This thing is shaping up to be to the Ang Lee film what Wrath of Khan was to the original Star Trek film.

Better director for this kind of film.
Edward Norton as Banner.
Less reliance on CGI.
The Abomination.
A different shade of green for the Hulk.

The news just keeps getting better.

As Vincent Vega would say: that's a bold statement.

I just hope it is good, audiences go see it so we get more!

Some things are better kept to ones self.
I did too.

I feel I should clarify something. I thought ST:TMP was okay... but that WOK was way better. In contrast, I felt the Ang Lee film had one or two great moments, but was otherwise a disaster.

Agreed on all that, Darin. Certainly I'd be nuts to argue that TMP was better than, or even equal to, Khan. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is a film even folks who don't like Star Trek agree is full-on AWESOME. Great flick, that.

I haven't seen Khan in so long. When I was a kid, I liked VI best. Then Khan and Whales probably tied.

If it's even half-way decent, I am prepared to look upon this as the first real HULK film. I actually can't even watch a free re-run of that gamma-spawned abomination of a few years ago.

TWOK is amazing that it exists at all. TMP was this cerebral, high-minded contraption that had some moments (Klingon's facing off against V'Ger with that Viking-esque score still gives me chills), but let's face it....the bulk of the plot is the Starship Enterprise flying through a cloud. After that, you're not expecting there to be a sequel at all, much less one that features mind-controlling ear-worms, planet-destroying missiles, and the battle in the Mutara Nebula.

It's as if Kubrick decided to do a sequel to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, where the monkeymen from the beginning get super-intelligent and start beating the shit out of each other all over the planet.....with Ricardo Montalban.

TMP was a screensaver.

Ang Lee's THE HULK is, in some ways, a brilliant piece of filmmaking. The comic panel cuts, so common these days in 24, were perfect for a superhero film. The Hulk himself was both frightening in the scenes in the desert, as well as when taking on Talbot, and heroic, as when he's leaping above San Francisco and stops the fighter jet from crashing into the Golden Gate bridge. Banner is nicely distracted prior to becoming the Hulk, and Bana does a great job of showing the beast that's locked just beneath the surface. He's also someone you believe Betty Brant would fall in love with. One of the details I love is that Banner's mother is cast to look like Connelly. Sam Elliot is as well-cast as JK Simmons in the Spider-Man films, a perfect "Thunderbolt" Ross. Even Nick Nolte does a wonderful job of playing Banner's father as a man utterly lacking in morality, obsessed instead with science, a model of what Banner fears he'll become. I also thought the CGI was very well done, as evidenced by the almost universally praised desert sequence with the Hulk vs. the army. I even loved the Lee/Ferigno cameo, and only wish Bixby had been there, too.

It's not without flaws, though. Having Bruce's father experiment on him as a child was unnecessary, and seems to take away the "tragic accident" aspect of the character. The Hulk-dogs, meant to be frightening, unfortunately came across as laughable for the most part. The pacing of the film should have been tightened up. It runs about a half hour longer than it needs to, much of that being time spent on Banner before he becomes the Hulk. It might have worked a bit better if they'd started in the desert, or maybe the underground base, then flashed back to the origin stuff. Finally, the climax of the film was horribly, horribly shot, making it difficult, at best, to tell what the hell was going on. What should have been one of the biggest sequences of the film wound up being a confused, muddy mess.

Yet another way for you to make me feel old.

IMO, the transformation scenes are the most important elements of any movie involving the Hulk. The Ang Lee movie only had two good ones out of 5. (The first being the gradual transformation back to Banner in San Fran and the second being the transformation while in the electric chamber... which used the same kind of panel cut scenes that you find in some of the older comics.)

I appreciate some of what Lee tried to do, but I don't think his head was in the right place for that movie. He added things that weren't in the comics and I think that is at the heart of my problems with it.

I'm just waiting for them to announce that "The Lonely Man" will be included in the movie's soundtrack.

Fair enough. I don't really view comic book movies as adaptations anymore. They're more interpretations, and I just look at them as wholly seperate entities based on a similar concept. I think that's why I'm able to enjoy so many of them.

The Hulk, like the Punisher, should have been a no-brainer movie and should have been huge with the kids. Almost everyone can realte to the "don't make me angry" shtick. I still think that CGI is a mistake for the Hulk. I would prefer a suit like the Turtles.

And keep it simple, use the dumb childlike green Hulk (with scenes of him being gentle around kids and animals....and Betty) , and lots of fighting and you got a hit.

And Hollywood wins again.

As do I.

That's pretty much how I look at them, too. That's not limited to comics, either; pretty much any non-film thing I'm a fan of that is later adapted into a motion picture. I hope for the broad strokes to be recognizable, but don't worry overmuch about the details. Heck, in some cases I look forward to seeing how things will be interpreted.

I hope this good news comes through for us. The Hulk vs the Army was the best thing about the first movie. If they could keep that feel (without the Roadrunner-Hulk) for an entire movie, it would be spectacular! Incredible, even!

I'm the same way, in all seriousness though. There are things I'd prefer they did "like the comics" (Dr. Doom...webshooters, no superkid), but I don't feel they need to slavishly stick to any kind of continuity or storylines. Alternate versions are fine, if they're still recognizable and the story is well done and not mocking the subject matter (I know that treads close to some familiar terminology, but what can I say).