This year marks the 20th anniversary of Ang Lee’s Hulk, and yet we’re no closer to reaching a consensus on whether the Marvel Comics adaptation is a misunderstood minor masterpiece or an over-indulgent mess, a sentiment that extends as far as the people who made it.
Star Josh Lucas is an ardent defender of the middling superhero blockbuster, stating on a number of occasions that he believed it failed in part to being too far ahead of its time. On the other side of the equation, director Lee recently reminisced on the film’s performance and reputation, where came clean and admitted that even he found it to be more than a little messy.
It’s all a matter of personal preference at the end of the day, but Lucas is going to keep banging that drum regardless, after he once more outlined his steadfast belief to ComicBook that Hulk deserves to be placed back under the spotlight and reevaluated as the underrated gem he believes it to be.
“Man, I love that movie too. I’ll tell you what, I also agree with you that it’s super underrated. I haven’t seen a comic book movie that does the way he flips pages. He really was trying to take the film and mix it with the idea of you flipping and looking at a comic book.”
Ang Lee is a massive artist and he’s an auteur filmmaker that got handed the keys to the kingdom of Marvel way early before Marvel was Marvel and he tried to bring something super artful to it. There’s an idea of the way plant organisms work on the body and cell structures and all these ideas he’s playing with visually. I think Nick Nolte’s performance in that movie is epic and as good of a bad guy in film history.”
That’s high praise indeed, but even if we overlook Lucas’ blatant bias, is he right? Audiences only familiar with Kevin Feige’s cinematic universe might not be able to get on the same wavelength as Lee’s singular vision, but it does have its merits. Then again, nostalgia has a funny way of healing virtually all wounds over time.