The dullest topic in movie discourse is when directors who have nothing to do with the MCU are asked about the MCU. It's always an attempt to bait them into saying 'the MCU sucks!' so we get another go around on the Scorsese Says machine. It's tiresome, especially when you look into what Scorsese said and realise he wasn't even being particularly critical, he was just - accurately - separating what the MCU does from what he does. In any case, we here at TheGamer are fighting against this war one column at a time. We're comparing MCU flicks to the 'real' cinema they closest resemble, in an attempt to highlight that MCU films are more varied than they seem, but also to push MCU fans into watching a greater variety of movies.
Last week, we started with Iron Man.ꦫ You caꦐn check that out here, as well as a longer ramble on what this project hopes to achieve. Psst, it's traffic. It's always traffic. With dollar signs in our eyes and traffic on our mind, we turn to the next MCU film... The Incredible Hulk. Well, fuck. Nice knowing you. Bye now.
For those of you who have stuck around, be warned that I will be mounting something of a defence for The Incredible Hulk. It's basically two movies in one - a good movie, and a Hulk movie. The Hulk movie is not good. In fact it's downright bad. The MCU didn't start off in a blaze of glory - we've got the first Thor movie to look forward to soon - and while Hulk is usually the poster boy for this, before The Incredible Hulk becomes a terrible Hulk movie, it starts off as a pretty good movie, and one fairly similar to City of God. So, if you like The Incredible Hulk (some of you must), you should try City of God.
City of God is a Portuguese language film set in Rio de Janeiro, and it might just be my favourite Portuguese language film. Granted, it's the only one I've seen, but still. The second one would have to be pretty damn good to be better than City of God, aka Cidade de Deus.
The Incredible Hulk, if you remember, opens with Bruce Banner living in the South American jungle. He has rejected the bustling life of the city, and is inste🎀ad helping some of the poorest citizens of the world with much needed healthcare. There is an air of the white saviour about it, but only in the most literal sense. Banner is a part of their community, he is not there to defend them from any hostile invader, not there for glory or to lead. He is there to escape. He is as far from the rest of the world as he could possibly be. City of God is essentially the opening act of The Incredible Hulk - by all accounts, its strongest act - if you take out the Incredi𝄹ble Hulk.
City of God is a story of young criminality, a tale of how the hopeless youth turn to crime in despair, but also in the last vestiges of hopeಞ - hope to feel something, anything, in a world that offers them 🍬nothing in return. There are no heroes, no real villains. The thrust of the film is a gang war between a drug dealer and a small-time criminal who becomes big-time as people die all around him. Neither side is sanitized or glorified. Both just are what they are. Welcome to life when you have nothing to live for.
The Incredible Hulk does sanitize its setting somewhat. The focus is the Hulk, so we don't need to peer into the lives of these people. All we know is that Banner helps them and it looks pretty. Hulk is a little more prepared to tell the story behind the comic book KAPOWs than many early MCU films, but it also feels like Marvel is still feeling its way into making a good movie. It makes a lot of stumbles you wouldn't expect an Ang Lee directed, Ed Norton starring MCU movie to make in 2022, that's for sure.
The first act is Hulk's saving grace, if it has one. City of God is that first act, but better. What's not to love? Join us next week for Iron Man 2. Yes, they started doing sequels that early.
