrence Talbot. And there actually is a lot of Hulk in The Wolfman (2010), the remake that was directed by Joe Johnston, the same guy who directed The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, and Captain America: The First Avenger 🇺🇸. Even down to the fact that it delves into Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro)’s abusive relationship with his father, John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins), how his werewolf curse 🐺 came from his father, and his father ends up being the main villain of the movie. Just like in Hulk.
The movie also kind of sort of delves into the body horror aspect of the character. Not as much as some of the comics have like the series, The Immortal Hulk, but still delves into it more than the MCU has, which is why some people have compared this to some of David Cronenberg’s movies like The Fly 🪰 (1986), or Scanners, or Existenz. But, mostly The Fly 🪰 (1986) since that’s the one Cronenberg movie that this is the most comparable to and the one most people are thinking of when they make that comparison. I saw one review of this movie where they said that it was like a Cronenberg movie.
This definitely doesn’t feel like your typical superhero movie, which is probably why so many people were thrown off when they saw this initially back in 2003. But now that superhero movies are everywhere, and have dominated Hollywood for 16 years, people appreciate something that tries something different, and this movie definitely tried something different. It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Had movies like The Batman and Joker had come out around the same time, it probably would’ve met with a similar reaction.
Batman Begins and the rest of the Nolan Batman trilogy did to Batman what this movie did to the Hulk, but did it a much more palatable way than Ang Lee did with this movie. Christopher Nolan eased audiences into the idea of doing artsy, somewhat experimental, refined, and auteur driven superhero movies, whereas Ang Lee just rammed it in without really considering what audiences would think of it. Although, I do think that Hulk is a bit more experimental and avant-garde than any of the Nolan Batman films. I know that may be a hot take for some, but that’s genuinely what I think. I mean, Nolan didn’t try to make his Batman movies look like a comic book now did he?
The best part about this whole thing is that this movie was never screen tested. Ang Lee did an interview with Charlie Rose (before he was MeTooed) while promoting the movie where he talked about how the movie never had any test screenings, and that when movie officially released on June 20, 2003, it would be the first time anyone has ever seen it. That’s good because it means that the movie was completely untouched. If it did have test screenings, and it was met with as much of a mixed reaction as it did when it was released worldwide, the studio probably would’ve made Ang Lee go back and do all kinds of reshoots, and make all kinds of changes.
A lot of movies have been ruined because they were screen tested, and the studio panicked because of the negative or lukewarm reaction, and forced the filmmakers to go back and make changes to rectify that. But not Hulk. Ang Lee got to make the movie he wanted. It is his vision 100%, unfiltered. He had the kind of creative control on this movie that most filmmakers can only dream of, and it’s all because the studio trusted him because his previous movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a huge success and was well received by critics. So, they were willing to entrust him with a $137 million budget 💵, and let him do whatever he wanted, even if it didn’t end up pleasing everyone.
But, I was one of the people that was pleased. I really do like this movie, and it’s not just the nostalgia talking, even though I do have a lot of nostalgia for this movie. It’s the movie that introduced me to the Hulk, and it’s the reason why I like the Hulk. I’m not really that big into superheroes, I’ve never really read any superhero comics, but if I were to name superheroes that I liked, the Hulk would be one of them. There is actually a lot of overlap between Godzilla fans and Hulk fans because Godzilla is a giant radioactive monster ☢️ that destroys stuff, and the Hulk is also a giant radioactive monster ☢️ that destroys stuff. The two characters have a lot more similarities than people like to admit.
When I was younger, I mostly just liked the Hulk stuff, and I like the Hulk stuff, it’s great. It’s the only Hulk adaptation where the Hulk actually grew larger the angrier he got. It also did a better job at showing just how powerful and indestructible the Hulk really is. Many people have already said this before, but this version of Hulk could definitely take on Thanos and win. Or at least, the MCU version of Thanos, I don’t know about the comic book version of Thanos, but I think the Ang Lee version of Hulk could still put up a good fight against the comic book version of Thanos. But, he’d definitely kick the MCU version’s ass.
For one thing, he’s bigger than the MCU Hulk. He’s around 23 or 25 feet tall at his tallest, he’s the biggest live action Hulk that we’ve had so far. When David tried to absorb the Hulk’s power, he couldn’t take it and wanted to give it back because it was limitless and he just couldn’t take it. He also inundated with Bruce’s trauma, which is the source of the Hulk’s rage and power. But now that I’m older, I appreciate the deeper themes and messages that this movie tried going for, and I appreciate the filmmaking.
