This is a Dynamike Network podcast.
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing
the 2003 Marvel film Hulk, directed by Ang Lee. The Hulk is my favorite Marvel character. And
I know a lot of people hate this movie, but I actually like it. Well, I don't have a favorite
DC character. I think they're all bad. I agree that it's a good movie, but it has some issues.
I think a lot of people realize that. I think you're the only one that doesn't, Jonathan.
We'll talk about the movie later. We've been waiting to talk about this movie for a while.
So, looking forward to it. I do wanna say that Joseph's a filthy liar because he said on the
Discord before that his favorite superhero from DC was Superman. That was a joke. I was joking
that day. Sure, sure. I don't have a favorite DC superhero. Before we get to the review though,
we're going to break down the comic book movie news from this past week, of which there was
huge news for DC. We got our first look at the new Superman logo, and James Gunn revealed
the title change for his upcoming Superman movie. As always, we list our segment times in our
episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to
a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for
our listeners, so listen up. Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel
and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you can choose
from three tiers. The dynamic 2-0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and
gives you access to its Discord chat group, where you can chat with Johnny DC and Marvellous
Joe. The fantastic 4 tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month. including
bloopers and top 10 shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favorite Marvel and DC subjects.
The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Jewel, where every month you help
the hosts choose what to review and who to fight against each other. And finally, the Dynamite
Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle-focused show using
this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic
support and consultation, and get you simulation results Pitch the twins your show via email
at dynamic dual podcast at gmail.com or by reaching out to them on social media Check it out at
patreon.com slash dynamic dual pip cheerio Thanks, A J 9k and thanks to everyone who supports
the podcast Guys be sure to tune into the shows in the dynamike podcast network this week Including
max destruction which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each
other this week hosts Ken and Scotty Find out who'd win in a fight between cleric John Preston
from Equilibrium and Mr. Smith from Shoot'em Up. On the Senjoworld podcast, host Master
Senjow speculates on fights between fan favorite anime characters. This Thursday, we'll find
out who would win between Superman from My Adventures with Superman and some asshole named Son Goku
from Dragon Ball. I'm actually guessing on this episode this Thursday, so definitely make sure
to tune in. On the Console Combat podcast, hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights
between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who would win between
Joel Miller from The Last of Us and Deacon St. John from Days Gone. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com
or click on the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamite Podcast
Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize.
Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the
person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked,
what is your favorite universe in the Marvel or DC multiverse and why? And this was coming
off of the trailer release for Justice League Crisis on Infant Earths Part 2, which deals
with the multiverse. Apparently we've asked this question before, I don't remember, but
I think we got some new answers. We'll go ahead and break down this week's honorable mentions
as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon who said, Hey
guys, Travis here. So my answer had to be the manga verse. As an anime lover, I enjoy this
universe. Seeing Spider-Man as like a ninja, Iron Man piloting a giant Iron Man's mech suit,
and Incredible Hulk as like Godzilla. I think this universe is interesting, has a lot of
potential for it. an animated series. So yeah, I think Marvel should capitalize on that and
make that into a series. So Mangaverse is my answer. Yeah, we've talked about the Marvel
Mangaverse before on this show. It's really cool. Like Travis said, Spider-Man is a ninja.
You have Iron Man as a mech warrior and then the Hulk as this kaiju monster. So there's
a lot of great influences from popular anime and manga series within the Marvel universe.
If you guys are into anime or manga. Well, one, you should check out the Senjou World podcast,
but two, you should also check out the Marvel Mangaverse. They've also produced a few movies
for the Marvel Mangaverse as well, including like Wolverine and Iron Man and Blade, if I
remember correctly. Oh, I didn't know that they made movies for those characters. That's awesome.
Yeah, a few animated movies produced in Japan. That's really cool. Hey, we'll have to review
those. Great answer, Travis. Our next honorable mention goes to Nate Mantineo, who said. It's
Nate Mantineo again. I would just like to say that my favorite universe in the whole multiverse
of Marvel and DC is easily the punk universe. Hobie Brown is such a complex character and
I love all of the storytelling that goes into this universe. It's so different from the other
universes that I always love to read these and I always love to enjoy the writing that is
put into them. Yeah, great answer, Nate. I personally have not read too much of the stories that
take place in the Spider-Verse. The most that I know about Hobie Brown is his involvement
in the Spider-Verse comic arc and the across the Spider-Verse movie. But I do know that
Earth 138 is a universe in which Norman Osborn has become president and kind of taken over.
He's referred to as Ozzy Osborn in that universe. Interesting. Yeah, Spider-Man got his powers
through some illegal chemical dumping and he rises up to fight the power. It's all really
cool. It's cool stuff. It is very punk in feel and the way it highlights punk culture and
punk attitude and everything like that is pretty neat. Yeah, great answer Nate. Our final honorable
mention goes to Miggy Methagean who said, Hey, what's up guys? This is Miggy and my favorite
alternate DC universes are 38 39 where Superman and Batman made their original view in the
late 30s and continue to go throughout their career at a normal pace so that their successors
are actually their children and grandchildren. And I think it was really cool seeing like
this legacy, idea of legacy being played out kind of like normally instead of like this
lighting time scale that we see in the mainstream universe. Yeah, this was an Elseworlds series
that I never read. Though I remember seeing it in my local comic book store in the early
2000s. I think it was Generations 3 that came out around that time. But no, that sounds like
an awesome Elseworlds. I love Elseworlds series, especially ones that focus on legacy. So yeah,
I'll definitely have to check this out. It sounds kind of like Kingdom Come. Sort of, but it's
more about like just the heroes living in real time, I guess you could say. So a Superman
who started in the 1930s would not still be Superman today. Well, if Kingdom Come was written
in the past as an Elseworld story set in the future, if our present is now the past's future,
you could almost say that Kingdom Come is a story that would take place today. Because
I think in that story, Superman and Batman were almost 100 years old. Well, maybe not 100,
but definitely up there. Great answer, Miggy. That does it for all of our honorable mentions.
The winner of this week's Snow Prize is Ed Jones. Who said? What's up, boys? It's Ed Jones here.
Listen, I'm gonna tell you the best Marvel multiverse. It's the old man Logan world. Here's why. Hulk
hillbillies, check. Tyrannosaurus Rex covered in a symbiote. Check. All your favorite heroes
have been murdered in gruesome ways by their villains. Check, check, check. What's better
than that? Absolutely nothing. This is the top tier of the Marvel Universe. All right. Thanks.
