Hulk (2003)

4/5

Ang Lee's Hulk exceeded all my expectations. Going in, I wasn't particularly excited to be watching this unappealing and poorly-reviewed 140-minute adaptation of a comic book I never read. But Lee's expert direction quickly engaged me and all my self-imposed distancing faded. After an initially wobbly start (a habit of Lee's I now expect), I couldn't turn my eyes away. I lost track of time and got caught up in the story.

By far the best aspect of this movie is its story. Disregard the mediocre script and dull dialogue and instead focus on the characters and their motivations; you will find an epic, Shakespearean tragedy. The movie is a surprisingly mature examination of themes concerning familial relationships, love and sacrifice, and mistakes and second chances. Ang Lee allows the scenes to breathe; he lets silence and inaction talk, which went much appreciated by me. I was impressed by the honest performances by Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, and Nick Nolte. (Eric Bana's titular performance left me underwhelmed.)

The visual style is unique; Lee is very aware of the movie's graphic novel roots. He uses moving panels, multiple angles, and special transitioning effects to create a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. Sometimes it was obtrusive, but more often than not it heightened the tensions and emotions. While such effects were fantastic, the computer-generated Hulk was (expectedly) a bit lacking. Even so, I think it held up rather well considering that it's 5 years old. The movie is (certainly) a bit overlong and not as tight as it could be, but at no part are you ever really disinterested. For that I am thankful, because I know a lot of 90 minute movies that feel a lot longer than this one did. If you know what you're getting into, I highly recommend this thrilling and serious action movie.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0286716/

Little Children (2006)

4/5

Todd Field's Little Children dramatizes the dark and sometimes dangerous underbelly of suburban parents and their interactions. The large cast of characters is well-envisioned, well-developed, and well-acted, although Patrick Wilson's performance sometimes felt a bit affected and rang false. Detailing the minutiae of these people's lives was oddly magnetic and hid the beginnings of an ominous foreboding. The plot follows some surprising avenues, heavily describing characters that at first seemed secondary. The editing was excellent. It propelled the movie forward, paced each story equally and fully, and still managed artistic flourishes here and there. There are scenes of incredible tension starting in the middle and increasing in magnitude as it nears the finale that hold the audience's attention and breath. I found myself emotionally involved with the characters as well.

Onto the parts I hated. I cannot get out of my head the completely unnecessary and distracting voice-over narration. I've said before that it's an excuse for sloppy filmmaking and that a good filmmaker can show visually what the narrator is saying. In this case, the narration actually adds nothing to the plot or characters and only serves to distance the audience from the events on-screen, reminding us that this was based on a book. There is not even anything to replace with images. Every single line the narrator was saying should have been simply excised. Also, I thought the film sort of chickened out from a satisfying ending, but in a way it also reaffirmed that it was trying to depict real life and that normal events happening in the span of a two hour movie cannot elicit life-changing decisions from real characters (or at least these specific events). And everything gets tied up in a bowtie a little too nicely at the end. Some of the director's decisions are just impossible for me to approve of. The slow-mo football game that reminded me of the homo-erotic mud/rain football scene in Invincible is one. Another is the overpolishing of scenes, separating them from reality. Despite these many problems, however, the film is engrossing and keeps you watching. If it sounds interesting, give it a spin.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0404203/

Blood Diamond (2006)

3/5

Blood Diamond starts out strong and ends strong, but the middle wobbled. Its focus was action, while the rest was drama. The story as a whole and the acting by all three main characters was quite good. As a result, several scenes stood out as very powerful ones. The action in the movie was the archetype of relentless tension. However, the directing, writing, editing, and music were all adequate, but nothing special.

I thought it tried too hard to be too many things, which made each thing seem less important than if the movie had just been about that. It talks about conflict diamonds, child soldiers, the general situation in Africa, reporting and smuggling as professions, and family--but none quite satisfactorily. The love story between DiCaprio and Connelly was so forced and unnecessary. The final 5-10 minutes of the movie felt like poor filmmaking to me, telling us nothing we didn't already know and weakening the impact and power of the piece.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0450259/