Reboot

I'm a big geek. Seriously. I read comic books, I have an asthma pump, I got a load of allergies, and really geeky looking glasses. Thick rimmed frames and all. Now, for your information, I don't see other people calling me a geek to be an insult. If I had to be labeled, it'd be that, 'cause I can't think of anything else that works. Hell, I'm in theatre, making me a theatre and drama geek too.

Comic book movies. There seems to be a lot of them these days. Some are incredible, like the recent Iron Man movie or Batman Begins from a couple years ago. Some are decent, but nothing amazing. And then you have the ones that just suck. The campy, hilarious-for-all-the-wrong-reasons, terrible comic book movies. I'm of course referencing Batman & Robin that had George Clooney cast as the dark knight himself.

Today, the new movie released by Marvel Studios is out. The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton was our green-skinned monster with anger issues. I haven't seen it yet, but believe it or not, I plan to.

Now, a lot of people I know are iffy about this movie. Why? Because the 2003 Hulk movie was a huge flop. It was terrible. Lacked a little something called plot, and made dogs into snarling gamma-radiated monsters. And then of course the big bad guy? Bruce Banner's dad. Not very good for the story of one of the oldest and most well-known comic book heroes. Now, I agreed with all these people. That movie really did suck. When I heard that a new one was going to be made, I wasn't interested at all.

Then I heard it was being done by Marvel Studios. I thought "okay, so, they'll at least get it right this time. But still not something worthy to spend 10$ to see on the silver screen." Then I heard that Edward Norton was playing Bruce Banner. He was always my fantasy-cast-list for actors to play Bruce Banner. Yes, I make fantasy-cast-lists-for-movies the same way fully grown men have fantasy-baseball-teams. So the fact that Norton, an incredible actor, was signed to play the Incredible Hulk, my interest was poked with a stick. I became more aware.

With a little more research and article-reading, I discovered that the actor portraying the scientist (plagued with an out of control beast inside him) had a hand in the writing process too. Then I came to learn that William Hurt was in it too. Not an actor I know a lot about, but he always plays his part well in the movies I've seen him in. And then I learned that Tim Roth was going to play the Abomination.

Slowly but surely, I found myself getting excited about a movie I thought I'd never be excited about. And then I saw the trailer, and my jaw literally dropped. In my mind, it was as if the 2003 release of Hulk had never existed, and this movie was fresh off the crop.

I've noticed that this is becoming a trend. Taking movies that didn't do so well, reboot the series, mostly ignoring the past ones. Batman Begins succeeded where the last Batman movies didn't, and it's sequel, The Dark Knight, is one of the highly most anticipated movies of the year. Superman Returns (2006) didn't ignore the Christopher Reeve's flicks, it just ignored III and IV, and was sort of a sequel to Superman and Superman II. Sequel in the sense of "after II there was a fork in the road. One path led to Superman III, and the other led to Superman Returns." If that even makes sense.

And now, The Incredible Hulk is a reboot of the Hulk film franchise, trying to make up where Hulk failed. I can tell you right now that in my mind, it's already made up for the last Hulk movie's failure, and I haven't even seen it yet. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to run to catch a bus to go and see it before the cinemas get packed with the "Friday Night Crowds." When I'm back, I'll review it!