Peace out.
partly a road trip story between Wolverine and Hawkeye as they journey across the United States,
but it's also a revenge story toward the end. If you're a fan of the Hulk, like if you like
the Hulk movie and you're listening to this review episode of the Hulk because you're a
fan, maybe avoid Old Man Logan because they kind of did the character dirty in the books
because in that timeline he does the nasty with his cousin She-Hulk and they produce a bunch
of offspring. So that's kind of awkward. I think I knew that, but I also think I blocked it.
Yeah, somewhat in their defense, I guess they ended up going crazy due to radiation exposure
in California. But it's not much of a defense. Mark Miller wrote it, obviously, like, because
that's totally something that Mark Miller would put in one of his stories. Yeah, he kind of
tends to try to be a little bit edgy about things a little bit too much. So sometimes now it
makes sense. Now it all makes sense. So my favorite elseworlds is Kingdom Come. Anyone who's been
listening to the podcast for a while knows that. But Joseph, what is yours? That's a great question.
Well, I mean, anybody who's listened to the podcast, especially some of our bonus episodes
that we have on Patreon, they probably know that my favorite Marvel story is Earth X, which
is a Kingdom Come-like story set in the Marvel Universe that is highly introspective on the
Marvel Universe as a whole. So I might say that one. Cool, yeah, that is a good one. Well,
great answer, Ed. You win this week's No Prize if you the listener won a shot at winning your
own No Prize. Stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another question
of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news!
Okay, so I've been complaining for a while now that we haven't seen anything from Superman
Legacy. I know the movie is coming out next year, but I was still hoping to see something
like a logo or a poster for the film. And last week my dream came true because we got our
first look at the logo that Superman will wear on his costume in the newly titled Superman.
They dropped Legacy from the title, so now it's just titled Superman. Now of course, it's hard
to say that this was our first look because actress Isabella Merced, who's playing Cock
Girl in the movie, kind of teased a shot of the logo during a roundtable cast read, but
we didn't know at the time that was going to be like the actual one on the costume. But
sure enough, James Gunn and David Cornswett, the actor who's playing Superman, posted to
their social media accounts a shot of Superman's chest in the snow, and it's the kingdom come.
inspired logo that Isabella Merced posted to her social media account. As I mentioned Kingdom
Come is my favorite storyline of all time, so it's interesting to see that being used in
the yellow and red color scheme because traditionally in the comics it's red and black. I do have
to say though when I first saw it I wasn't like floored by it. I actually think that specific
logo has lost some of its novelty considering the fact that we saw Brandon in the CW crossover
event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Who do you think threw the snowball at Superman? Because
whoever it was, they have dead on aim. That was just center mass right in the chest. Good
shot. I didn't even think about that. I guess, like, is he laying down? Yeah, that's a good
question. I think they're filming up north to sort of simulate the environment for the Forges
of Solitude, which is actually really cool. I can't wait to see that. You think Superman
was digging around in the snow, making like an igloo type shelter to be his new fortress?
Right, he was making a snow angel, but he was giving it like a cape instead of wings. There
you go. I like the texture of the new costume. It's not quite as alien as the suit was for
Man of Steel, but it's definitely modern in its appearance. I actually thought the texture
and the colors actually were pretty similar to Man of Steel's. I think that's another reason
why I wasn't blown away by it. I kind of wish they would have gone with a different texture,
although which one I'd be hard pressed to say all in all, though, it just gets me that much
more excited to see that costume, considering that they started filming and they're filming
outside. Hopefully someone could get some behind the scenes spy picks because that would be
really cool. You don't want to spoil it for yourself. No, I do. I do. Coincidentally, they
started filming on February 29th. which is canonically Superman's birthday. They gave him the birthday
of February 29th to explain why he ages so slowly. Kind of a dumb reason, but also interesting
that they started filming on that day unintentionally. What do you think about the new title? Just
Superman? Are you surprised that James Gunn didn't include the in front of it, like the
Superman or the Suicide Squad or the Batman? No, because Superman's never been referred
to as the Superman. I call him the Superman sometimes. Yeah, but you're dumb. So, no, I
mean, when I think of like the old Richard Donner film, I don't think of that movie as Superman.
I think of that movie as Superman the movie, you know, with the subtitle. So for me, naming
this one Superman is probably James Gunn's way of making it the definitive Superman movie
for this generation, I would say. I think that is definitely a better title than something
like Man of Steel or Superman Returns or something like that. You know, if you're going to reboot
the franchise, just title it Superman. And that's totally what they did here and it makes sense.
The movie is not going to come out until July 11th, 2025. So they have a lot of shooting
to get through a lot of post-production to get through. And I'm really excited to see what
more information they're going to release now that they're shooting. But considering the
fact that the first thing they released of the film was the logo. That brings us to our question
of the week.
What is your favorite Superman logo and why? Yeah, this is across all film, all television,
all video games, all media basically, and comic books of course. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com
by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen,
which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message can be up to 30 seconds long,
and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our
favorite answer. and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that will post to Instagram.
Be sure to answer before March 9th.
But I believe that does it for all the news for this episode. Now let's move on to the
main event, where we review the 2003 Marvel film Hulk.
Hulk came out in 2003, directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam
Elliott, Nick Nolte, and Josh Lucas. Before I even get into it, because I have a lot to
say, here's your spoiler warning right up top. We'll be discussing plot elements from this
film that you won't want spoiled for you if you haven't seen the movie but still plan to.
I mean, the movie is over 20 years old at this point, but you know, if there are some of you
still looking to go on fresh, please pause this podcast, see it, and then come back. I ultimately
do recommend seeing the film, if only because it tried things that we've never really seen
in superhero cinema before. And there are some genuinely great Hulk moments in the movie.
Dude, I just suddenly felt really old. I did not realize that this movie is over 20 years
old. That is messed up for sure. I still remember seeing this movie during the midnight screening
while we were in high school. Damn it. It's almost like this movie is a classic now, right?
