Hulk poster & wallpaper

Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott

A geneticist's experimental accident curses him with the tendency to become a powerful giant green brute under emotional stress.

Flixster Users

34% liked it

244,739 ratings

Critics

61% liked it

221 critics

PG-13, 2 hrs. 18 min.

Directed by: Ang Lee

Release Date: June 20, 2003

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: October 28, 2003

Get It:

Stats: 18,280 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites
report incorrect info

Photos

HULK Eric Bana hulk Green And Brown Hulk Hulk Sam Sam Edward Norton Edward Norton Eric Bana hulk ERIC BANNA IN FORREST HULK Edward Norton Jennifer Connelly Hulk Hulk
Upload a Photo |

View All Hulk Photos (17)

Your Rating


clear rating
Share on: Facebook Twitter

Flixster Reviews (18,280)

  • SirPant
    September 25, 2009
    SirPant
    Hmmm, I liked the way it was shot, a bit like a comic but the Hulk itself looked soooo crap! I don't remember the Hulk jumping ridiculously high, or being that big. Spoilt by stupid computer effects. A big green bogy!
  • phubbs1
    July 18, 2009
    phubbs1
    Poor film, very uneven and hard to follow. The effects are strange, they can look good but then they can look bad. The idea of the movie to look like a comic with separate panels was brave and kinda worked, its probably the best thing in there. Bana was a bad choice though and re...( read more)ally, the whole concept is pretty lame and very 80's.
  • TheMachinist
    March 8, 2009
    TheMachinist
    "You're making me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..."

    This is a hard one for comic book fans. The Incredible Hulk is one of the most, I'm not sure if this word is the right one to explain, fascinating characters in the Marvel universe.

    Now, after my third or somethin...( read more)g viewing, I'm still wondering if Ang Lee was the right person to direct "Hulk". Mr Lee is obviously a very talented filmmaker with great character development skills but something is missing here.

    Viewers are used to see great action scenes fill the plot but here things are completely different. Lee focuses more on the characters and that is in no way a bad thing. When the action comes to the screen, I was very pleased. The CGI was at the films release time a small disappointment but for me it worked well.

    Another thing I liked was the cinematography. There was at times some very fine tricks when the camera shifted to another point of view. All in all a very good job by the cinematographer.

    But one thing I did not like at all was the "birth" of Hulk. In the original comic, Bruce Banner was just a scientist who got exposed to gamma radiation. Here, the screen writers have made up their own story of origin. Works fine if you aren't a fan of the comic book but for me... No, stick to the original story.

    "Hulk" is a different comic book movie. That doesn't make it worse than others. The film has several things that other comic book films should take a notice of (proper character development) but it also has some major faults. It drags on a bit and could've been a bit shorter. But if you like comics and the big green Hulk, you'll surely enjoy it.
  • Showrogan
    January 1, 2009
    Showrogan
    Ang Lee is such a good director/writer, so this was a...well, it just was...

    OK, I can appreciate the background information...the film explores the origins of the Hulk, which is an important factor for this Marvel Hero considering how far apart he's naturally set from his fello...( read more)w superheros in that his powers are a curse, not an advantage...

    "What scares me the most, is that when it happens, when it comes over me, when I totally lose control, I like it."

    But the film lacks the hard hitting fight scenes that was duly well deserved...nobody said it had to be on the edge of your seat constant adrenaline rush get up, but all the leeway given towards the dialogue took away from any kind of worthy action sequences...
  • EarthlyAlien
    January 1, 2009
    EarthlyAlien
    "Even now I can feel it, buried somewhere deep inside, watching me, waiting... But you know what scares me the most? When I can't fight it anymore, when it takes over, when I totally lose control... I like it."

    ...( read more)?action=view¤t=hulk.jpg" target="_blank">Photobucket

    Though the immediate generic ancestor of the Hulk is the comic book, whose heroes have duked it out with all manner of bad dads for generations, Ang Lee's Hulk bends the knee before an illustrious lineage of male crisis, from King Kong back through Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and even to the ultimate fire-breathing father figures, the Greek gods. In the old myths, unsatisfactory fathers did robust things to their sons, like kill them or take away their manhood. In Hulk, they mess with their genes.

    The film opens in a laboratory on a military base somewhere in America, where an ambitious young scientist named David Banner (Paul Kersey) is fastidiously slicing up starfish, snakes, molluscs and the like. Instead of sautéing them for lunch like any other self-respecting yupster, Banner injects their genetic material into his own body, to be passed on, later, into that of his baby son, Bruce. Neither one of them turns into a mutant giant shrimp - this is, after all, an Ang Lee film - though each, in his way, is now wired for monstrosity.

