As October comes to a close, so is Halloween. I don't personally celebrate the holidays that much, but just this once, I'll just pick whatever Halloween-themed movie I can get my hands on and watch it out of the holiday's sake.
Now if I were to pick one movie everyone should watch for Halloween, it's the South Korean film Train to Busan. It's basically 28 Days Later or World War Z on a Train, but it's just so good. I cannot express enough how great this film is.
In terms of Animation, though. The one that I just grabbed was the recently released Marvel Animated Movie "Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell". Just looking at the title and the cover gave me the impression that it is a Halloween-themed movie starring the Hulk and Dr. Strange, and handled by the same team behind Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers: Assemble.
So already, I have low expectations of this film. To be frank, Marvel's Animated Movie department is pretty much nothing but total garbage. There have only been 3 animated films from Marvel's library that I actually liked - Dr. Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, and Planet Hulk. The rest were just barely watchable, in part because it caters to the much younger crowd.
DC, of course, are also doing animated films for the younger audience with the Batman: Unlimited series, and by some extension Superhero Girls. So it's fair game. Least DC does a better job at it than Marvel does.
So in Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, Dr. Strange summons the Hulk and members of the Paranormal Containment Unit, aka the current Howling Commanders, on Halloween Night of all the times. Apparently, one of Strange's villains, Nightmare, is kidnapping kids and turning them into monsters for his impending invasion of Earth. Strange needs Hulk and the Howling Commandos to contain the kids/monsters while figuring out how to deal with Nightmare. Unknown to everyone, Nightmare has a need for the Hulk as part of his master plan.
Plot-wise, it was awful and totally boring. To be fair, only a select few stories of the Hulk where indeed interesting, like Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. And given how insanely powerful Hulk is, finding a way to show some kind of struggle is a pain from a story standpoint. Using Nightmare as a means to nerf the Hulk to show some struggle in the narrative simply wasn't executed properly.
Essentially, the movie has the exact same problem the Marvel Animated Universe does, with no means of ever improving on them in any way. Bad plot, bad use of camera angles, long pauses and panning of several scenes for no reason, etc. In Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, you can add in the extremely dark and gloomy atmosphere thanks to its overall animation and tone.
Why the hell is the movie using so many dark and bland colors? Least it's not as bad as the colors from Bee & Puppycat that causes such an eye strain, but the colors in Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell makes the visuals just less appealing. Soundtrack is generic and a weird use of adding ones that's supposed to be in a horror film. This movie is NOT a horror film.
Although this was supposedly a Hulk film, Hulk didn't get to turn the tide of battle with his abilities. Instead, he plays a supportive role in the team effort to take down Nightmare. If Hulk is the protagonist of this film, he should be the one who takes Nightmare down. That's not what happened.
Honestly, Dr. Strange's repetitive chants when using his powers is awfully annoying. And although Liam O' Brien has played the character since Ultimate Spider-Man, and has played other Marvel characters before, his role as Dr. Strange just don't fit. The Howling Commandos, though based on the current version of the comics, are nowhere near interesting. Nightmare is like a marriage of the vampire Moebius and one of the band members from KISS having a bad day.
I expected that Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell won't be any good, but man! I've never seen it this bad, even for a Marvel Animated Universe. I think Marvel wants to see if they can capture the same trend that movies like Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, despite being heavily panned, makes money anyway because people want to see these characters. If that's what you want it for in this Marvel film, then you got it. Otherwise, you're better off watching a Lego Animated movie of the Hulk than this one.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, a 1 out of 5.
Hmm?
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