Louis Leterrier

A visually interesting movie with quality actors and acting. However, the story is weak, with weak elements in combination with weak storytelling. The story includes many twists and turns and "surprises" that aren't that interesting. A lot of the conversations are grandstanding, showing off, one-upmanship. Some mystical elements are mentioned that have nothing to do with anything. A romance is sort of thrown in (an almost kiss, then later a kiss) with no basis for a personal relationship or show more connection of the characters. An "adventure" without meaning.
— Rebecca show less

In the series' present, Assane Diop is a clever and cool-headed thief and master of disguise who takes his inspiration from Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin. Flashbacks gradually reveal his motives. When he was a teen, his father was arrested for the theft of an expensive necklace from his employer, Hubert Pellegrini. While in prison, Assane's father committed suicide...or was it murder? In the present, Assane seeks to find out what really happened to his father and who was responsible.

When I show more first heard about this series, I thought it was going to be a contemporary-set adaptation of the Arsene Lupin stories. I liked what I read of that series and was interested in seeing that, but discovering that it was actually about a man who was inspired by those stories was fine too.

Part 1 didn't bother to show much of the period between "Assane the orphaned teen" and "Assane the slick and charming thief," which I didn't mind too much. I liked the series best when Assane was in his element, smoothly pulling off thefts right in front of people and tricking his way into and out of tight spaces.

However, Assane was not an infallible master thief. His obsession with Lupin was a weakness that those hunting him could exploit. Also, he had loved ones who didn't know the truth about what he was doing. Claire, his ex-girlfriend (ex-wife??), knew he was involved in shady stuff and broke up with him because all the secrecy and broken promises were too much for her. However, she still maintained a friendly relationship with him, which was good considering that she was also the mother of his child. Raoul, Assane's son, had no clue about any of the stuff Assane was up to, although he learned to love Arsene Lupin just like his father.

Race came up a few times in the series, although not so much directly as in the assumptions of characters and even viewers. In the first episode, for example, Assane was introduced as part of the cleaning staff at the Louvre, apparently barely scraping by. He and Claire were friendly, but there were indications that he'd previously been late giving her money for child support and that he couldn't really afford to give her the money he was giving her now. He needed extra cash and had big plans to get it, but could he pull it off? By the end of the episode, however, viewers got to learn how much of what they'd just seen was true, how much was false, and how much they'd filled in themselves based on how Assane had been presented to them.

Most (all?) of the episodes had at least one moment in which Assane met someone who said something to the effect of "I didn't expect someone like you [to spend millions on a necklace, uncover dirt on one of the most powerful men in the country, etc.]." His response was always a pointed "Someone like me?" At which time the speaker hastily came up with an explanation that wasn't "a Black guy," even though it was clear that's what they'd actually meant.

So far this seems to be a fairly tightly focused series - other than a scene or two during the flashbacks, no side trips to pull off thefts unrelated to Assane's father's death. I admit, that's been a little disappointing, since watching Assane convince people to happily hand over their stuff is entertaining, but hopefully that means the series as a whole has a coherent plan and will come to a satisfying conclusion. I'm looking forward to seeing what Part 2 will be like (I kind of wish I'd waited until that was out before watching Part 1), and I'm crossing my fingers that Assane and his friends and family all make it through okay.

Note: There is an adorable dog named J'accuse (who has been trained to bark whenever Pellegrini's name is mentioned - "J'accuse" indeed). At one point, the dog appears to potentially be in peril. If you're like me and fret about animals, allow me to reassure you that the dog makes it through just fine.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Possibly because Ang Lee's Hulk was released only 5 years prior, The Incredible Hulk doesn't attempt to give viewers a movie-length origin story. Instead, the Hulk's origin story is sketched out in silent (and fairly cheesy) snippets during the opening credits. The rest of the movie is about Bruce Banner's quest to cure himself as General Ross, the father of Betty Ross, Bruce's ex-girlfriend and fellow researcher, tries to find and capture him. The General wants to examine the Hulk and use show more him to engineer an army of super-soldiers.

That's it, that's really all there is to the story. The story also has a breathtakingly unethical professor and a soldier who inexplicably decides to keep working with the General after the man purposely sends on him a mission with disastrously incomplete information.

I'll just say right now that I was never a fan of the Hulk comics. I think I might have read a few, but I definitely never got into them. I know I saw Ang Lee's Hulk but all I can remember about it, besides its distracting use of split screen, is that it underwhelmed me. A second Hulk movie didn't seem like a good idea to me.

Surprisingly, this wasn't all that bad. Yes, nearly every other movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I've seen is better than this one, but it could have been a lot worse. Edward Norton was excellent as Bruce Banner, the Hulk looked fabulous, and I enjoyed most of the movie up until the appearance of the Abomination. Considering how many of the first movies for particular characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are origin stories, it felt a little weird that this one sped the origin story in the opening credits and then moved on from there, but I adjusted quickly enough.

Still, the movie wasn't without its problems. It was cheesy as heck at times, and General Ross was so obsessed with the Hulk that he came across as being a little ridiculous. It was hard to believe he kept getting the funding and soldiers necessary to keep going after the Hulk when he wasted his resources so spectacularly.

And speaking of difficult to believe things, Blonsky/the Abomination didn't work for me at all. A smart man would have ditched General Ross. Instead, Blonsky asked to be injected with stuff that hadn't even been properly tested, all because he'd been promised it'd make him stronger. Then he was left unsupervised long enough to have a chat with "Mr. Blue," even though he looked absolutely awful and should have set off all kinds of mental alarm bells in the people around him.

Betty was an uninteresting character, and it didn't help that I'm really not a fan of Liv Tyler. Marvel movies have a terrible habit of pairing superheroes up with utterly boring love interests. Of the ones I've seen, I can only think of one or two exceptions. The most interesting thing about Betty was probably the guy she was dating when Bruce came back. Yeah, the guy did something that could have gotten both Bruce/Hulk and Betty killed, but his reaction afterward demonstrated more mental flexibility than most of the movie's named characters combined.

I haven't seen this movie on any "you need to watch this before Infinity War" lists, and I don't recall any of the events and characters in this movie ever coming up again (other than Bruce/the Hulk, of course). I don't imagine it's very high on most people's MCU-watching priorities, but at least it isn't a terrible one to get through if you decide to be a completeist and watch the whole MCU lineup. The only thing I'll add is that, other than the cab ride scene and the issue of Bruce's pants, it doesn't really have much in the way of lightness and humor.

Additional Comments:

There's a scene where you're made to think that Bruce's dog was killed. It's then revealed that he was actually hit with a tranquilizer dart. The dog is never seen again after that point - I prefer to think that he found a new home.

Extras:

- Deleted scenes: Nothing much worthwhile here.

- Feature commentary with director Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth: I didn't listen to this.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

An army general chases the Hulk.

There's no story, and almost no sense of fun.

Concept: D
Story: F
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: D
Special effects/design: F
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: C minus

GPA: 1.4/4