    Years later, we find young Bruce, played by Eric Bana, overachieving as a geneticist in a Berkeley laboratory and pretending not to smart over being dumped, for failure to emote, by his equally gifted scientist girlfriend, Betty (Jennifer Connelly). A shared past, dimly remembered by the intuitive Betty and efficiently repressed by Bruce, who was raised by an adoptive mother, binds the two as surely as their do-gooding joint research on something ominous called nano-meds. When Bruce acts decisively to save a colleague's life after a lab accident, he's blasted by enough gamma rays to kill 10 men. Instead, this makes him stronger and angrier, causing him to turn that special shade of green and blow up to 15 feet tall.

    The ever-intuitive Betty guesses that it's not just genetic hanky-panky that's pumping up the man she still loves, but his rage and hurt over an early trauma he can't or won't remember. She prescribes a little recovered memory, and, as luck would have it, a furtive new lab janitor shows up to reveal himself as David Banner (Nick Nolte) far from dead, as his son had presumed, and still mad as a hatter and with no clearer sense of personal boundaries for having spent several decades in jail. It turns out that David was busted for unprofessional conduct all those years ago by none other than Betty's father, General "Thunderbolt" Ross (the implacable Sam Elliott), a distant dad who's been too busy running the military-industrial complex to attend to his daughter, and who now appears every bit as interested in the ordnance potential of the new and improved Bruce as he is in nailing the young scientist's dad.

    David will have none of this. When he first sees Bruce in Hulk form, he reaches out and strokes his massive green cheek, a gesture at once witty, malevolent and ineffably sad. He's created a monster, his own true self and, he insists, his son's. Bruce grows ever greener, taller and even more enraged. In such combustible circumstances, the only outstanding questions are which city skyline will take a pounding now that tall Manhattan buildings are off-limits, whether soldiers or scientists make better candidates for the new villainy, and whether the Hulk can remain a verdant über-being while getting in touch with his sensitive male.

    Stan Lee's Hulk, like all his superheroes, was a self-doubting chap overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the job (though I doubt whether Spider-Man was ever meant to be as weak-kneed as Tobey Maguire's hopelessly insipid Peter Parker). One would expect the tender-hearted Ang Lee to go the same route. Instead, he shows a mischievous appreciation for the subversive pleasures of letting the "hero" out to play. In truth, the Hulk - up until a truly daft coda grafted onto the end of the film as a kind of social-service afterthought - is not that dedicated a do-gooder. He's at war with himself and the father within him, but he also enjoys being the Hulk. Who wouldn't, given the chance to hop across deserts, leaping from one canyon to the next while swinging Army tanks around like toy cars and laying waste to military installations?

    Whether he's a creature who will strike sufficient terror into the hearts of sensation-hungry audiences is another story. Ang Lee was hired to direct Hulk because he has proved both his action chops while turning in soulful family dramas that also make money. On paper, that made him an ideal interpreter of the Hulk for the coveted date-film market. Still, Universal held its breath for a reason. Crouching Tiger made a fortune in the West, but the masses of hardcore martial-arts fans in mainland China who wrote it off as a wimpy performance piece made a snug fit with the profile of Western filmgoers who plonk down their $9 for loud explosions. Hulk is put together with fluid grace, but it is visibly two separate films: one, an intimate realist drama shot in muted grey and pastel close-up by the poetic cinematographer Fred Elmes; the other, a computer-generated playground for the crew at Industrial Light and Magic, who have kept faith with the buoyant flamboyance of Stan Lee's four-colour comic book panels.

    Hulk is a beautiful film, but it was always unlikely to win points as a monster flick - it's too elegant, too whimsical. Musclebound and gigantic though he is, the Hulk is an endearing fellow in his skimpy purple shorts and mounds of green, topped by a nice black rug - he's about as threatening as the Michelin tire man. His emerald-eyed gaze is more sad than cruel, and even Connelly, whose small-boned, ethereal beauty makes her a perfect successor to Fay Wray, can't make him seem fearsome. When, in an affectionate nod to his gorilla ancestor, the Hulk lifts her up in his giant hands and gently sets her down again, one expects a rousing chorus to waft in on the soundtrack. Not even the climactic finale, in which San Francisco Bay takes a pounding, can dispel the suspicion that Ang Lee's Hulk is more Jolly Green Giant than Toxic Avenger.

