Directed by Sam Liu

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Greg Pak’s “Planet Hulk” story. It’s essentially the story that got me into the Hulk. Needless to say, I was excited to hear of the Marvel animated feature based on his epic. Given the success of the previous installments in the impressive direct-to-DVD library (not to mention the praise of the original comic story), the bar was set high. I had some reservations going in, but they were all mostly technical. How would they adapt a year’s worth of comics into an 80 minute film? How would they address the characters I KNOW wouldn’t be available to them to use since they’re licensed to other companies? In short, they handled it pretty well.

For starters, the opening scene with the Illuminati rocketing Hulk into space prominently features Iron Man and Doctor Stranged (stars of their own animated features), but Reed Richards and Professor Xavier are in shadows. We know who they are, but no one has to get sued. Everybody wins. SPOILER ALERT! The Silver Surfer/Savage is replaced by Beta Ray Bill in what has to be one of his first animated appearances. It works well, though since he’s introduced in the flashback we saw in the comic where Korg tells of how he “met” Thor. It’s a decent change. Would it have been cool to see the Surfer? Absolutely. But it was just impossible, so it’s easy to forgive the change.

The gang's all here for this one.

Story-wise, all the important stuff is there, but some of the subplots and development on the supporting characters get swept under the rug in place of some truly epic action scenes. The fights in this movie are REALLY cool and the designs hearken back to the comics on which they’re based, but with a definite “animated” update. The comic story is huge. Sacrifices HAD to be made. Fans of the comic will notice missing bits and pieces, but I don’t know that they’ll actually MISS anything. The movie is solid. I will say, however, that it doesn’t end where I thought it would. I was hoping for a cliffhanger ending to lead directly to a World War Hulk movie, but instead, it ends on something of a high-note. Good for Hulk, but the death of Sakaar would have looked really great. There’s still a chance for a sequel, but a direct tease would have been nice.

The 2-disc DVD and blu-ray have an AMAZING assortment of bonus features. There are two featurettes on the comic and making the film, a full episode of Wolverine and the X-Men where Wolverine faces the Hulk, the first episodes of both the Spider-Woman and Astonishing X-Men motion comics (that also get the music video treatment in yet another bonus item) and the opening sequence to the next Marvel animated feature, Thor: Tales of Asgard. That is a LOT of content beyond the movie. Hulk Vs was pretty barebones, so it’s nice to see them step it up for this new release. Depending on where you shop, the 2-disc DVD and blu-ray are the same price, so PS3 owners should definitely get the HD version.

All in all, I give the feature a solid 4.5 out of 5 smashed wildebots. The DVD/blu-ray gets a definite 5 out of 5 baskets of everything.