Box Office Outlook: Can the Hulk Make it Happen?

By Katey Rich

After a summer that's already boasted a handful of hits, the market seems to be bracing for some potential flops. That's one explanation for the one-two punch of this weekend's The Incredible Hulk and The Happening, two films with troubled back stories that may turn out to be more interesting than the movies themselves. Hulk will do its best this weekend to erase the memory of Ang Lee's 2003 take on the same character, while The Happening will hopefully allow moviegoers to forgive M. Night Shyamalan after 2006's disaster Lady in the Water. Based on the reviews so far, only one of these movies seems likely to pull off its goal.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK. Opening in 3,400 theatres. Using the 2003 Hulk film as a kind of origin story, The Incredible Hulk starts over with a whole new cast but gets right into the action. Edward Norton stars as Bruce Banner, who is on the run from the U.S. government, which wants to take advantage of his green alter ego. Liv Tyler plays his devoted love Betty, with William Hurt as her father, General Ross, who is part of the government's shady plan. Tim Roth eventually joins the fun as a British mercenary on the Hulk's tail who eventually develops some superpowers of his own. French director Louis Leterrier, previously responsible for the Transporter series, directs.

Most critics are pretty happy with the new direction Leterrier is taking with the story, but our Ethan Alter isn't exactly one of them. "For all its emphasis on action, the movie is actually a more tedious sit than Lee's film," he writes. "That's because the first Hulk actually attempted to tell a story in between set-pieces." Newsday also gripes, "It's not nearly fresh enough." But many other critics were pleased with the action-packed reboot, with The Arizona Republic getting into the spirit and writing, "Hulk good. Me like Hulk, whole lot. Grrr." And Variety sees lots of promise in this straightforward action effort: "Happy to give the intended audience what it wants, this loud and quick-moving production will shake loose ample coin in all markets."

THE HAPPENING. Opening in 3,000 theatres. For his latest film, thriller auteur M. Night Shyamalan has taken a spooky image-- people suddenly committing mass suicide-- and turned it into a kind of thoughtful disaster movie. Mark Wahlberg stars as a science teacher who is escaping Philadelphia with his wife (Zooey Deschanel), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his friend's daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). The group must figure out what is causing the suicides and how to escape it, while coping with the way humans will behave when put in life-or-death circumstances. The cause of the suicides has been considered the film's great mystery, but most reviews spoil it, so read no further if you want to stay pure.

OK, now that those people are gone... Most critics have zero patience for Shyamalan's latest, though some acknowledge that there's artistry at work here. I was one of them: "The Happening isn't the triumphant comeback Shyamalan sorely needs, but it's a reminder that he has the style and instincts of a talented filmmaker. Now if only he could find a story worth telling." The Hollywood Reporter isn't thrilled with the concept that the people-killing toxins are being released by plants: "The ecological idea of Planet Earth striking back at humankind might bring a smile to Al Gore, but in terms of cinematic intrigue and nail-biting tension, it's just not happening." "It's beyond good and evil. It's dumbfounding," writes Carrie Rickey at the Philadelphia Inquirer of her hometown filmmaker. The Washington Post complains, "Shyamalan [...] isn't entirely sure what kind of movie he's making, and he shuffles through personalities looking for one that interests him." And Entertainment Weekly shares my complaint about Shyamalan's direction of his main characters: "The filmmaker has fun with the cinematic conventions of social paranoia (all his most interesting minor characters with unusual faces are surely doomed) but is a sucker for overacting among his major players."