When Ang Lee took the job to make a comic book movie, he took it almost literally as he tried to make it look like a comic book, including featuring comic book-style panels, having comic book-style transitions, and having comic book style text on screen. Like, all of credits and location names or text on screen in the movie are in the same font as you would find in a comic book. Not comic sans, but a different font. You’ll know which one if you’re an avid comic book reader. I really liked that. It really added something to this movie that no other comic book movie had before or has had since; Marvel or DC. It made it unique, helped it stand out, and it’s probably the thing remember the most about the movie besides the Hulk Dogs.
I even liked the other non-comic book transitions in the movie. I liked the use of colors, like the scene where David meets Bruce in the hospital, and everything in the room is purple. This movie is dripping with style, and it has the substance to back it up. You definitely won’t see this kind of stuff in the MCU, the kind of surreal and trippy imagery that Ang Lee and his editor, Tim Squyres were willing to do. There’s a dream sequence in here that features lizards 🦎 and jellyfish 🪼 floating in a desert 🏜️.
I really like the desert setting 🏜️ in this movie. You don’t really see too many superhero movies that are set in and around deserts 🏜️, and I like that the Hulk is associated with the desert 🏜️. Even back in the comics, they still put the Hulk in deserts 🏜️. Like, in the original comics, Bruce was conducting his gamma ray experiments in New Mexico, like around Los Alamos. That’s pretty cool. It’s cool to know that my home state, was at one time tied to the Hulk. They have plans on keeping this association with the desert 🏜️ in the sequel which never ended up happening. I will touch on the planned sequel a bit later.
Speaking of which, I never had a problem with the Hulk Dogs. A lot of people over the years have complained about the Hulk Dogs, saying that it was stupid, and kind of a letdown that they’re one of the only things that Hulk truly fights besides the military. I’ve even some reviewers compare the Hulk Dogs to the giant spider 🕷️ in the script for the canceled Superman movie, Superman Lives, the one that was written by Kevin Smith, produced by eccentric producer, John Peters, and was meant to be directed by Tim Burton and star Nicolas Cage in the lead role as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman.
Kevin Smith did a panel interview where he told the story about his time working on Superman Lives, writing the script for it, and he talked about how John Peters made all of these weird demands, things he wanted to add to the script, and the way he wanted Superman to be portrayed. His #1 stipulation was that Superman couldn’t fly, his #2 stipulation was that Superman couldn’t wear his iconic outfit including the cape, and his #3 stipulation and probably the weirdest was that Superman had to fight a giant spider 🕷️.
John Peters is really obsessed with spiders 🕷️, he likes putting spiders 🕷️ in everything, all of his work, all the movies he produces. That’s why Wild Wild West has a giant mechanical spider 🕷️ at the end, John Peters wanted to have a spider 🕷️ in the movie. He probably should’ve produced a Spider-Man movie with how much he’s obsessed with spiders 🕷️. And people think something happened with the Hulk Dogs in this movie. Somebody on the production really wanted the Hulk to fight some mutated Hulk Dogs, and they weren’t willing to waver, so they threw it into the movie.
But, I think those people are kind of blowing it out of proportion, and being too nitpicky. I think the Hulk Dogs look pretty cool, and were an awesome enemy for Hulk to fight. They actually build up to the dogs 🐩 being mutated and turned into Hulk Dogs since they were David’s dogs. They were his pets, his companions that always hung around him, and he decided to experiment on them after he managed to culture some of Bruce’s DNA 🧬, and he decided to use them to kill Betty once they mutated. So, you know that he’s a bad guy because he experimented on animals (experimented on dogs 🐩 no less) and he tried to kill Bruce’s love interest ❤️. And I don’t buy into the idea that this was some Superman Lives/John Peters obsession with spiders 🕷️ sort of thing but with dogs 🐩 sort of thing because the Hulk Dogs were actually from the comics.
This movie is actually a lot more comic book accurate than people give it credit for. It’s way more comic book accurate than the TV series, and definitely way more comic book than the MCU version of the Hulk. I actually liked Eric Bana’s performance as Bruce Banner. Some people didn’t, some people thought he was stilted and emotionless, but I thought he did a good job. The whole point of this version of Bruce is that he’s repressed and emotionally distant (it’s the reason why his relationship with Betty didn’t work out), and it’s only until he’s exposed to nanomeds and the gamma radiation ☢️, and after he meets his father, that all rage that he’s bottled up inside for so long finally bubbles up to the surface and turns him into the Hulk. His first transformation into the Hulk was triggered by an anxiety attack brought about by his encounter with his father in the hospital, and also by the news that Betty tells him that she thinks that the military is planning something with the lab. Eric Bana was good at portraying that, and he was good at portraying the anger that Bruce had prior to his each of Hulk outs.