I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. Out of all the reviews we've ever done
and will ever do for this podcast, I've been the most trepidatious and conversely excited
to discuss this movie. Because from the moment I saw the teaser trailer for Hulk attached
to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie in theaters, you know, the one where Bruce Banner is shaving
and then we see his eye turn green and then his house erupts, you know? Right. My excitement
for this movie could not. be contained from that moment. I looked forward to the Hulk movie
more than any other superhero movie that preceded it. Now, this was 17-year-old Joseph who hadn't
learned to check his expectations yet. But I remember counting down the months until the
Hulk's release. And when it did come out, you and I had gotten a job at our local movie theater
and I knew I was going to be able to see the movie as many times as I wanted. And I did
end up seeing Hulk six times in theaters. I saw it with you, Jonathan, I saw it with our
siblings, with our parents, with some friends, and even a few times on my own. I remember
telling everyone about how fun it was and getting them hyped to see it, but then I remember the
look of disappointment in each of their eyes as we left the theaters. Like, none of them
liked it as much as I wanted them to. I still remember seeing this movie in theaters and
just like... From the opening music by Danny Elfman, it was just like this magical experience.
And even watching it again recently for this review, it took me all the way back there.
I don't know if it's a nostalgia thing, but it just made me really happy to be watching
this movie. Yeah, I mean, I agree that Danny Elfman's score, you know, was incredible. Recent
allegations aside, Danny Elfman is a superb film composer who has scored numerous films
from 1989's Batman to 2002's Spider-Man, even as recently as 2022's Doctor Strange and the
Multiverse of Madness. I think his work on The Hulk is his biggest departure and probably
my most favorite. Just like the sweeping orchestra with all the strange sounding instruments that
combine to create this really unique score. Real dark, yet still very powerful.
Um, in hindsight, I think I saw the film so many times in theaters because I wanted to
like it more than I did. And it was because I was so invested in the idea of the film being
incredible that I wasn't honest with myself that the film is really a mixed bag of absolutely
brilliant and horrible ideas. I truly appreciate the film for the vision and what it attempts,
but damn, it is a hard movie to sit through sometimes, I have to admit. Anyone who has
trouble sitting through this movie just has the worst attention span ever. That's not even
true. Like, I miss movies like this, honestly. I miss movies that sort of force you to pay
attention and have you sit and experience this art, you could say. Ang Lee is an auteur, hands
down. And this is a really beautiful movie. I mean, in terms of character depth and in
terms of artistic editing, the movie swings for the fences, which I 100% respect. But I
would say the film doesn't really hit a home run. As much as Ang Lee tries to bring his
own auteur sensibilities to the superhero genre, it doesn't fully work at least not in the way
general audiences would expect in a Hulk movie. And make no mistake, Ang Lee is an auteur.
Films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Life of Pi, all of his films are masterpieces. But
much in the way Chloe Zhao lost the point with Eternals and leaned too heavily into her own
thing about love for humanity. Ang Lee seemed less interested in the Hulk as a character
and more interested in the story of a man with repressed rage. On its own, that sounds fascinating,
but when it takes 40 minutes for us to even see the Hulk, when the second act doesn't start
until an hour 10 into the film, and when the climactic battle sputters into an unintelligible
mess, at that point you kinda start wishing for a more straightforward entertaining approach.
I mean- Okay, I will admit that the movie has some problems, but for me, they don't outweigh
the number of things that this movie does good in terms of direction, in terms of score, in
terms of acting and theme and story. Marvel tries so hard to make its characters tragic.
You know, it's like, oh, Spider-Man can't pay the rent. Oh, Iron Man is an alcoholic. Oh,
Captain America doesn't understand modern music. When it comes to the Hulk, though. He's like
next level tragic. It's like a Shakespearean tragedy that his story kind of has the weight
of, I feel. And Ang Lee did a masterful job of capturing that. There's no other way to
describe it. Now, I understand if fans of The Hulk don't like that approach and they just
want to see The Hulk destroy things and smash things, but to me I get so much more value
out of something like this 2003 Hulk film than a lot of what we've gotten from The Hulk later
on. I mean... You cannot discount the effort Ang Lee put into the why of the Hulk and the
psychology of the character. In the comics, Bruce Banner's backstory with his abusive father
was touched upon, but it was introduced in the books long after the character was. That is
to say, the psychology of how a man manifests his childhood trauma in the form of a rage-fueled,
tantrum-throwing monster is riveting, but it's not 100% necessary for the appeal of the character.
I mean, you look at The Incredible Hulk, or Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. Their relationship with
their fathers have no bearing on our enjoyment of the Hulk in the MCU, but exploring the depths
of a character's psychosis is to truly understand them, and understanding them makes them more
real and interesting. I think especially for a character like the Hulk as well. However,
it is possible to take that too far and to be too esoteric with it. For example, The theme
of dreams is heavily prevalent in this story. You know, a lot of Bruce's repressed feelings
are represented through dreams of the desert with symbols of his father's experimentation,
such as floating jellyfish and lizards, symbols of his mom, such as desert flowers and lichen.
That's all really interesting. But when you have a scene where Bruce dreams about Hulk
snatching Kim through a mirror while shaving, what was the point of that? You know, you have
Betty's dream slash memory of when she was a child living on the same desert as Bruce. I
have no idea what the purpose of her dream was. Like you could say that sequence served to
show her and Bruce's childhood ties. Right. While showing her subconscious uncomfortableness
with him and her recognition of something dark lurking within. Right. But that's all left
for interpretation. We don't know what happened to her as a child, or who that man really was,
or why the scene was necessary to begin with. You know, there's a lot in this film that can
and probably should have been left on the cutting room floor. No! Because, like, at some point
the psychological exploration becomes redundant. You know, from the very opening scene, the
audience already understands that something traumatic happened in his childhood. Dude,
that's the joy of watching the film on multiple passes. Like, finally understanding Betty's
dream on the third or fourth watch is part of the joy of it. You understand more about the
humanity of these characters and what they've gone through by watching this film multiple
times. Now... Like I said, I saw the film six times in theaters. I don't think I would recommend
to anybody that they need to watch this film multiple times. It's a long ass movie. It's
over 130 minutes long. Again, people complain about long runtimes. I say that's just more
bank for your buck. There are a lot of like montage-y scenes though that could have easily
been excised that seemed like they just included in the film because they spent the money and
resources to film it. Like a three minute sequence of Bruce being taken to the desert base or
the two minute scene of police and military just driving up and pointing their guns at
Bruce in San Francisco. Like literally nothing else happens there. The pacing of the film
has no drive and the editing has no semi-regard for its intended audience, people who really
would pay to see this movie. And I think the box office showed that the film was like a
success, but it wasn't a resounding success. When it comes to the editing. I understand
that it's not a tight cut, absolutely could have been tighter, but I think you have to,
as you mentioned earlier, 100% respect the ambition of the filmmakers at Tuck to invoke reading
a comic book, panel by panel. I mean sure, it's kind of like a double edged sword. I mean,
on one hand, The Hulk does things with the craft of editing that no other film has attempted
that I've seen then or since. There are some transitions here that are honestly mind-blowing.
