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| Monday, June 29, 2009 02:46 PM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 29, 2009 03:20 PM) | | On the Viewer - Hulk Vs. |
 by Fëanor |
This DVD contains two short animated films: Hulk vs. Thor and Hulk vs. Wolverine. The former is set near the end of one of Odin's annual, week-long Odinsleeps, when Asgard is vulnerable to the forces of evil. The Frost Giants and other creatures of darkness have failed in their latest attack on the city of the Gods, but Loki has one more trick up his sleeve. With the help of Amora, an enchantress who's angry at Thor because he chose Sif over her, he snatches Bruce Banner from Midgard, separates him from the Hulk, and then magically links his mind with the Hulk's body, putting the God of trickery in control of the jade giant. Then he sends the Hulk to Asgard, where he quickly gets into a knock-down drag-out with Thor, the city's main protector. Even a god of thunder isn't much of a match against a creature of pure power and rage, without even a flicker of humanity left inside him. With Thor lying near death, and Loki's control over Hulk fading, what's to stop Hulk from running wild and destroying Asgard itself?
Hulk vs. Thor is quite fantastic. It doesn't waste time with a lot of unnecessary plot or exposition. It leaves us to work out what Loki and Amora are doing to the Hulk in the opening sequence. Then it gets right into the action, of which there is plenty. Epic beatings galore! At one point Hulk punches Thor all the way through a mountain. That's about when I decided this was an awesome movie. At first Bruce Banner seems to be little more than a whiny and pathetic loser (as Loki cruelly and repeatedly points out), but he becomes more interesting, noble, and tragic when we get a glimpse of what his paradise would be like, and when, at the end, he agrees to take on the burden of the Hulk again and is declared a mighty hero even by the Gods of Asgard themselves. It's a powerful and even rather moving conlusion. Some other things I really enjoyed: the Warriors Three in action; Hela nearly taking Thor; Loki finally getting what he deserves; and Thor saying essentially, "I could fight for Loki's soul... but nah."
Hulk vs. Wolverine opens with Wolverine waking up injured in the middle of a crater in a snowy, mountainous wilderness. As he cracks his shoulder back into place, he says to himself, "What happened?" Then he sees the Hulk hurtling toward him and says, "Oh, yeah." Awesome! Naturally we then jump back in time and see what led Logan here: the Hulk was rampaging along the American/Canadian border so Department H sent Wolverine in to stop the creature or, failing that, kill it. Wolverine has never met the Hulk before, so he's looking forward to the mission. But the Hulk's a bit more than he bargained for. Even worse, it turns out the Hulk was only the bait in a devious trap set by the psychos at Weapon X!
One of my favorite scenes in this movie happens early on, when Wolverine is on the helicopter being flown to the last known location of the Hulk. He's sitting in the shadows and a young soldier is sitting across from him, sweating and throwing him the occasional glance. Finally the soldier can't take it anymore and says, "I know we're not supposed to ask questions, sir, but... who are you?" Logan just tells him, "You don't want to know." Heh heh. Also great: when they get him over top of the site, they ask if they should look for a place to land. "Don't bother," he says, and just jumps out without a parachute.
(UPDATE: I forgot to mention one of my other favorite scenes. Someone asks Wolverine if he has any last words, and he replies, "Yeah. Two." Then he pops his claws: "SNIKT. SNIKT." Nice.)
Like the first movie, this one is short and sweet and loaded with exciting action. Also, it doesn't pull any punches. This is no kids' cartoon. The fights are brutal, and there's plenty of blood and killing. (I always hate it when they put Wolverine in a cartoon and he doesn't scratch anybody with his claws. That's what he does! That's all he does! If you're not going to let him do that, don't put him in your cartoon.) Again, Banner is kind of whiny and pathetic, but Wolverine doesn't sit around and take his crap; at one point he even stabs the good doctor in the stomach to get him to turn back into the Hulk faster! That's rough.
I really enjoyed seeing the whole Weapon X team here: the mysterious Professor, Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red, Deadpool, and Sabretooth. It was also cool getting some quick flashbacks to Wolverine's time at Weapon X. I'm glad they didn't spend a lot of time dealing with Wolverine's complex backstory, though; they made it clear Wolverine had history with these people, and then left it at that.
I'm not usually a big fan of Deadpool, but I have to admit I found him really entertaining in this movie. They make him goofy, but no less frightening or deadly for all that; sure, he tells jokes, but the jokes he tells are about killing babies. And they're funny! (If you enjoy Deadpool, make sure to stay until the credits are over; I discovered by accident that there's a short extra scene starring him tacked on the end that's quite amusing.)
I was thrown off a bit by the slightly inconclusive, pseudo-cliffhanger ending of the movie, but I ultimately decided I liked the way it makes the fight seem like something endless that will never be decided. The movie begins with Hulk and Wolverine fighting, and ends with them fighting, and that seems appropriate, what with it being called Hulk vs. Wolverine and all.
To sum up, I loved this DVD! Both movies are funny, smart, well animated, loaded with action, and true to the spirit of the characters and comics they're adapting. I enjoyed them immensely. The Hulk rules!! |
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