I also really like Jennifer Connelly’s version of Betty Ross. Her take on the character is way better than Liv Tyler’s in the 2008 movie. She brings a warmth and understanding to the role, while also bringing a level of strength, assertiveness and sternness to the role. You can totally see why she would be an emotional anchor for Bruce, and how she would be the calm him down whenever he’s the Hulk.
But, she’s also assertive, and won’t take Bruce’s shit if he’s being difficult, like she definitely doesn’t coddle him or baby him. She shows him tough love.And while they do still love each other, by the end, they both kind of accept and acknowledge that their relationship will never work just because of Bruce’s situation, because he’s a fugitive and he still has the Hulk inside of him, and he has to keep it under control and prevent it from causing anymore destruction.
Sam Elliot’s version of General Ross is also pretty great. Way better than William Hurt’s; RIP William Hurt. I think the thing that makes Sam Elliot’s version of General Ross so interesting and so compelling is that he isn’t evil. Sometimes they make General Ross kind of evil, and make him compromise his own moral values in his pursuit of the Hulk and Bruce Banner. But not this version. While he is still an antagonist to Bruce, he still has enough of a moral compass to not go too far in his efforts to take down the Hulk.
For one thing, he’s against the idea of experimenting on the Hulk, and using Bruce’s Hulk DNA 🧬 for military applications. Likely due to him thinking that doing such a thing would be dangerous and stupid, which to be fair, it is. He gets upset at Talbot for doing this exact thing, and for basically taking over the base which he commanded, and for basically taking over the base which he commanded, and taking custody of Bruce and his body away from him. Just like Joshua did the Transformers’ genome in Transformers: Age of Extinction, Talbot owns Bruce’s entire genome.
And earlier, in the flashback scene in the 1973 (I’m assuming it’s 1973 because they say that it’s been 30 years since the events in the prologue and flashback scenes, and 2003-30=1973), he rejects David’s immune system enhancements and he rejects his proposal to test them on human subjects. He specifically says that manipulating the human immune system is “dangerous and stupid.” And the moment he finds out that David experimented on himself, he immediately throws him off the project for violating protocol, and violating the basic scientific code of ethics.
This is in complete contrast to the MCU version of General Ross, who had no qualms about using the Super Soldier serum on Emil Blonsky in order to get a leg up on Bruce, so that Blonsky would be strong enough to take down the Hulk. He’s also the reason why Bruce became Hulk in the first place since he was the one who ordered the gamma radiation experiments ☢️ in the first place. He wanted to continue the Super Soldier program which had been dead since the 1940s since the end of World War II, and enhance the Super Soldier serum using gamma radiation ☢️. But, it failed, it created the Hulk, and General Ross blamed Bruce for the whole thing even though he was the one who wanted to do those experiments in the first place, and manipulated Bruce into doing them.
The MCU General Ross is genuinely evil, and seems to have very little remorse or self-reflection about what he did even by the end, when his attempt to take down the Hulk using the Super Soldier serum blew up in his face when Blonsky injected himself with the Hulk DNA 🧬, mixing it with the Super Soldier serum, and creating the Abomination. The only kind of good thing he was in Captain America: Civil War 🇺🇸 when he signed onto the Sokovia Accords, and tried to get the Avengers to agree to them, but that didn’t make for what he did in The Incredible Hulk (2008), and he was kind of playing into the villains’ hand by trying to get the Avengers to sign onto the Sokovia Accords and causing them to fracture. And it seems as if he will turn into the Red Hulk, and be a main villain in Captain America: Brave New World 🇺🇸, if that is indeed General Ross becoming Red Hulk and not someone else. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be since General Ross and Betty Ross are only two characters who have historically turned into Red Hulks in the comics.
The Ang Lee version of General Ross played by Sam Elliot is still a good man ♂︎, who wants to protect his daughter, and serve his country with dignity and respect, behind all of the intensity and bravado. He wants to follow the rules, and not do anything unethical. He’s not motivated by greed or power, he’s motivated by love, a love for his daughter and his country. But the love for his daughter comes before the love for his country.
And by the end, he kind of forgives Bruce, or he kind of lets go of hatred of him after he realizes over the course of the film that he’s just as much of a victim in all this as Betty is, if not more. David is real villain, and thus, General Ross redirects his hatred and anger back towards David once he finally realizes that Bruce is innocent. But, he still recognizes how dangerous the Hulk is, and dangerous he can be, and takes the necessary precautions to keep his daughter and everyone else safe. It’s just like how he was described in the special features, behind his intensity, there is something humane about this version of General Ross.