Like when Bruce leans forward in front of a pict panel of a screen monitor, and it turns
out the monitor is in the frame after the transition. That's like, whoa! Right. Or like, when a split
screen of helicopters in the sky and Humvees on the ground are revealed to share the same
horizon. Or like, when the camera tracks Betty running in one direction with plants coming
into frame that are taken from a different shot of her entering from the other side. Like,
my jaw drops when I see stuff like that. That type of editing is so unique in narrative film.
On the other hand, like you said, Ang Lee also tried to convey the experience of reading comic
book panels by often showing multiple takes of a shot within the same frame. And I would
say not only is that experience not like reading a comic, it was probably the most annoying
editing I've ever seen. Like that type of film school experimental stuff has a place maybe,
but not in a film like this. Especially when the editor doesn't transition out of the panel
framing, like you have multiple shots in frame, and then it just snaps into one shot without
any flow. It's used very clumsily a lot in this movie. I mean, they say that editing is supposed
to be an invisible art form, right? If you notice it, then it's probably not good editing. But
there were so many times here, like you mentioned before, where certain elements and certain
panels move into other split screen panels and become a part of that shot that was just so
seamless. It's movie magic, man. It's incredible. I have no idea how they planned out. some of
these shots because you can't really storyboard for editing like this, I feel. So I don't know
how they even fathomed some of these transitions that are in this movie, but they're too ambitious
to just kind of dismiss. Like I remember being pissed off that the film wasn't even nominated
for an editing Oscar because it was unlike anything like you mentioned I've ever seen before. I
think it wasn't recognized for an Oscar because it has simultaneously some of the best and
worst editing ever and they couldn't discount like the re- ridiculous looking shots with
the really cool stuff that the film attempted. I feel like you feel that way about the movie
in general. Yeah, I mean, it's a mixed bag. Well, you're wrong. Like, I feel like you're
trying to make me dislike this movie, but you're just making me appreciate it like all the more.
I'm not trying to get you to dislike this movie. I'm just speaking truth. And if you want to
be blinded by nostalgia and weird reverse fanboyism, considering you're not even a Marvel fan, you
know, more power to you. but I think I'm speaking to a large portion of the audience who agrees
that this movie is a mixed bag. That being said, let's go ahead and move into our character
breakdown, starting with The Hulk, aka Bruce Banner, played by Eric Bana. I like Eric Bana.
I think he's a decent actor who did a commendable job in the role of Bruce. I think he nailed
the more psychological aspects of the character, especially his internal conflict. You know,
he's actually very skilled at portraying Bruce's inner rage that's boiling just under the surface.
What he's not that great at is at portraying external rage where he's like snarling and
shaking and roaring. But in his defense, I don't know a single adult actor that can pull off
that kind of temper tantrum behavior in a believable way. I think Ang Lee's direction didn't do
Eric Bana any favors when it came to those scenes because the actor came across as kind of ridiculous
in those moments. It did feel kind of forced on more than one occasion. I will agree. You
know, there's a reason why we never saw Edward Norton or Mark Ruffalo do that sort of over
the top rage acting. You know, with Norton, they had the heart rate monitor gimmick where
he conveyed more of a sense of panic as his transformation was imminent. And Ruffalo has
only had one angry transformation and that was during the helicarrier attack in the first
Avengers film. And by the time he was that angry, his transformation was already in progress,
which made sense. You know, if you're going to be that angry, you may as well already be
transforming. So I think Ang Lee didn't have a good sense on how to portray those transformation
scenes. And Eric Bana suffered for it coming across sometimes more like Mr. Furious from
the Mystery Men film. I mean, the whole cast is stellar and Eric Bana is probably the weakest
among the cast, unfortunately, but not to the point where it's detrimental to the film. I
still think he's. probably the best actor to portray the character, at least in this dramatic
kind of way. Well, he definitely had the most work with in terms of psychological depth,
right? Right. I don't think he's the weakest link in the cast. I think he's actually the
second weakest link, but we'll get to that later. Back on Bruce Banner, his arc is massive throughout
the film. It encompasses basically his entire life from when he was a child. He suffered
this incredibly tragic emotional trauma as a kid, witnessing his father murder his mother
causing him to grow up as this emotionally distant man who can't keep a relationship with the
woman he loves. Especially with Jennifer Connolly, what the hell? I know what dude Get your shit
together for real After his gamma accident brings his inner rage and trauma to the surface in
the form of the hulk His past is explored regarding his father which results in subsequent transformations
In the chaos that results Bruce finds comfort in the one person that truly cares for him,
Betty Ross, and he learns the person he loves but kept at a distance is the only one who
can save him. Great beautiful arc. On top of that, the revelations regarding his father
result in this uncertainty and fear of his own self, yet he gets simultaneous catharsis with
the therapeutic release of his inner anger in the form of the Hulk, hinting at sort of this
love-hate relationship with the beast within. It's psychologically complex stuff that really
highlights what's so fascinating about the comic book character. Yeah, and in a way that they
haven't been able to capture since, you know. Yeah, it's the best thing about the film. It's
what makes it the best Marvel movie. This is your favorite Marvel movie of all time? Yeah,
it's definitely up there, hands down. I can't think of another Marvel movie that is so, I
guess, interesting and not just entertaining for entertainment's sake. Like to me, this
is the closest thing that Marvel has to like true cinema. What about films like Black Panther
or The Winter Soldier? No, no. OK. You're crazy. No, I am not. You're talking crazy, man. Let's
talk about the Hulk himself, though. When the film first came out, I thought the design of
the CGI Hulk was perfection. And to be fair, you know, the CGI was really solid for the
time. And I think it still holds up today. You know, and there may be people who balk at that.
But I mean, like there are plenty of CGI characters in recent films, like, say, the Incredible
Hulk that wouldn't hold up to similar scrutiny. But in the years since 2003, Hulk came out.
