Josh Lucas Says Ang Lee's HULK is a "Super Underrated" Marvel Movie
Back in 2003, before Marvel became the giant movie-making machine that they are, Ang Lee directed Hulk. This is a Marvel movie that isn’t talked about enough! Hulk was a damn fine film and it’s still unlike any other comic book film that has been made.
I loved this movie when I first saw it, and every time I watch it, I tend to like it and appreciate it even more. It’s just such a unique movie and I’ve always believed that it’s severely underrated. It’s an ambitious take on the Marvel character and what made the film so amazing was its boldness in pushing the boundaries of what was expected from a superhero movie, both in terms of its storytelling and its visual style.
One of the film’s stars, Josh Lucas feels the same way, and when asked about it in a recent interview with CB, the actor said:
"Man, I love that movie too. I'll tell you what, I also agree with you that it's super underrated. I haven't seen a comic book movie that does the way he [Lee] flips pages. He really was trying to take the film and mix it with the idea of you flipping and looking at a comic book."
He added:
"Ang Lee is a massive artist and he's an auteur filmmaker that got handed the keys to the kingdom of Marvel way early before Marvel was Marvel and he tried to bring something super artful to it. There's an idea of the way plant organisms work on the body and cell structures and all these ideas he's playing with visually. I think Nick Nolte's performance in that movie is epic and as good of a bad guy in film history.
Lucas (Yellowstone) played Talbot in the movie, a character who was looking to take down Eric Bana’s Bruce Banner. The Marvel movie explores the origins of Bruce Banner, a scientist who becomes the Hulk after an experiment goes wrong. Unlike many other superhero movies, the film takes its time to explore the psychological and emotional complexities of its hero. Lee's approach to the material is more character-driven and focuses on the inner turmoil and personal demons of Bruce Banner.
Lee also made some bold choices when it came to the film's visual style. Rather than relying solely on traditional special effects, the film utilized a variety of techniques, including CGI, live-action footage, and comic book-style split-screens, to create a unique and immersive cinematic experience. The result was a film that felt like a living comic book, with vivid, colorful imagery and dynamic action sequences that popped off the screen.
The movie was ahead of its time, and in a previous interview, Lucas discussed the brilliance of Lee as well as the technological limitations they were working with at the time, saying:
"If people ask me who my favorite directors are, I almost invariably will tell you my number one is Ang. I don't use this word genius, but I think he's truly up there as a, if not brilliant, genius filmmaker. Like you say, he was swinging for the rafters on [Hulk]. I don't think the technology was quite where his brain was. And if you look at what he did with Life of Pi, he was able to hit it out of the park.
"I think the technology evolved, and he's one of the people who pushed the technology to evolve. I know he was pushing the team of people who were on the CGI of Hulk to make something that, technically, maybe wasn't capable of being at the level he wanted it yet. And so I think he was very frustrated with that movie by not being able to get what he wanted and what was in his brain.
"But I also agree with you, the way he was morphing, the way pages were flipping. I mean, he was creating a visual comic book, and I haven't seen anybody do it quite the same way he was doing it -- think about it, that's 20 years ago, right? So, there's an incredible auteur filmmaker beneath this monster, an early Marvel movie. I have nothing but respect for it."
If you haven’t watched Lee’s Hulk in awhile, you should revisit it! If you’ve never seen it, you need to watch it! What are your thoughts on this classic Hulk movie?