Marval Movie

When I was young I watched many animated television shows (I still do). I tried my best to watch Batman or Animaniacs but I didn't understand time scheduling back then, so I just watched what came on while I was watching TV. The two biggest of my childhood were Spider-man and The Incredible Hulk.

Spider-man brought humor and day to day problems into the life of a superhero, while Hulk brought heavy emotional weight of a man burdened by his inner demons that physically manifest and can destroy everything in its bath. The big green savage beast was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and he was always one of my favorite characters.

Though in terms of a full length feature films Hulk has been in some very clumsy hands, in 2003 Ang Lee created a two hour dull fest (2 1/2 stars out of 4). Then in 2008 Louis Leterrier rebooted the franchise how it should be, we see the tormented Bruce Banner worried with the looming threat of the Hulk. But still there was something missing the idea was right but the overall finished product was lacking some real backbone, but it was one of the best hulk movies to come out that I had seen (3 stars out of 4).

Now I've recently seen the Marvel animated movie Planet Hulk, I don't think these Marvel animated movies are nearly as good as the DC animated movies (Invincible Iron Man was a complete failure in my mind) but the trailer had me on the edge of my seat and so I saw the movie.

Planet Hulk is the movie that I've been waiting for.

The movie starts with the Hulk in restraints on a ship with Iron Man as well as a few others (one of the others is Dr. Strange) behind him delivering a message to him through a hologram. He tells him that they can no longer deal with the the Hulks unpredictable transformations and his unstoppable power, while at the same time we see a monk like figure on another planet praying to the god he prays to for a warrior savior who conveniently has all the quality that the Hulk has.

So the Hulk is to be sent off to another planet where there is nothing but vegetation, so Hulk cannot hurt anyone or be hurt (it took how many years to come up with this?). But of course the Hulk gets mad, punches the controls and the ship spirals off course into a worm hole, sending him to another planet.

The Hulk then crash lands on a planet named Sakaar a planet sprawling with all different races of aliens, as well as a dictatorship. The Hulk climbs out and a swarm of yellow bugs attack him and we see the Hulk bleed, this image is so new to me I think we've seen Superman bleed more than the Hulk. Later the Hulk is captured and taken to a gladiator arena.

The main aspect of the movie is the lack of Bruce Banner. I would have thought that the Hulk without Bruce Banner would be a big dumb crash and smash movie that relied souly on action. Not true, we now see the Hulk calm and calculating but still carries the pain and frustration from all the hard times he has had to endured. But why? I originally thought that either the Hulk had been removed from Bruce Banner or when an alien shoots him with some sort of brain probe the minds merge, according to the DVD commentary Sakaar has poisonous atmosphere which puts his body under stress and keeps him in Hulk mode. Whatever the reason it is an irrelevant detail, this is the Hulks story.

He is played by Rick Wasserman who is terrific, he of course has a big strong quality as well as a gravelly emotion to it, this Hulk has been elevated from a Hyde persona to that of Hamlet (yeah I said it). The drawing style also deserves praise the characters are all well drawn but its the planet of Sakaar that deserves the most credit. The sense of scale, space and the way that the wilderness is shaped so that we are clearly on a different planet with a different type of erosion.

The direction from Sam Lui offers high scale action complimented with those quiet moments that allow us a look into the deepness of our hero, these are always my favorite moments.

Planet Hulk is the Hulk movie I've been waiting for but I didn't know I was waiting for.

Rating 4 stars out of 4