The less I like the character design. I don't remember him being as green as he was. Yeah,
seeing him in 4K now is jarring because I remember him looking a lot more real. but I would agree
it's still better than a lot of what we see to this day. Like comparing this version of
the Hulk to some, you know, shoddy CG of the flash, my movie we got just last year. And
it's clear that they put a lot of work into this version of the Hulk. Oh yeah. Industrial
Light of Magic did an exceptional job, but you mentioned the color green. I agree. I don't
like the green that they chose even though when I first saw the movie, I thought it was spot
on, but now I see it and I'm like, it's too turquoise. You know, there's too much blue
in the mix. The skin tone should have been more olive or lime in its complexion like in the
other films. I almost wonder if they were going for something bioluminescent. I guess, but
it wasn't a good choice. It's not as believable as a skin color. I also think his face was
too babyish. And yes, I understand that the Hulk is a manifestation of Bruce's childhood
trauma, but when you compare those baby features to the badass version of the Incredible Hulk
or the very realistic Mark Ruffalo-esque version in the Avengers, 2003 Hulk just doesn't hold
up. Yeah, no, the Ruffalo Hulk is by far the superior version design wise of the Hulk because
it looks like the actor who's playing Kim. This version of the Hulk looks nothing like Eric
Bana, even though you can see a little bit of a hint of him in there. I actually think I
saw more of the child version of Bruce Banner in the Hulk this latest time I was watching
it. But yeah, like even the hairstyle is different. It's it's kind of strange. Yeah. Let's go to
move on to. Betty Ross who was played by Jennifer Connolly. Now I want to give a quick disclaimer.
Jennifer Connolly has been my childhood crush from the moment I first saw her in the Rocketeer
in theaters. And she's exceptional and flawless in any performance she's ever given. Moving
on to- And that's yeah, that's all you really have to say. That's all you really have to
say. No, I'll bias aside for the monument to grace and beauty that is Jennifer Connolly.
I thought she was a great Betty Ross. I think similar to Liv Tyler in the incredible Hulk
film. Her version of Betty exudes this dainty vulnerability that's suitable for a damsel
in distress, yet this strength of character that shows you she's so much more. I think
Jennifer Connelly is the heart and soul of this film. In some ways I feel like she's almost
like the protagonist in how much screen time she gets and just how good of a performance
she gives. She played in this film right after winning an Oscar for her performance in A Beautiful
Mind, and it totally shows. Like she did so much more with this character than I think
was even on the page. Yeah, I mean, they're almost the same roles, weren't they? Kind of.
Yeah. Pretty similar type characters. Yeah. She did a phenomenal job and you look at even
small things like the difference in how she acted with Bruce with that sensitive intelligence
and poise comparing that to how she acted with her father, the general, full of nervous anxiety.
You know, it was all just very convincing and grounded. Right. Absolutely. Let's go ahead
and move on to General Thaddeus Ross aka Thunderbolt who was played by Sam Elliott. Sam Elliott
is a talented actor and I thought he pulled off a convincing adaptation of the character
from the source material. Like this dude clearly has anger issues but not in a cigar chomping
caricature of what anger issues look like in the comics. But he totally comes across as
a dude who's clearly been through some stuff managing this military base and you know he's
aging and just generally sick of your shit, Jonathan. I'll say this though, he has the
most severely trimmed mustache I've ever seen in my entire life in this movie. Like why did
he need to trim it so much? It's already mustache shaped. Like just leave it alone, bro. I mean,
I think it was fitting for the character. He's a military guy. He doesn't need to be the best
looking guy in the room. You know, all he needs to do is exactly what he did in the movie and
just like be really pissed off and just have like this commanding presence, which he totally
sold. You know, I've had debates on our Discord whether Sam Elliott or William Hertz gave a
better Thunderbolt Ross performance. And to me, it's laughable that you could even compare
William Hertz performance to Sam Elliott's. Sam Elliott just did, in my opinion, such a
better job and more believable job. And I think he's absolutely the superior version. Totally
disagree that William Hertz's character can't be compared to Sam Elliott's because I think
they both did a phenomenal job. No. No, like William Hurt was like jokey and like aloof.
Yeah. Like when he's in the bar like, Oh, like Tony Stark. No, Sally would not behave in that
manner. He's a fucking officer and a gentleman. OK, calm down, Richard Gere. Let's go to move
on to the absorbing man, a David Banner played by Nick Nolte. I have no idea what to say about
Nick Nolte's portrayal. Like his role is so unlike the absorbing man, but it seems very
in tune with Brian Banner, who is Bruce Banner's dad in the comics. If you took away everything
about how the comic character looked and acted and then made it 100% more like Nick Nolte.
In fact, I'm pretty sure Nick Nolte wasn't even acting here. I think he was just on a drug
field bender that he tried to kill Eric Banner. Jeez. And they filmed it. I thought he did
a fantastic job. I mean, I loved it up until he became the absorbing man. Honestly, as cool
as that looked and as cool as they like depicted that, I kind of wish that they didn't do that
to the character. I understand you need like a super villain with super powers to go up
against the Hulk, but Nick Nolte was menacing enough when he didn't have powers in my opinion.
Not really, he was just this like dude who needed a shower. Oh my gosh. Did a few too many experiments
on himself with drugs, like both the legal and illegal kind. I don't know what to say to that.
You're you're wrong. I thought you gave a great performance and he totally pulled off like
all of the scientific jargon and everything like that, that the role required. He was meant
to be unhinged. What did you think of him suddenly going all Megalo maniacal in the final scene
that he had? Oh yeah, that's an interesting scene. I understand that he was like mad at
the military, but I'm not sure where the whole Yeah, let's take over the world and stuff the
military from controlling our lives kind of angle came from Yeah, he kind of became like
this weird conspiracy theorists like wanting to tear down flags and governments and stuff
like that It was kind of out of left field. Let's go to move on to Major Glenn Talbot played
by Josh Lucas Now Josh Lucas is a good actor. Just not at all in this movie I don't know
if he was directed to give the most cartoon villain performance ever here, but he gave
it his best shot regardless I thought it was interesting how they made Major Glenn Talbot
from the comics into an ex-military civilian contractor for a science corporation here.
