FamilyFans Movies

☼☼☼

THE HULK (PG-13)

Plot Summary: A man is accidentally exposed to a blast of radiation that causes him to become a monstrous green smashing creature when he gets angry.

Reason for the Rating: Sci-fi action violence, some disturbing images and brief partial nudity.

THE HULK comes in a long line of recent comic book movies, following X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and X2. I’d say it falls right in the middle of that list in terms of quality, too.

Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down) plays Bruce Banner, a young scientist whose father (played by Nick Nolte, The Thin Red Line) was a military scientist who experimented on himself and then passed a mutation on to his son. The mutation stayed dormant in Bruce until he was accidentally exposed to an intense burst of Gamma radiation. Now when Bruce gets angry he doesn’t just get mad, he gets green. His anger transforms Bruce into a 15-foot-tall behemoth bent on smashing everything in sight and making mega-leaps across the landscape. Of course the military is after him—both to stop him and to use his DNA to create super-soldiers. The populace runs screaming, and many things blow up real good.

In one of several similarities to King Kong, only one thing can soothe the savage beast: the presence of his lady fair, Betty Ross, played by Jennifer Connolly (A Beautiful Mind). When she appears, the Hulk shrinks back down to his normal, skin-toned, human self.

Most of the movie deals with Bruce and Betty trying to evade Betty’s father, a military general, and an evil biotech corporation fronted by the handsome Talbot (Josh Lucas, A Beautiful Mind). The arch-enemy doesn’t enter until the end, though, when Bruce’s father takes a shot of Gamma Rays to awaken his own dormant superpowers. 

This is a fair movie--not great, not terrible. There are high quality parts, like the facial expressiveness of the computer generated Hulk, the way Jennifer Connolly shines on screen, and the cameo appearances by Lou Ferrigno (who played the Hulk on TV long ago) and Stan Lee (who created the comic book character in the first place). But overall this hero flick is less than super. It doesn’t have the wonder of Spider-Man, the slickness of X2, or even the overall coolness of Batman.

Parents, be aware this is a PG-13 movie. There are some scary images (at least two children cried and had to leave in the show I saw) and some mature themes, including a father trying to kill his son with a knife, and killing his wife instead. The “brief partial nudity” is a quick shot of Eric Bana’s bare behind.

FamilyFans.com Recommends: If you’re a fan of the comic books or you just want to see what the state of the art in computer-generated animation is, definitely go. Others might wait for the DVD.

After the Show…If members of your family choose to view this movie, use these questions to spark discussion about it afterward:

---Anger transforms Bruce Banner into a destructive monster. How do feel when you are angry? What calms you down?

---How do you think Christians are supposed to deal with anger? Can your support your opinion with an example from the life of Jesus?

---Bruce’s father says human experimentation is necessary to go beyond the boundaries God has imposed on humanity. What do you think of that statement, and why?

Jefferson Scott

☼☼☼

Note: All movie-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective movie studios.