    As anyone who has seen Crouching Tiger - or Lee's lovely early film Pushing Hands - knows, combat for this director is a medium of dance, of communication, while horror gives form to philosophy. Along with his long-time collaborator James Schamus, who cooked up and co-wrote (with John Turman and Michael France) the story for Hulk, Lee is a wistful expressionist, a wit and a thinker in the tradition of the great James Whale. In that sense, Hulk is an articulation not only of the struggle between father and sons, but of our most current topical fears. It is not, finally, our fighting men who most freak us out, but our scientists, those who divorce thought from feeling, who try to improve on nature, who insist on tinkering with food, sheep and - scariest of all - us.
  • lopcar1993
    November 8, 2009
    lopcar1993
    I never watched the 70's T.V. series that first brought the Incredible Hulk to people everywhere, but I have had the pleasure of watching Ang Lee's 2003 big screen adaption of the big green brute. It's a great film that is severely underrated and is not respected as it sho...( read more)uld, Ang Lee's Hulk is dark, smart, stylish, atmospheric, heart breaking and taunt.



    Hulk I didn't like at first I thought it was a little pointless and boring, but after watching it years later I see it for the great comic book adaption it is. It's got great qualities and a power that lies deep within it's complex and thoroughly well thought out plot and story. While not as convincing and Hulk as most people would hope for. It does give us a great look and strong appeal of character and the emotional depth and amazing CGI effects to really keep you interested and incited by this slow moving, but brilliant Comic book adaption.





    Eric Bana(Who is great here.) Plays the Hulk with such subtly, humanity and anger. He brings so much more to the table than what is needed and does great with it and gives it all he's got and in the end he comes out on top. Sam Elliot(Who rules here.) Is strong, tough and Ahab obsessed with getting the Hulk It's a thrilling and thought provoking thing to see unfold on screen as you get to see a calculating military man turn into a obsessed hunter. Nick Nolte(Who I don't like but does great here.) He is something of a show stealer as the maniacal and extremely disturbed father of Bruce Banner, he showcases some serious acting chops here and is a real treat to see in this movie. Jennifer Connelly who is amazing and very emotionally powerful as Bruce Banner's love Betty Ross. She brings a heart and soul to this film and she make sit another reasons to see it. But none the less the cast does fantastic here and really helps elevate this film from average to amazing.





    Hulk is not a fan favorite because of it's slow pace and not so smashing nature. But I think it's a film to admire and devil in how well made and thought provoking it is a good film that is harshly overlooked. And If your very forgiving and kind It will entertain. All in all Hulk delvers.
  • MovieGuruDude72
    November 8, 2009
    MovieGuruDude72
    Probably the worst comic book to movie adaptation done ever. Hulk looked like Slimer from Ghostbusters. Lime green? If ILM did the graphics for this film they need to be bitch-slapped. Eric Bana is a good actor, but he is not a powerful enough an actor to carry a franchise let al...( read more)one morph into a giant green monster. Bill Bixby from the original TV show was more menacing and believable than he was. Very cheesy and fake, especially the special effects. A bitter disappointment.
  • MarcosFog
    November 7, 2009
    MarcosFog
    Me parecio aburrida, con muy poco ritmo. No me gustaron esas divisiones de pantalla tratando de imitar un comic. Un fallido intento Ang Lee.
  • seannasuti
    November 2, 2009
    seannasuti
    Overall, it had a very good storyline, but the whole film had a dark tone to it, and I never saw much of a happy moment in this film. Plus, the Hulk looks more like Eric Bana, cept it is huge and green. The 2008 film had a better look for the Hulk
  • varasek
    October 27, 2009
    varasek
    Definitely get it if you need a great substitute for sleeping pills and/or suffer from massive insomnia. The entire thing will put you to sleep in 20 minutes tops. Not even the cheesy effects and the unintentional comedy by the end can save it.