They did keep some things like he still pined for Betty Ross and it seemed like maybe they
had a past together, but none of that was really explored. I guess I did misspeak earlier when
I said that Eric Bana was kind of the weakest link in this ensemble because I would agree
Josh Lucas was worse. Honestly, I'm not even sure how he got the job. I wonder if it was
maybe because he knew Jennifer Connelly from A Beautiful Mind or what. but yeah, I think
he was miscast. He was kind of a rising star at the time. We don't quite see him in as much
stuff anymore. True. I do think the character was done real dirty the way he went out, you
know, having the M2 rocket ricochet off the Hulk and then blast him into this like cardboard
cutout. That was weird. That was definitely one of the film's less successful transitions.
I don't know. I think it was meant to kind of be humorous. Like when I shot up. Oh, shut
up. Okay, all right. No, you're going too far. You're just defending everything now. And you've
got to be realistic. You gotta be. Even when I watched it with my girls, they were like,
ha ha. And we just moved on. No one complained about it. You're just a complainer. Now, like,
do you like entertainment or do you not? You just like to complain about things. No, I don't.
I call things out as they exist. I do think it would have been interesting to have Talbot
be more of a soldier than a scientist and like pilot one of the helicopters that were trying
to take the Hulk out, because I think that would have been more in keeping with the comics.
and would have given a more human face to the Hulk versus the army struggle. A great rendition
of Major Glenn Talbot was done in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show who I thought
was very true to character compared to this Josh Lucas version. Yeah, I mean, I don't know
too much about the character from the comics, but I'm guessing the character is better in
the comics or anywhere else but this movie. That brings us to the end of the character
breakdown. Let's go ahead and move into the story highlights.
fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself
for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The Dynamike Podcast
Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday. Comic Book
Titans smash every Tuesday. Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday.
And Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on
the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious.
Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score.
In the late 1960s, military researcher David Banner experiments on his own DNA in his attempts
to strengthen the human immune system. He's terrified of what those experiments could mean
when his wife becomes pregnant and gives birth to their son Bruce, who is born with some sort
of genetic mutation that manifests during emotional distress. While trying to find a cure, Colonel
Thunderbolt Ross shuts down David's research, causing him to lash out and destroy the military
desert base with its gamma nuclear reactor. and then attempt to kill Bruce, inadvertently
murdering his wife in the process. This part of the story was done mostly over the opening
credits to the film, which again were fantastic. I thought it was a really effective montage
sequence that to this day, yeah, still blows my mind in how inventive and unique it is.
Yeah, sort of like a masterclass on how to effectively tell a story through montage. Like no words
were needed. Of course they had, you know, notes scribbled on a notepad. But even ignoring those,
for the most part, you got the gist of what was going on. Yeah, really effective. It's
also just a great setup for a story. I mean, there's like this mad science kind of aspect
to it. And from the get go, it sets up the tragedy of Bruce Banner's life. For sure. Although
I really do hate the scene where teenage Bruce wakes up in a sweat from his dream and like
his mom comes in and she's like, another nightmare. And then she's like, you're so special. It's
like, shut up, mom. Can add here. He's like, yes, I had a bad dream. I wasn't jerking off.
What was my nightmare about? I don't remember. As he hides magazine under his mattress.
Uh, in the present day, Bruce works in Berkeley, California as a researcher in cellular regeneration.
After a technical glitch in one of his experiments, he is bombarded with lethal exposure to gamma
radiation, but he survives. While in the hospital, the lab's new janitor reveals to Bruce that
he is his father, David, and the reason he survived was due to a mutation. While coping with David's
news and looking into his own DNA, Bruce receives word that his research is likely going to be
seized by the military. Enraged, Bruce turns into the Hulk and destroys his lab. Holy cow,
you just blew over so many minutes of runtime right there. And that's really how simple it
needed to be, honestly. You know, we see almost the span of a week go by from when we're first
introduced to the adult Bruce Banner to the time that he turns into the Hulk. And many
of the events that happened across those nights could have been condensed into the span of
one evening and one night. There's just too much needless shit. Yeah, I mean, again, the
film could be tighter, absolutely. Who wrote the movie? James Seamus, along with a few other
credited writers. Has he written anything else of note? Yeah, he does a lot of work with Ang
Lee. Huh. I really like the scientific setup that they had for Bruce getting bombarded by
the gamma radiation. I thought it was a great modern update where, you know, instead of.
working with this nuclear device, Bruce was experimenting with nanomeds and that gamma
sphere that in real life is used to observe gamma rays, but in this movie it like projected
them. It was all really cool. Yeah, I mean, the whole thing felt very believable. Like
I've never been to Berkeley, I don't know anyone who's studied at Berkeley or done research
there, but it felt like a legit research team and lab. Yeah, for sure. I think that was due
in part because Ang Lee's wife is a scientist, if I remember that correctly. And she was a
consultant on all that stuff. Oh, nice. What did you think of the Hulk's first transformation?
I thought it was kind of stupid. The first major catalyst that turns him into the Hulk was tripping
over a bucket of water. I thought that was kind of ridiculous. But then the way they portrayed
his transformation where he's like digging into the wall and slowly growing, and you don't
really get to see him because it's so dark and everything like that, I thought that was handled.
really well seeing the Hulk for the first time trash the lab, throw the gamma sphere out of
the building and jump through the roof of the building and all that stuff. Phenomenal. I
mean, if I stepped in a bucket of water and almost tripped, I'd be pretty upset too. I'm
just saying. But no, I mean, a lot of this first scene we see with him is in the dark, which
I'm sure helped with the special effects, but also kept like an air of mystery around the
character. It was a great teaser for what was to come. I agree. Yeah. There is one thing
I want to mention real quick. Their assistant in their lab. Why the hell not just name him
Rick Jones? I don't fucking know, man. You should have been named Rick Jones. Like who's this
Harper guy? Back to the movie. Betty finds Bruce unconscious at his home the next morning. Her
father, General Thunderbolt Ross arrives and places Bruce on house arrest, causing Betty
to visit with David to learn what's going on. He steals her scarf for her scent. And later
that night, sixes gamma mutated dogs on her. calling Bruce to tell him what he did. Angered,
Bruce transforms into the Hulk and smashes his military guards, escaping house arrest to Betty's
cabin. Hulk fights and kills the Gamma Dogs to protect Betty, who learns what Bruce has
become. Ah, the infamous Gamma Dogs. Yeah, the Hulk Dogs are actually an element from the
comics. There was a brief storyline where Hulk went up against a bunch of Gamma-irradiated
pit bulls who had spiked collars and everything. Totally worked in the comics. did not work
in this movie. I think maybe because they used other breeds like French poodles and stuff
like that, which just made the whole thing seem a little bit more ridiculous. I think if David
Banner owned pit bulls exclusively, it might've seemed like more of a less cheesy fight. That
being said, the way he demolished those dogs was pretty epic. Yeah, they kind of just exploded
in a cloud of green, which makes sense because you don't want to show actual exploding dogs.
