Planet Hulk! World Premiere Screening Event in NY
The event was hosted at the Paley Center and was moderated by comic fan and former schoolteacher turned WWE SmackDown Superstar Matt Striker and featured panelists Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics Joe Quesada, Planet HulkComic Book Author Greg Pak and President of Marvel Animation Eric Rollman.
The event started off with a cramped and rushed red carpet interview session. There was not much to ask and the interviewees were even less willing or able to answer most of the questions asked. Case in point most everyone asked about the Spectacular Spider-man since this was a marvel animated event. Eric Rollman who was most qualified to answer said that while he’s an executive producer that there’s simply nothing to report since things are still settling in since the Disney acquisition.
I asked Joe Quesada is he envisioned that this might be the first in a serialized set of Hulk movies with this leading into World War Hulk and was told that he could not speculate and that it would depend upon sales of the film. I asked Greg Pak if he could confirm any involvement of the Green Goliath and friends playing a part in the Marvel Comic Event: Siege and he said he could not divulge any information on that but advised we all pick up both “Fall of The Hulks” books out next Thursday.
We asked about the Disney influence and Joe (wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt no less) said that Disney has been great and that they have more or less said keep on doing what you’re doing and that they fully support Marvel.
Moving on to the movie itself, the movie is pretty good. It has a decent pacing and it of course had to make some concessions for time. You simply can not take a 14 part comic series and squeeze it into a 76 minute animated feature. The story hits most of not all the plot points but story layers lack depth at times. The comic had more time to flesh out the alien cultures and religions. There are lots of great cameos by galactic types who might be guarding something these days.
One of the more obvious differences is the switcheroo of a big name character from the original material. I have to say though I didn’t mind the stand in. He filled the spot nicely and unless you were expecting a certain shiny metallic surfer of the skyways who once was in the employ of an eater of worlds you may not even realize that he has been replaced by a certain horse faced hammer throwing Thor wannabe.
Silver Surfer aka The Silver Savage was unable to be used to due to “restrictions” apparently due to rights over at 20th Century Fox. Beta Ray Bill was brought in and sincerely while some Surfer fans will be disappointed I actually enjoyed seeing Bill in the spot.
Amongst the Hulk’s supporting cast are his fellow gladiators of the “Warbound”. They are Korg, Miek, Elloe, and Hiroim. They are oppressed by The Red King and Caiera. The voice acting is good and while I have nothing bad to say other then that Miek initially sounded like an annoying impersonation of Gollum from Lord of the Rings but eventually comes into his own as one of my favorite characters in the film. There is nothing to go wild about either.
There are some plot elements that are not explained in the film that are a bit confusing unless you read the material or just are not that inquisitive like why Hulk gets cut open so much. I mean on earth the green guy gets his by missles, bullets and even Wolverine’s claws and seems to take no damage. On the planet of Sakarr however Hulk spills a great deal of blood. In the comic it is explained that those who have traveled through the wormhole to find Sakarr are weakened.
After the film the panel took questions from the audience made up of fans and a few press members. Matt Striker poured praise on the panel for an abnormally long time. The typical questions were asked about why we don’t get live action films like Planet Hulk and Joe was quick to say you’d need “James Cameron level money” to make such a film and that animation allows telling these types of stories.
A fan asked about the Silver Surfer switch and Joe and Eric stated there were restrictions but that these are becoming less and less of a problem. They sited Wolverine’s appearance in the Hulk Vs. film and said that was allowed since it was in actuality a short film within a feature length film.
A fan pretty harshly made it clear that he thought the Hulk films sucked and wanted to know when we’d get better Hulk live actions films. Joe said that he thought the more recent one was good. I agree by the way.
A fan wanted to know why we did not see Banner in the film and Greg Pak said that because of the dangerous environment of this planet Banner would probably be eaten within 25 minutes on Sakarr.
Another fan asked why Hulk doesn’t change back to Banner when knocked unconscious and the panel seemed to juggle this question a bit. Joe said that depending upon continuities in films, television shows, cartoons and the comics it was a tricky topic. Greg Pak said that while Hulk might be knocked unconscious he could still be mad and while mad he would still be Hulk.
Fans asked about future projects and nothing was really announced. The flyer says that we can look forward to an opening sequence from Thor Tales of Asgard. A few of us wanted to know about maybe seeing Annihilation and the panel smiled but confirmed nothing more then that they often talk about cosmic and Joe said that he’s due to attend a summit meeting in two weeks and he knows it’ll be heavily cosmic.
The Panel was asked which comic story they’d like to brought to life in an animated feature and Greg Pak said The X-Men Brood War. Eric Rollman said he’d love to do Civil War and Joe Quesada said Civil War but then said he’d also like to see Death of Captain America.
They did a little Trivia and wrapped it up.
ComicsOnline gives Planet Hulk 4 out of 5 Gamma Bombs.
