Hulk makes a bit of a mess

“Hulk” doesn’t sit too nicely alongside “X-Men,” “Spider-Man” and “Daredevil.” To begin… “Hulk” doesn’t sit too nicely alongside “X-Men,” “Spider-Man” and “Daredevil.” To begin with, it’s not a superhero film; the title character, preferring to just vent rage, rarely does anything heroic. In addition, it’s not even an action film for most of its gamma-ray-enlarged running time.

Before all hell breaks loose around the 90-minute mark, it’s a drama about a man forced to face a childhood he has repressed and release the anger it has created in him. This is when the film works.

Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is a scientist working to achieve human regeneration; he is bothered by childhood trauma he refuses to remember, and he is cold to his on-and-off girlfriend and colleague, Betty (Jennifer Connelly). We don’t know what Bruce saw as a child that messed him up, but we know that his father, a scientist in the same field, was experimenting on himself at the time Bruce was conceived.

When a lab accident has Bruce taking a bunch of gamma rays to the face, something his father passed to him is activated. Now, any time Bruce gets pissed, he turns green and indestructible.

Daddy Banner (Nick Nolte), long-estranged, shows up again, looking to harness Bruce’s power. Betty’s dad, General Ross (Sam Elliot), who doesn’t get along with his daughter either, arrives to destroy what he sees as a big, green threat to national security.

When the action first kicks in, it’s a blast. It’s ludicrous, but a lot of fun. It spirals out of control, though, and the last 15 minutes – the film having already overstayed its welcome – are over-the-top ridiculous and borderline unintelligible.

So what’s good, outside of the dark, character-driven first half?

For one, director Ang Lee’s energetic cutting. Split screens and rambunctious transitions mimic the panels of a comic book better than any film to date.

And the controversial, computer-generated Hulk effects that everyone who hasn’t seen the film is bitching about? Lee may have a bit too much confidence in them, but they look good most of the time. The Hulk may not always look like he’s really there, but Lee earns the use of computer technology by delivering action of a remarkable scale – the kind of stuff that can’t exist otherwise.

Flaws aside, the film must be saluted for attempting to be something more than a crowd-pleaser.