And I guess they were unstable, apparently. Yeah. The next day... Betty contacts her father,
whose men incapacitate and capture Bruce, taking him to their desert base. There, Betty tries
to help Bruce overcome his childhood trauma, believing his emotional distress is triggering
his transformations. Meanwhile, David uses Bruce's research on himself, recreating the lab accident
and transforming himself into the absorbing man, capable of taking on the properties of
whatever he touches. Using his new powers, he kills a lab security guard.
back to his childhood home. I like the cinematography particularly in the shot because you can tell
they used natural lighting. And I thought it was a great bit of mystery that was being uncovered
there. I mean, the audience was largely clued in on to what the mystery was. Obviously something
happened to his parents within that room. And so your mind automatically goes to, you know,
his father killed his mother. But I thought it was one of the best scenes of Eric Banner's
acting. when you could see the emotional distress that he was in just being in the house and
approaching the door where it all happened. Yeah, he was afraid of it, right? Yeah. And
I think throughout the whole film, they did a good job of sort of setting up the intrigue
of what happened behind that door. Again, I watched this with my family this last round
and it was the first time any of them had ever seen any of it. And yeah, they were like edge
of their seats waiting to find out what exactly happened. What did you think of the scene where
David Banner becomes the absorbing man? You know, like he cuts his hand and you see the
blood turn into like this jellyfish thing and then heal itself like a starfish and then take
on the properties of the metal steel girder that was there. I remember that stuff being
like so mind trippy in the theater when I first saw the film. It still is. I mean, it still
does not look CG. It looks real to me. And such a unique I think way to portray the absorbing
man's powers. Like you compare that to the absorbing man in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television
show who was much more comic accurate, but I think lacked a little bit of the wonder with
how his power set was presented in this movie. Just like the way his hand was like merged
with that blue iron, whatever the hell that was, but just hearing it squeak against like
his molecules against that, it was incredible. Yeah, great sound design for sure. And the
way he killed the guard by merging his foot with the metal grating underneath and also
merging with the electrical panel beside him, it was pretty inventive and pretty brutal.
Like honestly, with powers like that, I'd be like, you know, I'm fine. Like, I don't need
my son and his Hulk power to like power me up even more. Like, this is hella dope already.
Yeah. Yeah, he got greedy. He just wanted more power. Betty's work with Bruce is cut short
by the private research company Atheon, led by former Army Major Glenn Talbot who wants
to weaponize the Hulk. Talbot triggers a transformation by Bruce into the Hulk who proceeds to destroy
the base with Talbot getting killed in the process. Hulk escapes out into the desert where Thunderbolt
attempts to destroy him using tanks and helicopters. Meanwhile David visits Betty telling her that
he will turn himself in if she can get her father to arrange one last meeting with Bruce. This
whole scene from when he transforms into the Hulk is one huge long action scene. Like, it's
incredibly long. I don't know if it needed to be that long, because as cool as like the escape
from the military base was, once he's out in the desert, it starts to feel a little repetitive.
And I know that those scenes are probably what everyone loves about the movie, but to me that's
where the movie got kind of boring. That's so weird. It's so weird that you're knocking the
few scenes that people actually really love about this film. You know, Hulk going up against
the tanks and going up against the helicopters, throwing tanks to the horizon and chomping
on missiles and spitting them out, stuff like that. That was everything every Hulk fan ever
wanted to see. In that sense, this Hulk movie absolutely delivered. I mean, it's not all
bad. It's not, it's all good. What do you mean it's not all bad? It's all fucking fantastic.
I feel like it goes on for like half an hour though. Like he jumps away and then they find
him again and then he jumps away and then they find him again. There is no limit to how much
audiences, I think, enjoy seeing the Hulk smash stuff. That's really what they came to see
and I think that's why a lot of audiences were disappointed in this film. Again, I understand.
I just think that audiences are wrong. That's not the most interesting thing about the Hulk.
The only thing I didn't like about these scenes was the jumping physics. You know Hulk has
the ability to leap vast distances and while I'm no expert It did seem like the animated
physics of that were off I thought they were much more believable in other films, especially
like the Avengers film where you saw the Hulk taking on the Chitauri There it really seemed
like he had weight in half to him in the way that he moved and in the way that he landed
Here it was almost like he was floating like he was a an inflatable balloon or something
Back to the movie, after evading a destruction by the army, Hulk makes his way to San Francisco,
where Betty confronts him and causes him to revert back to Bruce. Taken to a military base
outside the city, Bruce and David meet while confined to a device meant to incinerate them
with an electromagnetic array if the Hulk comes out. David reveals to Bruce that his cells
have transformed too, and he requests to absorb the Hulk's power in order to destroy the military
and the government. and David bites into a high voltage cable, transforming into electricity,
and zapping himself and the Hulk out of the base. The San Francisco scene was pretty interesting.
The moment where Hulk is taken up into the upper atmosphere by a jet that he jumped on to save
the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, one, it was interesting because it was one of the few actually heroic
actions the Hulk performs in the film. Right. But two, it just seemed like a very epic...
moments to have this pilot attempting to carry this monster out into space. Right, yeah. So
before starting the movie, my youngest daughter, Faith, she asked me if the Hulk was a good
guy or a bad guy, because she didn't know. Because I guess he comes across, you know, as a little
bit scary. Yeah. And I had a hard time answering that question, especially in setup for this
film. I think the scene of him saving the Golden Gate Bridge is important in terms of making
him come across like a hero. but I also think it felt kind of tacked on to the story just
for that purpose. And I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. To me, this isn't
a superhero movie so much as just a comic book movie about the story of this tragic figure.
