Movie review: The Incredible Hulk

I saw The Incredible Hulk and I really liked it. Much better then the first one. It's what Hulk should be, with lots of action and smashing. Good casting too, starring Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, the beautiful Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky and William Hurt, barely recognizable as General Thaddeus Ross, amongst others.

As expected, Banner is on the run from the government and is looking for a "cure" to his condition. The intro is a brief explanation of what happened to him and the ones around him when he got his overdose of Gamma rays. The story is interesting and well told, special effects are great a sequel is just about guaranteed, at this point. There are a few nods to the TV series and also a few cool cameos. There was also humour throughout the movie, of course...

At the end, there is a little scene that connect the movie to other ones, like another recent superhero movie... But it's before the credits, not after. We were a lot of people who stayed until the very end, hoping for one last shot which never came and there was some disappointment about that. But the movie itself being what it is, I don't think anyone regretted having been there on opening day.

Movie review: Cloverfield

My first movie for 2008 (what's wrong with me?) was Cloverfield. I didn't know much about it before seeing it, beside possibly being a Godzilla ripoff. It wasn't quite that, but there is a big monster. Unlike Godzilla, we don't see it that much and it's not a man in a suit. Another thing I knew was that some people who had seen it complained of being "sea sick" due to the camera movements of some scenes, being shot à la Blair Witch Project. What I did not know was that the whole movie is shot this way. The concept is that the military found this tape shot by someone who started recording at a party and got in the middle of the action that greatly changed Manhattan.

I found this movie fairly interesting and not too conventional, which works for this story. I don't want to give away too much, but it's not the typical fight the monster and live to tell about it, let's say. The main characters are not fighting the monster, the army is, as best as they can. For most everyone, it's a matter of survival and running away, at best. It's also about helping each other.

One thing I thought was not realistic at first was that the camera battery was lasting a pretty long time, but after further consideration, I realized that it was an uncut tape (simulated, of course!) and camera can last the length of a movie. How could bootleggers stay in business if they couldn't? ;-) It's not a one take story, but the cameraman would stop shooting when there wasn't something worth recording going on.

So, I found it to be a good movie, after thinking more about it. I wasn't too sure as the movie ended, which is not something that happens often to me. I like that, for a change!

Before the movie, I remember two previews, above the others. Hellboy 2, which was a standard trailer and a teaser for another movie that I'm really looking forward to and that I didn't figure out until the few last seconds of it: Star Trek! Really cool teaser.