Movie & Music

When Bruce Banner gets angry enough to morph into the huge green creature, he's little more than a wild animal driven by the survival instinct against whoever torments him.

There seems to be very little semblance of rationality in anything the Hulk does, and he strikes back driven by blind rage.

Director Louis Leterrier establishes that quite early and very clearly.

As the U.S. Army zeroes in on the fugitive Banner, they awaken the Hulk and all he does is strike back at those who make him change.

As the story unfolds, Banner is in Brazil to find a cure for his affliction and to escape Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt).

Ross wants Banner back so the government can refine the procedure that affected him and weaponize it into a super soldier.

As characters inspired by comics go, there really isn't a whole lot to have to understand here. This is a chase movie, pure and simple.

The government wants something from Banner, and it is going to hunt him down until the government gets what it wants.

Just as we're understanding the rules, though, they are changed for the worse.

A soldier meant to bring Banner in has a similar treatment so he can fight the vagaries of advancing age and to combat the Hulk on a more level playing field.

This soldier, played by Tim Roth, becomes a more sinister threatening creature.

Banner then takes it upon himself to do battle with this new creature and somehow is able to channel a sense of right and wrong and carry that through his metamorphosis into the Hulk.

But where or how did this happen?

How was it that the Hulk, who was once pure brute force without reason, suddenly developed the ability to apply such force toward more constructive purposes?

There is the suggestion that a botched experimental procedure was the reason, but I'm not buying it.

This film is meant to be enjoyed on a very basic level, where everything is very clearly mapped out. Why would the director become so vague at one point?

This is a rather unsettling change, one that lacks sufficient explanation. And I imagine it will leave more than a few audience members scratching their heads as they leave the theaters.

Marvel Studios really has done well with the Spider-Man franchise and hit a home run in May with the release of "Iron Man."

The Hulk is one of the comic company's least developed characters, and the story that it's packaged with is about as basic and unsophisticated as the creature itself.

What made "Iron Man a huge success was screenwriting that could hold its own against the beautiful special effects. You don't get that here.

After the first film, the disappointing "Hulk" by Ang Lee, I'm not sure why this franchise had to be resurrected. And I'm not convinced there needs to be any more attempts.