My Two Cents - What Could Have Been

It's the movie-goer's lament...what could have been. How many times have you been lured to the movie theater by incredible trailers and word-of-mouth...only to walk out an hour and a half later shaking your head, muttering, "What in the heck did I just see?"
There is an old Italian proverb that says, "There is no worse thief than a bad book." It's fairly safe to argue that a bad movie could be a second cousin to that thief. And sad to say...but it happens more times than we care to admit.
A great example that comes to mind is "Hulk", Ang Lee's version of the classic Marvel comics character. The hype surrounding this movie was unbelievable. Every person I knew was dying for it to come out. I actually bought my movie ticket three days in advance. And then...I went. Two hours and eighteen minutes later, I was walking out of a movie theater, shaking my head, and muttering to myself, "What in the heck did I just see?"
The depressing part is that this movie could have been great. The potential was there. It had a good cast. Ang Lee is an excellent director. The Hulk is one of the classic superheroes ever...and should have made an incredible leap to the big screen. So, what happened? For starters, it was over an hour into the movie before you even see the Hulk for the first time. When it takes almost half the movie before the title character actually shows up...that is not a good sign. Many people were put off by the CGI Hulk, who in my humble opinion, resembled Shrek on steroids. The lack of a clear-cut bad guy (the weirdly mutated Hulk's dad) didn't help matters, either. And so...a number of little things gang up, take what should have been an awesome movie...and turn it into a so-so movie (at best).
Video store shelves are littered with movies exactly like this...and almost every movie-goers has that one film etched into their memory...a "should have been great". All we, the audience, can hope for is more good movies...and fewer mutterings.