View All Hulk Reviews

Critic Reviews

June 21, 2003
David Edelstein, Slate

Unlike your average comic-book blockbuster, The Hulk isn't a bad cartoon. It's a bad modern Greek tragedy. full review

June 20, 2003
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

A thinking person's movie with precious little for anyone to think about, except for a green giant smashing things. full review

June 20, 2003
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Schamus and his fellow screenwriters have taken the most pompous elements of superhero comics -- the humorless archetypes, the italicized declamations -- and inflated them until they nearly burst with... full review

June 20, 2003
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Ang Lee has boldly taken the broad outlines of a comic book story and transformed them to his own purposes; this is a comic book movie for people who wouldn't be caught dead at a comic book movie. full review

June 19, 2003
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Incredibly long, incredibly tedious, incredibly turgid. full review

June 19, 2003
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Hulk is the lumpiest amalgamation of sci-fi and psychological drama since Steven Soderbergh's misfired Solaris. full review

June 19, 2003
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

There is still much to keep you riveted. full review

June 18, 2003
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

The Hulk has enough super-sized thrills and surprisingly affecting dramatic weight to make it the year's most profound popcorn extravaganza. full review

View more Hulk reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • itbegins2005
    March 24, 2008
    itbegins2005
    It's funny how the attempt at mixing genuine, emotionally impacting drama and comic book superheroism displayed here is almost a prototypical form of what was done (much more successfully) in Batman Begins- the only real flaw is in the disproportional concentrations of each element, and in the filmmakers' insistence on keeping them distinctly separate.

    Not to mention the sheer miasma of gut-churning angst, which never really dies down...
  • haxc100
    December 12, 2007
    haxc100
    don't get y ppl h8 this film i suppose psychology and fantasy r an odd mix
  • lileric70
    September 15, 2007
    lileric70
    yes i did it ..
  • ztard
    July 26, 2007
    ztard
    i can not belive that they are coming up with a sequil for this. clearly everyone hated the first one so why make another one? mabe they are just trying to fix ther mastakes couse they did get another bruce
  • cp1923
    July 19, 2007
    cp1923
    yuck
  • MovieDude1221
    July 10, 2007
    MovieDude1221
    Being a big superhero fan,when I saw this in the bargain bin at walmart-what the heck? Why,oh,why didn't I pick the Terminator or the Ring sitting right next to it? I wasted at least 10 dollars on something I watched once.
  • yourfriendjameswooten
    April 15, 2007
    yourfriendjameswooten
    I'm a fan of the Hulk comics and this movie was a very big disappointment for me. I have no problems with Ang Lee's direction. He understands drama. The comic panels were a good idea for this film and the desert battle scenes were pretty cool. But the story... It is very obvious that James Schamus (the writer) knows close-to-nothing about the comic series. Well, I take that back. He knew that the Hulk was green. I'm hoping that the "remake" will be what this movie should have been.
  • ManuelSDMF
    September 21, 2006
    ManuelSDMF
    Now go try critizizing a movie you like you damn loosers!
  • camillamaccoy
    September 2, 2006
    camillamaccoy
    this is the worst movie i have ever seen in my life. seriously, if you havent watched this, dont put yourself through it, its awful in evryway.
  • designdriven
    August 27, 2006
    designdriven
    This movie is different than other Marvel Comics blockbuster in a way that it tries to be believable and focus more on story and characters with fewer action scene (similar to Batman Begins I'd say). With that in mind, it's a good movie and each of the action scene are pretty neat. First problem is that the story could have been better explained (I heard there's an edition with deleted scenes added that helps it) and second is that the dad actor is pretty bad IMO. Still a good go, not as bad as the first theather reviews wanted it to be if you're open for anything. Oh and also, the ending suck! What's with the cloud travel BS? You'll see. Anyway by that time, I felt like I already had my share of entertaining.
Post A Comment | View All Comments

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

All Rotten Tomatoes content is used under license from Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh, and the Tomatometer are the trademarks of Incfusion Corporation, d/b/a Rotten Tomatoes, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment, Inc.

Official Trailer

View Larger Hulk Trailer

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Batman Begins
    Batman Begins (51%)
  • Fantastic Four
    Fantastic Four (60%)
  • Spider-Man
    Spider-Man (62%)
  • The Toxic Avenger
    The Toxic Avenger (0%)

More Movies like Hulk

Theater Showtimes & TV Listings

Hulk Trivia

  • What Fictional Character, have the following actors voiced or portrayed? Leslie Neilson Tim Allen Tom Hanks Hulk Hogan   Answer »
  • Which film was this line said in, "Your making me angry, you wont like me when im angry".  Answer »
  • What movie included such superheroes as Iron Man, Hulk, Giant Man, Thor and Captain America?  Answer »
  • Which actor played the nanny in the 1993 film "Mr. Nanny"?  Answer »
More Hulk Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All Hulk Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add Hulk to favorites

Recent News

Submit a Story |

View Hulk News

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

butterfly34363 Skin by butterfly34363
447 Profiles
Add to Profile

More Skins