I also thought that David Banner was a pretty great villain. I know some people didn’t care for David Banner. They didn’t like that the first villain Bruce/the Hulk faces is his abusive father. They wanted a more bombastic villain like the Abomination or the Leader, but I think he works well for this film. It makes sense that he’s the first villain that the Hulk faces in his origin story movie since he’s the source of the emotional trauma that created the Hulk in the first place. I mean, Bruce can’t exactly move forward and be the hero that we all know him to be if he doesn’t confront his trauma and confront his abusive father first. It makes sense from a narrative standpoint.
Ultimately, David’s goal in this film is that he wants the Hulk’s power for himself. At first, he wanted to cure Bruce when he was a child because he felt bad that he passed his genetic alteration 🧬 onto him. Then, when Ross took him off of the project, he decided to kill Bruce because he felt he had no other choice, and he feared the monster he may have unleashed upon the world. Then years later, after he was released from prison, and he reunites with Bruce, and learns about his accident involving the nanomeds and the gamma rays, he becomes fascinated with the Hulk.
He decides to try to extract the Hulk’s power, and use it on himself as he feels that he’s entitled to that power since it was his genes 🧬 that were passed onto Bruce, were enhanced by the nanomeds and the gamma rays, and it’s being squandered on Bruce. He feels that Bruce doesn’t appreciate the power that he’s been given, and that he’d put it to better use. He also in some ways, views the Hulk as his real son than Bruce.
He says it himself, he sees Bruce as an artificial shell hiding the Hulk underneath, and that the Hulk is his real son. But, despite seeing him as his real son, he still doesn’t treat him right though, since he tries to steal his power and leave him a lifeless husk. Power that he himself cannot control or handle, and immediately asks to take back once he has it. That’s real difference between David and Bruce. Bruce is a character that has unlimited power, but doesn’t want it, while David is a character that wants unlimited power, but can’t actually handle it.
They did give David Banner a much different power set than Brian Banner did in the comics. In the comics, from what I’ve on Wikipedia, Brian had more Hulk-like powers. He’s had two different Hulk forms over the years over the course of the comics. He’s been the Guilt Hulk and he’s been the Devil Hulk. Both of which have been Bruce’s mental representations of his father. They are how he sees his father. But, Brian did actually become an amalgamation of both those characters in reality in the Chaos Wars storyline.
But here, in this movie, they gave David the powers of Absorbing Man, a C list villain in the Hulk’s rogue’s gallery. Like, Absorbing Man is not considered to be one of the Hulk’s top villains, and usually presented as a henchman or a side villain that the Hulk faces before getting to the real big bad. David also becomes an electricity monster ⚡️ at the end of the film after he absorbs some electricity ⚡️, and resembles a different Hulk villain when he does it, Zzzax. They essentially combined Brian Banner with Absorbing Man and Zzzax to create this new character called David Banner. That does happen a lot with comic book movies, where they’re combine multiple characters (usually one or two or three in this case), and create a new composite character who has aspects of all of those individual characters.
Some fans were a bit disappointed when found out that the villain essentially had Absorbing Man’s powers. But, I like his powers. They’re interesting and unique, and are nice contrast to the Hulk. As much as I liked the Abomination in the 2008 movie, it was a bit of a waste to have Hulk essentially fight another Hulk-like character who has nearly the same powers as him. Plus, they do some cool effects with David’s absorbing powers, how he turn his body parts into different material or different energies, like when he absorbs the metal from a metal tube, and his hand becomes that same metal, or when he gets electrocuted ⚡️ and absorbs the electricity ⚡️ and becomes this giant electricity monster ⚡️.
That brings me to the CGI, probably the most contentious thing about this movie besides the comic book-style editing. Even people who like this movie seem to complain about the CGI, saying that it looks bad, saying that it’s aged poorly, and that Hulk looks stupid. They’ve said that he looks “too green,” and some have even said that looks like Shrek with how bright and saturated the green on his skin looks. But, I’ve never had a problem with the CGI. Even now, watching the movie in 2024, I still think that the CGI looks good and still holds up for being from a 21 year old movie.
ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) did the effects, and they usually produce good work, especially in this era when they were really the only game in town. Them and Weta Digital. And you know what? They still produce good work to this day. The CGI work that they’ve done in recent years has looked consistently good, especially compared to some of their competition. I mean, sometimes their CGI work is subpar, especially in the recent MCU movies that they’ve worked on, but I blame less them, and blame more or the studio execs and filmmakers who don’t understand or appreciate the technology.
I also blame the current leadership at the company, and the leadership of other effects companies in the industry for treating their artists like garbage. The working conditions and hours that these effects artists have to put up with are abysmal, and are anathema to workers’ rights. They are overworked, and they don’t get paid nearly enough for the work that they do. I’m surprised that VFX artists haven’t gone on strike 🪧 at this point like the writers and actors have. Maybe it’s because VFX effects are not unionized, or maybe it’s no body really cares that much about the plight like they do writers or actors, or maybe it’s a combination of both.
Regardless, this movie was made long before the effects industry had reached the sad state of affairs that it’s in right now. So, the work turned out pretty great. This movie had many of the same people who worked on Jurassic Park on the effects side. Dennis Muren was the effects supervisor for the CGI effects, Michael Lantieri was the effects supervisor for the physical on-set effects in the movie, meaning that he’s the guy who did the on-set destruction that ILM then composited the Hulk into. This was still the era when they would actually break stuff for real, and then put the CGI into, unlike now where everything is CGI, even the destruction. This is what Cody (from PointlessHub) means when he says “old quaint Hollywood.” So, this movie was in good hands 🤲 as far as this aspect was concerned.
It is cool that they managed to create a character that is so humanlike like the Hulk is, and have all subtle facial expressions and nuances with the kind of technology that they had in 2003. Computers back then, were not as advanced as they are today, they were mostly boxy, the computer and the monitor were usually separate, and the computer was a big rectangular box and the monitor also big and boxy. That’s the kind of the technology that they had to work with back then, and yet they still managed to create effects as good as the ones in this movie.
As far as the whole “too green” thing is concerned, I think it’s pretty silly. It’s a pretty stupid complaint, even stupider than the one about the Hulk Dogs, and it’s beyond nitpicky. Like, Hulk looks fine to me, his green is perfectly fine. Sure it’s bright, sure it’s saturated, but it still looks good and still works with the character. You know, at least he’s still green, and not yellow or pink or whatever. I’m pretty sure that the Hulk’s been that green before in the comics and on merchandise, sometimes he’s even greener than that. I actually think the shade of green that they used on this Hulk.
I like it better than the shade of green that they’ve used on the Hulk in the MCU, like the shade of green they use on the Hulk in the MCU is too olive color for my taste. I mean, the MCU version of She-Hulk is more green than the MCU version of Hulk is, or should I say, Professor Hulk? Since he’s pretty much Professor Hulk now in the MCU, and not Savage Hulk like we’ve come to know and love. Savage Hulk is the name given to the standard Hulk that we’re used to in order to distinguish it from the other Hulk personalities that Bruce has inside of him in the comics like Joe Fixit, or Professor Hulk AKA Doc Green, World-Breaker Hulk, or Devil Hulk.
I’d also like to address something else about Hulk’s design that isn’t specific to this version, but is something that applies to pretty much all versions of the character, and that’s the question of “How do his pants or underwear stay on when he Hulks out?” You wouldn’t believe how many jokes I’ve seen on about this Hulk, and a lot of the other Hulks about how elastic their pants, underwear, or socks, like they always “Wow, his underwear or pants must be made out of some really strong material if it can stay on when he Hulks out.” Well, the simply reason why the Hulk’s pants and/or underwear stay on is that they didn’t want Hulk to be fully nude, and risk getting an R rating.
Stan Lee said something similar to the effect in the featurette talking about the history of the Hulk character. He said they “took the easy way out” by having him wear pants or boxers even when he Hulks out. Comic books were subject to a lot of censorship back then in the 60s when the original Incredible Hulk comics came out, and these Marvel comics were made primarily for children, although I’m sure adults and teens did read them also even when they weren’t really catering to them. So, of course they weren’t going to have a naked Hulk. Besides, even if they were realistic and did have Bruce lose all of his clothes when he Hulks out, even his underwear, people would just be making jokes about the Hulk penis. Just like with Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen because people are just that immature.
They do have a scene in this movie where Hulk is naked, after the fight with the Hulk Dogs. His underwear got torn in the commotion, partially thanks to one of the Hulk Dogs biting him in his dick. Yes that did happen in the scene, one of the Hulk Dogs really did bite the Hulk’s penis, and for that, he punches another one in its penis too. So, by the time, he kills the last one, the Hulk poodle 🐩, his underwear already fallen off, and he’s fully naked.
