For how controversial it was when it came out, Ang Lee’s Hulk is the Marvel movie that translates the Hulk to live-action the most faithfully. Hulk has been one of the most famous Marvel characters for decades, even more so than Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor at a certain point. Five years before the MCU started, Hulk beat his fellow Avengers to a big-budget, live-action theatrical movie debut.
Ang Lee’s Hulk was met with mixed reactions. Its cerebral approach and its mix between serious tone and highly stylized comic book elements proved divisive. However, more than two decades later, Lee’s Hulk feels like a much more solid movie.
Ang Lee's Hulk Has Aged Like Wine
A Movie Like 2003 Hulk Can't Happen Today
Hulk lacks the lighthearted spirit of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and the character dynamics of the X-Men movies. In 2003, back when the superhero genre was only beginning to explode, Ang Lee’s Hulk was completely overshadowed in the action and spectacle areas. But now, with superhero movies and shows flooding Hollywood, a character study of one of Marvel’s most tragic characters, with special focus on Hulk and Bruce Banner’s psyche, plus the mind-bending nature of Gamma energy, is more than a welcome breath of fresh air.
The MCU’s Hulk is undeniably more entertaining to watch, more destructive, and better integrated into a fictional universe where the Green Goliath can trade blows with other powerful characters. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of Hulk’s depth. While Mark Ruffalo delivers a great performance, the MCU often treats Hulk as an action figure who comes in and out of battle anytime the Avengers need him. In fact, most of Hulk’s inner arc happens off-screen in the MCU.
Ang Lee's Hulk Was The Immortal Hulk Before The Immortal Hulk
Bruce Banner's Inner Struggles Have Never Received So Much Focus
Sixteen years before Al Ewing penned The Immortal Hulk, Ang Lee’s Hulk film dived deep into the pits of Bruce Banner’s trauma and Hulk’s role as this living resentment for his father. All of Hulk’s trippy imagery, the eery transformations, the mystical score, and David Banner’s barely intelligible Gamma-obsessed villain transformation were divisive in the 2000s, but they’re precisely what makes The Immortal Hulk a masterpiece. Eric Bana’s Hulk even defeats his monstrous father by embracing Gamma energy and destroying him with it.
The creepy Gamma dogs, the quick shots of nature and Gamma energy, and Banner’s waking nightmares all diverge greatly from the MCU’s action-packed traditions, more akin to the cosmic horror of The Immortal Hulk than Ruffalo’s MCU appearances. Even Bruce Banner’s childhood home bedroom door serves a similar role as The Immortal Hulk’s Green Door, being a metaphor for Hulk’s birth and rebirth. Considering a proper Immortal Hulk movie is unlikely, Ang Lee’s Hulk is the closest live-action story.
