Superhero Media: Planet Hulk (2010)

I picked this up on DVD a number of years back, well before I read the comic of the same name, and I remember really enjoying it. When I got around to watching it again for "Superhero Media", I was actually a little excited, because sometimes it seems that all I'm doing is re-watching crap like Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and Green Lantern rather than anything good. So I put Planet Hulk in the DVD player and... was frankly disappointed. Maybe I've been spoiled by the MCU and DCAU, but Planet Hulk looks really crummy, the acting is barely passable and some of the best parts of the comic are glossed over. The most fun I had watching were all of the Guardians of the Galaxy cameos and the revised Korg backstory featuring Beta-Ray Bill, as Lionsgate didn't have the rights to Silver Surfer for the production. Though, why aren't Starlord, Adam Warlock and Gamora helping their old pal Hulk out of bondage? 

So let's talk about the gamma-irradiated elephant in the room, the fan "demand" for an MCU Planet Hulk film that pops up every now and then. Evidently, there was a "backlash" that portions of the Planet Hulk narrative and imagery found their way into Thor Ragnarok, rather than being its own film. Now, I wasn't regularly reading new comics when the Planet Hulk story-line was running, so I'm not sure how "big" it was, but it is certainly one of the classic Hulk stories and a really fun read. That said, I'm really not sure how well it would translate into a film. There's a reason the Iron Man film franchise didn't do direct adaptations of "Demon in a Bottle", "Extremis" and "Five Nightmares", but rather amalgamated the parts of the stories that worked in the MCU milieu to create interesting cinema. I really don't think that the MCU Hulk, as much fun as he is, could carry a film that would primarily be CGI and motion-capture, like Avatar, and have it be to the same level of Marvel Studios efforts like... pick anything from Civil War onward, really.

If you have to be a completionist, check out Planet Hulk, but I really don't recommend it over the comics or Thor Ragnarok, especially as both are now really easy to get your hands on. I can't even say that this works for children, as the amount of blood and fighting ups the rating to M 15+ here in Australia, so, again, you may as well slap Thor Ragnarok in the DVD player or cue it up on demand. Also, because I know someone's thinking it, Taika Waititi is the best Korg, don't even at me, nerds. Maybe one day, when the MCU has rebooted, we'll get a "proper" Planet Hulk film, but don't hold your breath for Mark Ruffalo to be signing up for it anytime soon. Also, Red King is just kind of a crummy villain, I think people forget that because the rest of the characters work so well. Food for thought.