We don’t see any of the “goods” if you know what I mean, we just see the back of him, his butt, and then he turns back into Bruce, after looking at his own reflection in the water 💦 in the lake next to the cabin. Which means that Bruce is naked, meaning we get to see a little bit of Eric Bana butt. So, they did acknowledge the absurdity of Hulk’s pants or underwear staying on despite how big he is, but having a scene where gets fully naked after a fight, but I guess that wasn’t enough for some people. They want to see some Hulk penis. You know there’s plenty of NSFW artwork 🔞 out there online where you can see exactly that, right?
Another guy who worked on Jurassic Park who also worked on this movie as well is the sound designer, Gary Rydstrom. He did the sound design in this movie, which probably explains why this movie has a lot of sound effects from Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It’s crazy to think how many George Lucas and Steven Spielberg alums came together to work on a non-Spielberg and non-Lucasfilm production in the early 2000s. Another interesting tidbit I would like to mention before I close out this section about the CGI is that Ang Lee actually did the motion capture for the Hulk himself.
He actually dawned the mocap suit with the spandex or whatever material those suits are made with the balls and everything, and performed those scenes as the Hulk. The reason he’s always given as to why is that he didn’t want to direct someone else wearing the mocap suit and performing as the Hulk because it would never be exactly how he wanted. So, he’d rather put the suit on, and perform those scenes himself to get it to exactly how he wanted it, and that’s what he did. You don’t see many directors do that sort of thing. Like, you’ll never see James Cameron put on a mocap suit, and play a Na’Vi or an Avatar or whatever in one of his Avatar movies.
One last thing I would like to discuss about this movie before I finally wrap this up is the music. The music in this movie is amazing, and is probably the one thing about this movie that no body complains about because it’s just that good. Danny Elfman did the score, and he famously did the score for all three Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, and he did the score for this movie after he did the score for Spider-Man (2002) or Spider-Man 1 if you prefer to call it. So, you got a really nice contrast between the more bombastic and more typical superhero score in Spider-Man, the kind of score that you expect from a movie like that, to the darker, moodier, and more existential score in Hulk.
I do think that it’s cool that when Ang Lee was directing Danny Elfman on the music, he told him that he didn’t want the score to sound like a Danny Elfman score. Like, according to Danny Elfman, whenever he played a piece of music that he composed and the orchestra performed, Ang Lee would tell him if it sounded “too Danny Elfman” and then he would make changes that it wouldn’t sound stereotypical like a Danny Elfman score. And I do think that it paid off for the most part, as this is one of the most unique scores that Danny Elfman has ever composed. It sounds like nothing he’s ever produced before or after.
When he’s pushed to produce something that doesn’t fit into his usual style, he can produce great work, like his score for The Kingdom, that 2007 action movie that Peter Berg directed about FBI agents who fight terrorists in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦. Peter Berg, for those that don’t know, is the guy who directed movies such as Hancock, Deepwater Horizon, Patriot’s Day 🇺🇸, Lone Survivor, and Battleship to name but a few. He’s also been an actor in the past before he became a director, like he was in Fire in the Sky 🔥, that movie about the Travis Walton alien abduction 👽 in Arizona which I used to believe in, but kind of have doubts about as an adult. Danny Elfman’s score for The Kingdom was great, much like his score for Hulk, it didn’t sound like any of his other work. You wouldn’t know that he did the score unless someone told you.
But, Danny Elfman’s score was the only piece of music that was in this movie, as they hired a band called Velvet Revolver to produce an original song to play in the movie’s end credits, called “Set Me Fee.” It’s a pretty good song, it’s very much of its era, and it’s not one of the things remember about this movie. But, I like it, and that’s all that matters. There’s another movie from the early 2000s from my childhood that had a rock song that no body remembers or talks about, The Mummy Returns. That movie had a song called “Forever May Not Be Long Enough,” it was made by a band called LIVE. I do like that song also, even if I’m in the minority on that one, as I am with “Set Me Free.”
I will recommend this movie to anyone who isn’t really into superhero movies, or anyone who doesn’t like the current landscape of superhero movies especially those from the MCU, and wants something different that takes risks and tries to be more meaningful. It’s the kind of movie that Marvel Studios would never do especially nowadays, and the kind of movie that DC only does occasionally. We’ll see what James Gunn’s DC cinematic universe will be like.
