The Hulk. Not incredible, not even credible, just The Hulk. The new movie from Ang Lee takes the old teve show and makes it bigger, bigger, bigger. Presumably aiming for a cartoon look, the Hulk is now computer generated, very big and very green. And very boring.

The Hulk is one of very few movies that I would happily have left mid-stream. There's nothing in this movie that got my interest or even kept me amused. Not even Australian actor Eric Bana, who plays the Hulk when he's normal size.

The opening few minutes are pretty good. The opening credits clue us in to the story--accompanied by an amazing score by Danny Elfman. Elfman, responsible for a similarly exotic Batman score, knows how to set the stage for excitement. It's a crying shame--almost literally--that the film can't live up to Elfman's prelude.

The movie opens as you might expect, with a tiny cameo from Lou Ferigno, the Hulk from the tele-version in the 70s. And then begins a very pompous tale of two generations of scientists who experiement a little too hard. The product is the Hulk, the big green guy who only comes out when Bana gets angry.

The story is told ponderously and with great melodrama. Lee creates a cartoon atmosphere by using more than one frame on the screen. We see characters and action from various angles at the same time. The dialogue is delivered with great earnestness as if there's a wondrous secret to be uncovered.

But underneath the finesse, there's nothing. The story is virtaully non-existent. Finally we cut through the build up and The Hulk breaks loose, a computer generated Hulk, very cartoon, He's bigger than Ben Hur, greener than the Jolly Giant, and leaps everything in sight--he jumps about three miles per bound. For all his cartoonishness, the Hulk is surprizingly realistic. Had I been involved in the film, I would have been impressed by the computer Hulk.

As it was, I was bitterly disappointed. I expected a summer blockbuster with a few chuckles, some impressive stunts, but mostly a good fun movie. I was downright bored and vowq not to see Hulk II or Hulk III.


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