I would say that the Hulk is a monster who is feared, but he's not bad and capable of heroic
actions. Sometimes his actions get confused with villainy. And of course he causes a lot
of property damage, but in the few instances that he has caused civilian casualties, it's
always been a real tragic moment for the character. Yeah. What did you think of the falling dream
sequence where Bruce is back to shaving and then he busts through the mirror? Well, like
you mentioned before, it's kind of a silly scene. Honestly, I feel like they put that in the
movie because of how well received the teaser for the film was. Because it was essentially
the same scene except instead of his house exploding, he just kind of crashes into the water. It
seems like they knew the fans wanted to hear the Hulk say something and they just didn't
know where to insert a shot of him saying puny banner. So they were like, why don't we just
stick it in this moment where he's falling? And all of a sudden, you know, it's like a
dream sequence. That's probably literally what happened. Totally weird. The shot where David
Banner bites into the electric cable and turns into this electric monster. I actually thought
that they were merging the character of Absorbing Man and Zax, who is a Hulk villain composed
entirely out of electrical energy. And I was really glad to see the Absorbing Man taking
on other things too, like stone and water. Yeah. But back to the story. The Hulk and Absorbing
Man land at a desert lake where the two fight. Though Hulk smashes David's rock form, his
water form pulls Hulk underwater. Hulk resists his power being absorbed, but eventually acquiesces.
letting his father absorb all his energy. The absorbing man finds the power too much to contain
however and balloons into an unstable mass. Meanwhile, General Thunderbolt Ross orders
the two to be bombed with a gamma explosive and Bruce and David are presumed dead. What
did you think of the end fight? I think this was sort of a precursor to showing why Cloud
villains don't really work. By that I mean villains like Galactus in the Fantastic Four, Rise of
the Silver Surfer, parallax in the Green Lantern movie. They just become so inhuman and unintelligible
in form for audiences to really understand or care about what's going on. It makes me wonder
what would have happened to David Banner if he wasn't in a liquid state as he was absorbing
all of Hulk's energy. Like what if he was still in rock form? What would he have looked like
as he became unstable? Probably like a huge massive green glowing rocks almost like Kryptonite,
I guess. But I still don't think his form would have been able to handle all of the power.
I liked the idea of it, and I think it maybe worked on paper, but visually towards the end,
after the rock transformation, it was very abstract. I was under the interpretation that he did
give his dad all of his power, but once the gamma bomb went off, it kind of re-triggered
the Hulk's mutation, I guess. Exposed it to him again? You could be correct in that regard.
Maybe the additional gamma exposure made Hulk... more of a dark green and gave him an anime
haircut and transformed Eric Banner into more of a Edward Norton looking guy. Over time.
Back to the movie though, one year later General Thunderbolt Ross calls Betty to see if she's
seen or heard from Bruce since the incident and Betty tells him she wouldn't say even if
she had. Meanwhile, Bruce is revealed to be alive, hiding out in the Amazon rainforest
as a medical camp doctor. When confronted by soldiers seeking to steal his supplies, He
warns them that they wouldn't like him when he's angry. And that's the end of the film.
So all in all, Jonathan, I think you like this movie way too much. Hell yeah I do. I think
history will prove you, actually I already think history has proven you wrong. While the film
has a cult following, it's largely derided as inferior to the MCU version of the Hulk. And
yeah, you're just wrong. You're just wrong. I mean, not everything could be MCU candy-coated
fucking jokes every five seconds. I miss Marvel films like this. It just takes itself seriously
and it's done so well and it's so cinematic. The way they made Betty and Bruce, almost like
star-crossed lovers with like the feuding fathers and stuff like that, again, Shakespearean.
It's just so good and nothing like it has been done since in Marvel. I mean, there's Logan,
of course, but that's probably the exception. What about the Eternals? I would say that the
Eternals movie is highly comparable in its approach. Mm, no, the Eternals is just a rip off of the
Justice League. Like the Hulk is like an original good character. OK. Like there were a lot of
people who didn't like my favorite movie of all time. 2001, a space odyssey. I don't listen
to the haters. I know what's good. There's a difference between objective quality and subjective
feelings. I think you confuse your subjective feelings for objective quality. But again,
when you look beyond just the entertainment value of the film, when you look at the gorgeous
direction, the ambitious editing, the stellar performances, and the Shakespearean level story,
those things are objectively good. I'm sorry it wasn't as Ban-Pow, Smash as you wanted.
There's other films for that, other Hulk films, but I think this is an important piece of comic
book cinema. And, you know, saying you didn't like it isn't going to convince me otherwise.
I'm not saying I didn't like it. You say it's objectively good. I say it's objectively mixed.
There's definitely some problems with the film. The film's artistic ambition, psychological
explorations and fun action get largely lost in its unnecessarily long runtime and unconventional
editing style. I'm going to rate the film three stars out of five, a fresh rating on Rotten
Tomatoes. because for as mixed as the movie is, I would still recommend people seeing it,
if only because, as I mentioned before, it does something unique within the genre. Absolutely,
and I love seeing that because I've seen so many superhero films and it's nice to see when
a filmmaker swings for the fences and mostly succeeds. I think three stars is harsh. I would
give this four stars actually, which is the same rating I would give Man of Steel. Well,
I mean, Man of Steel was rated way too high by you. But also I don't think this Hulk movie
was superior to The Incredible Hulk, which came out in 2008, starring Edward Norton. And that
movie we gave three and a half stars. This falls right in line with what I like to call the
objective reality scale, not Jonathan's bullshit scale. Oh my gosh. If you want honest Marvel
reviews, guys, check out our star ratings for those films. If you want bullshit DC reviews
that are always about a star too high, check out our DC reviews. A star too high? What?
No. That does it for this review guys, let us know what you thought about the movie by writing
to us at dyna or by visiting us on Instagram, which you can find a link to on our show notes
or by visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site you can also find a link to
our Patreon page where you can join our Dynamic 2.0 tier and chat with us and fellow listeners,
our Fantastic 4 tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our X-Force tier that makes you
an executive producer of this podcast, or our newest tier. that lets you join our Dynamike
Podcast Network. And don't forget guys to rate this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser,
or on our website. In our next episode, we are doing our team duel of the Legion of Doom against
the Masters of Evil, the latter team of which includes Absorbing Man, who is of course the
villain in this Hulk movie. It's going to be an epic battle. It's basically the evil version
of the Justice League against the evil version of the Avengers. It's going to be awesome.
We look forward to that next week. That does it for this episode. We want to give a big
thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John Strausky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcombe,
Miggie Mathingian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatin, Austin Wazilowski, AJ Dunkerley,
Scott Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Schunk, and Dean Molesky for helping make this podcast
possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. up and away. True believers.