I’m kind of starting to have doubts about that as well even if I did like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and I did like The Suicide Squad, the sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) that James Gunn wrote and directed, and was kind of a soft reboot. Taking some elements from the first movie, while ignoring or changing other elements to make it more of James Gunn’s own, and make it more palatable for audiences. As palatable as a scene where Bloodsport 🩸 and Peacemaker 🕊️ murder an entire camp of freedom fighters (pro-democracy rebels) in some elaborate and petty dick measuring contest can be.
Hulk is at least worth a watch. Even if you walk away not liking it, you can at least be confident in knowing that it was unlike anything you had seen before in a superhero movie, and you will likely never see anything quite like it ever again. The movie is available on Blu-Ray 💿 and on 4K Ultra HD 💿, and it’s probably on Peacock 🦚 since Peacock 🦚 is Universal’s streaming service. So, it is readily available and pretty easy to find. I have the limited edition steelbook, which is the one that you see above with the blue bar at the top the says “Blu-Ray+DVD+Digital Copy+Ultraviolet,” and it’s pretty nice looking. I bought it at FYE, and it’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. BTW, since I mentioned remember when Ultraviolet was thing? That immediately dates that Blu-Ray 💿 as being released sometime in the early-to-mid 2010s.
I do wish that we could’ve gotten a sequel to this movie because from what I’ve heard about what they had planned from watching YouTube videos on the subject, it sounds pretty interesting. I mean if Joker could get a sequel with Joker: Folie à Deux (God, that title's so pretentious), I don't see why Hulk couldn't. Basically, it would’ve picked up where this movie leaves off, with Bruce being a fugitive, and hiding out in Latin America, and it would’ve showed us what happens after the final scene in this movie where Bruce is helping these people out in a South American or Central American jungle, and administering them medicine while sporting a huge beard, but is when they’re confronted by these rebels who antagonize Bruce and start mistreating the refugees he was helping. And that triggers him to Hulk out in order to defend these people from the rebels. Which means we might’ve gotten to see Hulk with a beard at least for that one scene, which would’ve been cool.
Then, from what I understand, the plot would’ve involved Bruce going to a Native American reservation, likely somewhere in New Mexico, or in Arizona maybe. Maybe it would’ve been one of the reservations in the Midwest or in the South, I don’t really know. But the point is that he goes to a Native American reservation to hide out, and while he’s there, he discovers that the tribal members of this reservation are sick and are being poisoned as a result of some scientific experiments that were conducted by an evil scientist named Edward Leder, the man ♂︎ who would become the Leader. The character’s name was Samuel Sterns in the comics and in the MCU, but the screenwriter who wrote the script for this unmade Hulk sequel, John Turman decided to change it to Edward Leder for whatever reason.
This is when it’s revealed that Talbot survived the explosion 💥 in the underground facility in the first movie, and that he’s the one that is funding Edward’s experiments. The reason why of course is that he wants revenge on Bruce. He also becomes the Abomination at some point. So, the villains would’ve been the Abomination and the Leader, which I’m sure everyone would’ve liked to have seen since those are the two top villains in the Hulk’s rogue’s gallery. The Grey Hulk was also set to appear as the Joe Fixit personality starts to manifest itself in Bruce’s psyche, and Bruce has to fight Joe, and prevent him from taking over his body so that Savage Hulk AKA the Green Hulk can fight the Abomination and the Leader and save this reservation.
It’s not known whether or not Betty Ross or General Ross would’ve appeared in this sequel or not had it been made, or if it would’ve just been a pure Bruce story with neither of the Rosses. I mean, I kind of expect that Betty would’ve made an appearance at some point, since they did kind of hint that she would appear again if they had a continuation even if she herself doesn’t think that it would wise for Bruce to reunite with her now that he’s a fugitive on the run. Just like how it was strongly hinted that Mary Jane could continue to be apart of Peter Parker’s life even after he made his vow to keep his regular life and his superhero life separate at the end of Spider-Man.
Also, it would be kind of weird not to have General Ross since General Ross has been in almost every other Hulk adaptation on film, TV, and in video games, and he’s kind of a huge part of the Hulk storyline. He’s always kind of been like Captain Ahab to the Hulk’s white whale, he’s the one who’s always hunting him down. But, I suppose pure Bruce story with neither Ross wouldn’t be that bad, as it would be a bit more in line with the 70s/80s TV series, which was much more David Banner centric and didn’t really have the usual supporting cast that’s associated with the Hulk, except for maybe General Ross, but I’m not sure on that one. Don’t quote me.
