by Rocky McVey

Marvel keeps up with its dvd releases this week with "Planet Hulk", an animated flick based on the highly popular "Planet Hulk" story-arc that Marvel ran in 2006 and 2007. The animated movie follows the storyline of the comic fairly closely, with many scenes being taken directly from the comic itself. Unfortunately, for time management purposes some things were shortened and some storylines were clumped together, but all and all it is indeed the same story. The movie skips the entire Godseye prologue and goes directly into Hulk being imprisoned on the ship and sent to another world. Hulk awakens, damaging the ship and sending it in a new direction. The ship crash lands on Sakaar where Hulk is attacked by the inhabitants of the world almost immediately after crawling from the wreckage. Hulk learns in this fight that he is not as invulnerable as he normally is and, after a small battle, has a control disk implanted in his chest leaving Hulk a slave. 

The rest of the story is about Hulk's rise through the gladiatorial arena and his battles on the planet. You also get to meet the Warbound, Hulk's allies that fight along side him in and out of the arena. One word of warning: you will find yourself really really liking Miek in this film. Be forewarned that, since this film is in the past in the Marvel Universe, we all know what Miek turns out to be in World War Hulk: a douche-bag.

Now I guess I should really give a review. The animation is on par with every other Marvel-animated work you've seen, which is a good thing because they are all done very well. The storyline has been adapted very well to film; I have no complaints there. The voice acting is also pretty damn good. If I had one argument with this film, it would be they made Hulk out to be a bigger douche-bag than he really is. For instance, in the "Planet Hulk" comic story, Hulk took the Warbound Oath and in the film he did not. However, I have to let this go because at the beginning of the comic storyline, Hulk was still mad and sort of a douche, and by the Warbound oath he had changed a bit. They get to the oath so quickly in the film, I found his attitude understandable.