When watching the 1970s TV series The Incredible Hulk, we marvelled at how the scientist Bruce Banner could burst out of his clothes rather than how the series explored father-son relationships. But that was before Lee took on the job of directing the big green Marvel Comic giant in this summer blockbuster.
Lee devotes over 45 minutes to establishing the relationships between Banner (Eric Bana), his mad-scientist father (Nick Nolte), his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and her military father (Sam Elliot) before letting rip with a riot of CGI effects as the monstrous Hulk goes on the rampage. ‘I became interested in digging into what I’d call the hidden dragon,’ the director explained, ‘something like a wild energy hidden under pulpy art, in this case a comic book. It takes a B-movie genre or pulpy art form to get into that kind of wild energy, whether it’s sexual repression or repressed aggression.’