Planet Hulk: Smash?
February 13, 2010Planet Hulk is the direct to DVD adaptaion of Greg Pak and Carlos Pagulayan’s Planet Hulk storyline. The storyline defined who Hulk would be for the next year or so after its release; and a lot of people loved the way G. Pak handled the Hulk. Did the animated movie do justice to the original story, or maybe surpass it? Unfortunately, the long and short of it is that it almost feels like a hurried synopsis rather than a full adaptaion. Let’s break it down into its components.
Story
The basic outline of the story’s there- Illuminati guys ship Hulkie into outer space, Hulk fights for life, Hulk gets captured, Hulk fights for freedom, and becomes king. It’s all there, but some key elements and juicy bits of the storyline in the comics felt rushed or just weren’t there in the movie. I do, however, understand that it is almost impossible to fit any written story into a good 1.5 movie. To achieve that, the movie took some liberties. It is accurate to say that the essence stays the same, though.
That said, I felt that the presentation of the basic story would work well to someone who didn’t read Planet Hulk or a casual Hulk fan. The only reason it felt off to me was because I was able to digest the comic book TPB. So it’s kinda like showing me the buffet but only giving me a sampler platter. It does serve its purpose, though. The way it was told was surprisingly efficient, though the core focus was on the smashing, the ass kicking and the name taking. (more…)
