Customer Reviews

Planet Hulk [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In the first decade of the 21st century, Marvel's had big success in comics, on film, and in animated television programs; the one area where they have really lagged behind DC has been in the animated DVD market, where Bruce Timm's productions have been more numerous and generally more successful. The recent "Hulk vs." DVD was a step in the right direction, providing some great action and good use of Marvel characters, albeit in two shortened segments that neither of them possessed a full story. "Planet Hulk", an adaptation of the Marvel Comics storyline of the same name by Greg Pak (who is involved in the production), is a full-length story, and it is by far the best thing Marvel Animation's DVD program has done, and ranks with my favourite DC DVDs. Again starring the Hulk, but this time way out of his normal element, it delivers action and heart. Some spoilers follow.

We're dropped right into the story, as the Hulk (voice of Rick Wasserman) awakens to find himself traveling through space, with a video from the Illuminati (Iron Man [Marc Worden, reprising his role from various other Marvel DVDs], Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and Black Bolt) explaining that his constant destructive rampages have forced them to send him away to a peaceful world where he can at last be left alone. Nice idea, but the Hulk doesn't take this well, and destroys the instrumentation, sending the ship careening into a wormhole and crashlanding on the planet Sakaar. Captured and forced to fight in gladiator games for the entertainment of the despotic Red King (Mark Hildreth), he finds himself the unwilling companion of the Warbound, a collection of fellow-gladiators. Many come to see the Hulk as the Sakaarson, the saviour of the planet, but others, including the Red King's lieutenant Caiera (Lisa Beley), insist that the King himself fulfills that role. And the Hulk himself doesn't have a lot of interest in it...

If it sounds a bit like the movie "Gladiator", it is. But it's "Gladiator" with the action quotient increased to eleven. The story is a fairly faithful condensation of the original epic (which ran for over a year in the comics), with a few character roles and plot elements shifted around. Most notably, for those who have read the original, Beta Ray Bill has been substituted for the Silver Surfer, which works extremely well, and is a tremendous little depiction of the character. The voice actors all do a good job with their parts, including Wasserman as the Hulk, who is far more talkative here than general audiences will be used to (in the comics, he's been typically sentient since the 1980s). And for those who like their cartoons a bit bloodier than they'll show on Saturday morning, this is your story. There are some truly brutal action scenes here, and the Spikes are depicted like creatures from a horror movie.

Fans of the comic will also be familiar with the followup story, "World War Hulk", which the end of "Planet Hulk" leads into. As I had suspected prior to watching, the DVD stops just short of the comics ending, wisely not presuming that there will be a followup DVD; Pak has spoken of plans for one in the near-future, where the sad fate of Sakaar can be played out in the opening sequence. After this excellent film, it will be a truly sorrowful thing to see.

Recommended.

After the incredibly disappointing Ultimate Avengers films, I had low expectations for anything Marvel Animated and especially Planet Hulk. But this Hulk really grabbed me and pulled me in to one of the best Hulk adventures I have ever experienced. It begins with a video of Iron Man and the Illuminati explaining to Hulk that he has been exiled to another planet. Hulk starts smashing up the spaceship and it crashes on the planet Sakaar, ruled by the Red King. Hulk is captured and forced to fight in gladiatorial arena, where he rises to fame and bonds with a unique group of slaves who call themselves The Warbound. Hulk must decide to challenge the Red King or seek a path of isolation, because unlike the Earthlings, the desperate people of Sakaar believe a monster is just the hero they need.

Planet Hulk is a Hulk you have never seen before. All the other Hulk stories feature the struggle of Bruce Banner. Then when Banner loses control, the character development is over, the story is over, he just transforms into Hulk and a giant slug-fest ensues. But Bruce Banner isn't even in Planet Hulk, and we get to see how deep and conflicted the character of Hulk can really be. It's not a journey of man into monster, it's the journey of a monster into a hero. It isn't Banner's struggle, it's the Hulk's struggle. But the character-work doesn't stop there, the Warbound group is a very interesting and well handled group of gladiators.

Which leads me to the fights. The idea of making the Hulk a gladiator on an alien planet is such a good concept for his character that I can't believe this wasn't thought of sooner. It gives Hulk ample opportunity to pummel a host of unique foes. There's some really memorable fight scenes and powerful moments here. Due to copyright issues, they could not feature the famous fight between Hulk and the Silver Surfer that's found in the comics. Instead, they used Beta Ray Bill from Thor and tied it in with the events of Hulk vs. Thor. The end result is a pretty incredible match.

