{"id":1190,"date":"2008-06-20T18:23:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2008\/06\/20\/sex-and-the-incredible-hulk\/"},"modified":"2008-06-20T18:23:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-21T01:23:00","slug":"sex-and-the-incredible-hulk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2008\/06\/20\/sex-and-the-incredible-hulk\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex and the Incredible Hulk"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NOT<\/span> what you think<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Despite my earlier protestations, D and I were both won over by the Scene Unseen<\/a> review and actually paid good money to see Sex and the City<\/span> last night.* A week ago, we took D’s family out to see The Incredible Hulk<\/span>. It may surprise you to learn that these two movies share many similarities! Well, maybe two. Would you believe three vowels and a consonant?**<\/p>\n

But seriously, folks… both movies actually do begin the same way, with a fast-cutting “our story thus far” montage. With Sex<\/span>, it’s a collection of clips from the HBO series which (re)introduces the four main characters and explains their current life situations–married, with children, etc.<\/span> For Hulk<\/span>, it’s a high-energy retcon that erases the first, Ang Lee movie<\/a> and establishes that Bruce Banner has been on the run for several years, hulking out periodically while eluding capture by the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

Fashion is also an issue in both films. Carrie Bradshaw is very particular about her wedding dress, and Bruce Banner is very particular about his stretchy pants.<\/p>\n

That’s about where the similarities end. I have to admit that Sex<\/span> was the better movie, even for a straight man with little interest in handbags<\/a>. It was just a better show, featuring well-drawn characters in a solid story that weaves all their lives together. Maybe because of its TV roots, and perhaps because they didn’t want to screw up the franchise, it’s clear that a lot of energy went into writing<\/span> this movie and protecting its heart. There are themes, there are callbacks and parallels, there is solid structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hulk<\/span>, on the other hand, shows obvious signs of its story having been gutted by a contentious post-production period. Edward Norton didn’t get official screen credit for his work on the screenplay (though he is credited in the novelization<\/a>), and scuttlebutt says most of his contributions–including an opening sequence in the Arctic, which you may have glimpsed in the trailer<\/a>–were scrapped. I don’t believe the final battle would have seemed any less like a video game (an effect heightened when you see it in digital projection), but it might have had a better setup. It’s like Joss Whedon says:<\/a> “The problem with the third act is the first two acts.”<\/p>\n

~CKL<\/p>\n

* I quote my wife: “We listened to that damn podcast, and now I totally have a hard-on for Sex and the City<\/span>.” Direct quote.<\/p>\n

** That’s my little Get Smart<\/span> homage, which I understand from reviews<\/a> is on par with how much the new movie has to do with the original TV series. Oh well.
<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NOT what you think) Despite my earlier protestations, D and I were both won over by the Scene Unseen review and actually paid good money to see Sex and the City last night.* A week ago, we took D’s family…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}