3) Ang Lee – Hulk
Not all films on this list are great examples of auteurs getting a handle on superhero movies. For all the good that a singular vision and one talented individual’s fresh ideas can bring to the genre, there has to also inevitably be some room for the bad. And Ang Lee’s Hulk is a prime example of the negatives of handing a superhero property over to one filmmaker and allowing that one filmmaker alone to make the movie his own.
An admirable failure rather than an all-out disaster, Hulk takes a unique visual approach, using split screens so the frame resembles comic panels, and attempts a thematic and dramatic complexity that most superhero movies won’t touch. Only the film feels dull for a supposedly action-packed comic book movie (Lee’s glacial pace doesn’t exactly apply itself well to tentpole blockbusters), and the effects – dated even at the time – are horrible enough to outright ruin any scenes featuring the CGI’d Hulk. Which, considering he’s the title character, isn’t a smart way to go.