I highly recommend Planet Hulk as a great exploration for Hulk's character, and Marvel Animation's best film to date.

If you like the Hulk this movie is for you. It takes all the elments that make the character attractive and improves upon them. The story is essentially Savage Hulk liberates planet. He's asked to leave by the Avengers. I would have liked to have seen that battle in animated form. For all intents and purposes it was worth wait. While some liberties were taken with the story it was entertaining. How about a sequel with World War Hulk? This one at least has Hulk with Banner's brain.

It's a thinking man Hulk kind of movie. If you are a fan of the comics or just like this type of animation, you won't be let down. It's worth watching a few times. the extras do add quite a bit in the making of this saga. If Marvel reads these reviews, I have to say, how about a Spidey animated film?

On a historical note: back in the 1970's, Roy Thomas adapted Harlan Ellison's plot, "Brute That Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom". In this other dimension; Hulk found the second love of his life, Jarella. Too bad this story wasn't incorporated into the film. Ironically he was not the intellegent version. In the 70's his character was of the "Hulk Smash" mentality. Artist Herb Trimpe was the quintessential Hulk artist at the time. I only wish he had input in the modern interpretation of the character.

Plant Hulk is quite simply a ripping adventure story, well told and well put together. And I for one am delighted! I grew up as very much a Marvel kid rather than a DC kid. So I'm far from displeased that Marvel has finally come up with something that can hold its own against Bruce Timm's DC Animated Universe.

Planet Hulk is not quite as good as Bruce Timm at his absolute best; as seen in the likes of Batman - Mask of the Phantasm and the Project Cadmus story arc in Justice League Unlimited, Seasons 1-2 (DC Comics Classic Collection). But it is good, and there are also plenty of things that Bruce Timm has put his name to over the years that aren't up to the standard of Planet Hulk.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't say much about the plot. There are just two observations I want to make...

First, the single thing I love most about Planet Hulk is that it's not yet another reboot origin story. We see far too many of those as it is. To me, that's just lazy writing. Damn it, we already know who Wonder Woman is and where she comes from! We already know who Spider Man is and where HE comes from! And we already know who... well, you get the point. Planet Hulk assumes we already know who and what The Hulk is and goes from there. Which is just fine with me.

Second, I want to draw attention to something another reviewer has already observed - that Planet Hulk clearly owes much both to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Carter of Mars novels, and Howard E Carter's Conan the Barbarian stories. On both counts I agree. But Planet Hulk is never merely derivative. It takes this noble heritage and actively builds upon it, creating something uniquely its own, and yes, uniquely Marvel.

One final point: the only real negative feeling I've noticed in the other reviews came from people who reckoned that Planet Hulk wasn't up to the standard of the comic on which it was based. I can't comment either way since I haven't actually seen that comic, although I'm not entirely unsympathetic. I can't help but think back to when the Tank Girl movie came out. Those who who saw it and hadn't read the comic book generally liked it. Only those of us who were familiar with Tank Girl in her original form understood what an insipid, watered down offering the movie really was.

What I will say is that if nothing else, this DVD was certainly good enough to convince me that I wanted to see the original comic.

In fact, I just put it on order.

Theo.

I'm a big comic book fan and every time the decision is made to adapt a character/storyline into the visual media, I'm always skeptical. Most movies animated movies if not all that have been released be it Marvel or DC have been lackluster in my opinion. But the fact that I love comics as much as I do, I end up falling into a sort of fanboy mentality and I go ahead and buy the movies anyway just because the idea of taking a great character and story and giving it motion is too big a chance to pass up. That being said, the Planet Hulk story arc (comics) to me was incredible. I thought it was an excellent read and the various artists that showed their talents on the pages were superb. The story itself actually spans 12 issues so there was a lot of story throughout. The problem with animated movies is that they aren't that long and I can understand that watching an animated movie for a prolonged period of time might get boring but Planet Hulk was not something that should have been condensed to 81 minutes. The art was pretty good and they stayed close to the original story for the most part (with the exception of the Beta Ray Bill character replacing the Silver Surfer in the comic) but I thought some of the dialogue was weak and there really wasn't enough time to develop the character relationships the way the comic did. If you're a Hulk fan and have never read the Planet Hulk story arc (that doesn't really seem to add up huh) buy the trade. Excellent read and you'll more than likely agree with me that more of the story should have been incorporated in the feature. I think a 3 star rating for the movie is right where it stands and if you do buy the Bluray there are plenty of extra features to keep you entertained after the movie's over. One thing I did read on someone else's review is to adapt the World War Hulk story arc into an animated movie and that idea does sound awesome but the time restrictions will always be a problem with animated movies.

