July 22, 2003

Hulk as live action comic

Ang Lee's Hulk turned out to be just as memorable for its use of comic panel styling as for the big green guy himself. Interestingly, all the promotional material for the film seems to carefully avoid showing this (dominant) visual aesthetic. Comic book fans will love it.

I, for one, found the constant movement between panels annoying in the first half of the movie where the story was slow moving. Some effects came across as gimmicky. Some of the 3D transitions (like screen images twisting and rotating like a cube in time to laboratory equipment) were distracting.

However, as the fast-paced second half kicked in, the panelling approach worked a treat. The Hulk leaps from panel to panel in spectacular fashion. In a manner reminiscent of Timecode and 24, the parallel viewpoints increase the tension.

Today's audience is too sophisticated for all this to be dismissed as sensory overloading. Panelling is clearly a technique we are going to see a whole lot more of, and one too easy to misuse.

Posted by .M. at July 22, 2003 12:46 PM | TrackBack
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