"HULK VS."
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Fred Tatasciore as THE HULK Steve Blum as WOLVERINE Matt Wolf as THOR Bryce Johnson as BRUCE BANNER Tom Kane as PROFESSOR THORNTON Nolan North as DEADPOOL Grey Delisle as SIF Graham McTavish as LOKI Kari Wahlgren as AMORA Rated PG-13 Studio: Lionsgate Directed by: Frank Paur Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Lionsgate and Marvel Animation have packaged two short films in one release featuring the Incredible Hulk going head-to-head with another Marvel superhero.
In “Hulk vs. Wolverine,” we go back to the first time Wolverine encounters the Hulk in the comics. Wolverine is called in to take him down, but he’s captured by Team X, who wants to use him as a weapon. Wolverine must escape from Team X with the Hulk’s help, and he must also try to bring the big guy into the Canadian authorities.
In “Hulk vs. Thor,” Thor’s brother Loki uses the time of Odin’s sleep to attack the Asgard. He brings the Hulk to the great city and extracts the rage monster from Bruce Banner. Thor has to battle the pure Hulk and get Bruce Banner back to the real world to save his home.
WHAT I LIKED
While I’ve never read the Marvel line, I have been an avid comic book fan from a very young age. And I have sincerely appreciated the way the feature films have come to emulate their source material so well, compared to the travesty of comic book movies we saw pre-2000. Still, I realize that the animation world has produced much more faithful and exciting adaptations on a whole.
The “Hulk Vs.” release offers two bite-sized comic book movies. They aren’t sanitized for Saturday morning broadcast, and they aren’t meddled with as the feature films still tend to be. These movies are each about 40 minutes long, so they feel more like a comic book release than a major event, which makes it enjoyable for me.
For people who don’t follow Hulk, Wolverine or Thor, these stories give a nice history of each character, enough that you can follow them. They make them accessible, and while we’ve seen the Hulk and Wolverine on the big screen, it’s nice to see in order to prep for the impending “Thor” theatrical coming down the pike. And it also whets my whistle for the “Wolverine” film coming out this summer.
From an animation standpoint, these movies look great. They’re not childish like the “SuperFriends,” but rather they have a slicker style, similar to what we saw in last year’s “Superman: Doomsday.”
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
While I did enjoy the bite-sized nature of the films, they did run a little short, especially when they otherwise warrant their own DVD. I would have preferred a two-parter for each hero, at least to justify a feature-length product on a DVD.
It’s hard to avoid these films turning into a giant slugfest, simply because that’s what the Hulk does best. However, if more Hulk animated films are coming at us, I’d hope they’d have a little more story substance to them.
DVD FEATURES
Each DVD comes with two audio commentary tracks, one featuring the writers and the other featuring the director and producers. They also both feature a making-of featurette for the specific film. The “Hulk vs. Wolverine” disc includes a look at the hype that surrounded this film at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con as well as a first look at the “Wolverine and the X-Men” series.
The “Hulk vs. Thor” disc includes a spot on Jack Kirby and his contributions to the Thor legends as well as a first look at the “Thor: Tales of the Asgard” series coming soon.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Hulk fans, Marvel comic fans and anyone who wants to see Marvel heroes try to beat the snot out of each other for 40 minutes at a stretch.