It is interesting that it was John Schamus, the credited story writer and one of the producers on the first movie, who came with the idea to set the story of the sequel on a Native American reservation, even though he wasn’t the credited screenwriter, John Turman was. It’s a really cool and unique idea. You really don’t see that many mainstream blockbuster movies be set on Native American reservations, let alone superhero movies. The only time you see a blockbuster movie be set on a Native American reservation or deal with Native Americans in any way is if it’s a western. But, this movie would’ve dealt with Native Americans in the modern day, wearing modern clothes, and using modern technology. According to Schamus, the sequel would’ve been a lot more political than the first as it delved into the hardships that Native Americans face, including the poverty, racism, and discrimination, among other things.
As a Native American myself, who currently lives on a reservation, all I can say is that I would hope that this movie would’ve handed this subject matter with a lot of respect and sensitivity, and would’ve portrayed the Natives in a respectful and non-stereotypical way. Even if the story kind of has that white savior trope in it, but maybe the movie would’ve critiqued the white savior trope, who knows? Considering that Schamus actually co-wrote Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a movie that deals with Chinese history and Chinese mythology, and features an all Chinese cast and is spoken entirely in Mandarin, I think that Hulk 2 would’ve been in good hands 🤲. I do wonder what the title would’ve been. I suspect that it would’ve been Hulk 2, but would it have been the number 2 or II in Roman numerals, so like Hulk II? I’m fine with either one, but I’m just wondering what it would’ve been.
The only downside I could see to this sequel would’ve been Eric Bana and Ang Lee not returning. Apparently, Eric Bana had no intentions of reprising the role as Bruce Banner if a sequel was ever made because he felt that Hulk worked perfectly fine as a one-and-done standalone movie, which fair enough. And Ang Lee was committed to making Brokeback Mountain, so he didn’t have time in his schedule to direct a Hulk sequel.
So, potentially, had this sequel gotten off the ground, Ang Lee would’ve been replaced as director with someone else, and the role of Bruce Banner would’ve been recast with someone else. This question over whether not Eric Bana would’ve returned or not does kind of make me wonder if Josh Lucas would’ve returned to reprise his role as Glenn Talbot. He probably would, maybe, potentially. I don’t see why not, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be against making a sequel or being in one, and he seemed to enjoy the role a lot to where he would return to play Talbot a second time.
The only solution that I can think of to this would’ve been waiting for Ang Lee to make Brokeback Mountain first, and then have him jump onto making the Hulk sequel. And maybe with Ang Lee returning, Eric Bana might’ve reconsidered and decided to reprise the role as Bruce. But, Universal’s time was limited. They had to crank out a sequel before 2006, otherwise the rights would’ve reverted back to Marvel, which they ended up any way. So, they weren’t willing to wait for Ang Lee just in case he didn’t finish making Brokeback Mountain in time to make Hulk 2. Considering the work that he did on Hulk, if I were a Universal exec, I would’ve waited for him. I’ll link a few videos that discuss the unmade sequel that you can watch to learn more about it, here, here, and here.
Even if we didn’t end up getting a sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk, we did get a video game that did continue the story, as well as a tie-in comic which also did the same thing. But, I don’t know about the comic, Hulk: Gamma Games, I do know about the video game, Hulk, so I’m going to touch on that. The video game continues the story from the movie as Bruce is now a fugitive on the run, and is trying to find a cure to his Hulk affliction. This ultimately leads to him uncovering a vast conspiracy that leads all way to the Leader, who is the main antagonist of the game. The game features other Hulk villains, big and small, such as Ravage, Half-Life, John Ryker, Flux, and Madman, who is the Leader’s brother. The game was mostly well-received except for the Bruce stealth missions, which everyone criticized and complained as people only wanted to play as the Hulk.
Funnily enough, the developers of the 2003 Hulk game, Radical Entertainment went onto develop another Hulk game that was completely disconnected from the movie that addressed the main complaint people had about the 2003 game called The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, a game that’s widely considered to be the greatest Hulk game of all time. Not there’s much competition since there are so few Hulk games out there. Most of the Hulk’s appearances in gaming have been in Marvel crossovers or in Avengers games, like the Avengers game that Square Enix made back in 2020 called Marvel’s Avengers.
What set The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction apart from the 2003 tie-in movie Hulk game is that it was an open world game where the player complete play the story at their own pace, and do side missions along the way, rather than a short linear story like the 2003 Hulk game was. It also got rid of the Bruce stealth missions that everyone complained about in the 2003 game. In The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, you just play as the Hulk the entire time, rather than alternating between playing as the Hulk and Bruce in the 2003 game. I wish I could’ve played both games when the PS2 was still in circulation, but at least I can watch longplays of both game on YouTube.
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