The movie started out well. The technology of the Obedience Disk makes Hulk smarter. The writers give the fans insight into the Hulk's thoughts (i.e. his views of heroism, how his days of neverending conflict have affected his worldview). The writers also reveal Caiera's backstory.

Unfortunately, after the Hulk vs. the Red King conflict resolves itself, the story simply ends. There is no development of Caiera & Hulk's relationship. There are no scenes of Hulk's life on Sakaar after the conflict. A story as detailed and thorough as Planet Hulk deserves to be told in its entirety within the logistics of moviemaking. The only way Marvel could make amends to Hulk and Planet Hulk fans for this partially-completed product is to make a World War Hulk animated film that is 2.5 hours long. It has to contain the best Hulk vs. Iron Man battle Marvel has ever created.

While this movie has to be purchased in Blu-ray in order to fully appreciate the animation, I would recommend waiting until this movie is on sale before Hulk and Planet Hulk fans purchase it from Amazon.

i dont know why marvel cant get their animation line right. this was just not enough of anything to make it very good. the animation is mediocre. the story was stunted and choppy. the voice acting was often ridged or forced. i wanted to love this lke i loved the books, sorry to say i didn't. my 9 yo, who read the comics also, said "ennn, it was ok. why'd they change it so much?"

I am a huge fan of the original comic, probably my favorite comic next to '52'. When I heard this was being made I nearly crapped my pants with joy, but then I heard it was only going to be 70ish minutes long, and changed a bunch...

But, having watched it, I can say that it was pretty damn cool!

Greg Pak's Planet Hulk storyline during the beginning of his run on The Incredible Hulk was undoubtedly the best arc to hit the title, and character, in quite some time, which was why I was looking forward to the latest Lions Gate-produced animated Marvel feature. The end result is basically the same thing that the Planet Hulk comic arc offered, with a few minor and major changes that really water it down from the emotional story it was in the first place. When the rage of the Hulk goes too far, he is exiled from Earth and winds up on the violent planet Sakaar, which is ruled by the tyrannical Red King, who thrusts the Hulk into the gladiator arena. However, the Hulk may be the prophecised savior that is just what the planet needs. While the minor differences (such as swapping Silver Surfer for Beta Ray Bill) in the storyline don't detract from what the comic offered, the happy ending here most definitely does. One of the things that made the Planet Hulk comic so good was its tragic, shocker conclusion, and what we get here instead is definitely a far cry from that. However, those who have never read the Planet Hulk storyline (and believe me, you should) won't really have a problem here. The animation itself is fine, and the action is surprisingly bloody and violent, meaning that Planet Hulk is definitely not something for young children. All in all though, if you're a fan of the Planet Hulk comic, this animated adaptation will surely disappoint, but for all others, it is worth a look.

Whilst not the best Lion's Gate Marvel feature, Planet Hulk is enjoyable and entertaining. Think of Gladiator in Space, with the Hulk in the title role. My main gripe about this film is the character of the green skinned behemoth. This dude is not the fellow I knew from the Hulk comic books. He seems more like Mad Max or the High Plains Drifter, the Man with No Name that Clint Eastwood played. He does and says many things that are way out of character for the Hulk. I also had a little difficulty buying into the problems Hulk had in dealing with his imprisonment. They pass this off by claiming that the Wormhole has a weakening effect on every one who passes through it. Is that so? Is that true for un-naturally fueled, Gamma radiation powered beasts like the Hulk also?

Nevertheless, I did get a big kick out of this movie. It is a lot of fun. I also enjoyed the Thor & Beta Ray Bill mini-adventure we saw in the middle. That was very cool. If I had sons, I am sure they would love it.