By now, I’m sure we’ve all seen the new trailer with the CGI Hulk. My take: it’s not bad, but I’d agree with the folks who think he looked a little too fake. I personally thought he was a little too bulky, too fluid, and not unlike the product of splicing Arnold Schwartzenegger with Shrek.
To the filmmaker’s credit: we still have six months until the release of the film. I assume that the CGI guys will be working around the clock until the film’s release, continually touching up the images to get it “just right.”
Or am I giving them too much credit? What’s the poll, folks: will the CGI Hulk suck or rock?
The thing about The Hulk is that he’s one of the most powerful creatures in the Marvel universe. Bullets don’t work on him (or Banner, for that matter; once Banner tried to kill himself by shooting a bullet into his mouth . . . the next panel, the Hulk just spat it out). He can jump high enough to catch planes in the air.
I don’t think it’s wrong to make him fast. It’s possible to be bulky without being muscle-bound. And being muscular is kind of the point of the Hulk: this enormous monster is what’s hiding in wiry Bruce Banner.
The example of quality CGI that’s tracked out these days is Gollum, who was an admittedly great effect. However, Gollum had the advantage of being a regular sized character who was doing more or less regular sized things. Yes, he was crawling around on the ground or on rocks like a reptile, but by and large his actions and movements were smaller scale and molded on a real person. Strikes me (as someone untutored in the art) that this would be a wee bit easier to polish than someone who is doing things that are quite impossible (like throwing a tank). The CGI Hulk certainly seems to capture the power of the Marvel Hulk and, to that extent, I do like the look.
I will agree that it looks way too fake. I certainly hope they take the next several months to tweak it, but the stuff he was doing looked very neat (i.e., flipping the Abrams).
I watched the trailer again, and the big complaint I have now:
The first scene where you get a good look at his face…he looks like a baby! He’s got a cute button nose, big pouty lips, and puppy dog eyes…not quite the expression of severe anger and rage one would think.
Like bup said, I’m sure it will look a hell of a lot better on the big screen, but from the trailer, I’m a little dissappointed.
I don’t know why they can’t get movement right yet with CGI. You would think it’s do-able by now. They just can’t portray a being of mass jumping up and down without capturing the feeling of real gravity. Spiderman got close to it, but didn’t quite make it.
Gollum was closer, but still just a tad off, despite the real-actor framework.
I hope they hone the Hulk to look better than it did in that preview.
If we’re thinking of the same thing, I agree to the extent that the Hulk looks too “cute.” On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to be a rage-oriented scene. Remember, in the comics, even the rampaging Hulk tended to have his tender moments (usually when somebody wasn’t shooting at him). In that regard, a “baby”-looking Hulk isn’t necessarily awful.
I have to say that at this point I’m slightly less concerned about the CGI quality than about the fact that the Hulk does, indeed, appear to be wearing the purple pants. I mean, there is such a thing as being too faithful to the source material. Lou Ferrigno, they never made him wear the purple pants (I think; pretty sure I would have remembered that). So how is the movie going to justify this? Does Bruce Banner have some kind of alternative lifestyle we don’t want to know about?
I dunno… I guess I must not be hanging with a geeky enough crowd. Dang, who’d a’ thunk? I guess I’m just a big poser.
Or maybe…maybe I’m not even cool enough for the geeks! Could it be that I’m some kind of uber-geek, outcast and scorned even among wearers of purple stretch denim?
one of the (relatively) recent Hulk comics (i.e. one you could see on dotComics) had a panel where some kids were making fun of Bruce Banner for wearing purple pants.
Comic book coloring seems to have evolved a lot from when the color schemes were developed (some of them seem to even be raytracing elements of it). I think they have a broader range now, and are fighting to subtly change to more realistic colors. But no matter how you shade it, purple is purple.
Personally, I find it amazing that he can get so big without his pants bursting. I can barely eat an extra slice without the button popping off my jeans at near fatal velocities. And then when he turns into Banner again- I’m pretty sure the pants wouldn’t shrink back. He’d be so embarrassed to be naked, he’d probably hulk out again…
Umm… Lets try to keep perspective. Any 10 foot tall, 900 lb. green guy is going too look fake. Keep in mind, the last special efffect was… a guy painted green. Everyone seems to have way higher standards than I do. Comic movies were made to break fan-boy hearts. The special effects will be OK for the most part, exceptional at times, lame at others, the same as the CGI in spiderman or the latest Star Wars movies.
I am not a fan of the “Hulk” commic books. I remember the ‘Hulk’ TV show. My biggest problem with the ad, besides the shoddy CGI, was the fact that the Hulk was large. I don’t mean Lou Fereginoeneno, or however you spell that, large but the Hulk was like 20 feet tall large.
The Hulk, in the ads I saw, was too big. It just killed my supsension of disbelief that is required to sustain a movie like this. I’ll look at the ads again but my first thought was that the director went way too over the top.
