Blu-ray Movie Reviews

"Hulk Vs. Wolverine": Alberta, Canada. The Incredible Hulk has been tearing a line across the Canadian countryside, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. He has to be stopped, and there's only one man up to the job. He's the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice. He's Wolverine, an elite agent of Canada's top secret Department H, and he's been put on Hulk's trail with a single objective: stop the green goliath...at all costs. Hulk and Wolverine are about to enter the fiercest battle of their lives.

"Hulk Vs. Thor": Asgard, realm of the gods. For ages, Loki the trickster has sought a way to bring defeat to his accursed stepbrother, Thor. But for all the battles Thor has fought, in all the nine realms, only one creature has ever been able to match his strength - a mortal beast of Midgard known as The Incredible Hulk. Now, with Odin, the almighty king of the gods, deep in a regenerative sleep, and the forces protecting Asgard at their weakest, Loki is finally ready to spring his trap. In an epic battle that will pit gods against monsters, that will test a hero's limits more than ever before, only The Mighty Thor can hope to prevail.

Hulk Vs is made up of two short animated productions that have no tie in to another aside from having the Hulk in them. Hulk Vs. Wolverine actually has more to do with Wolverine than the Hulk and was a bit disappointing. I was hoping this would be an animated version of the popular issue from The Incredible Hulk that pitted the two against one another but it isn’t. Wolverine is captured by Weapon X during a fight with The Hulk and Weapon X is looking to add The Hulk to their army. You get more character exploration of Wolverine than the Hulk and ultimately it is a rather ho-hum episode with animation that is only a bit better than what we see from daytime cartoons. The second film pits The Hulk against Thor as Thor’s brother Loki separates The Hulk from Bruce Banner in order to defeat Thor but all goes wrong as The Hulk cannot be controlled. This was the better of the two features but again the production doesn’t rise up to the level I was hoping for. Ultimately diehard comic fans will probably enjoy the shorts but I was hoping for a bit more in the production department and storylines.

The animation is about the same for both features and again only looks a bit more produced than what you see on daytime cartoons. The resolution holds up well but the character and environment animations are pretty simple. I saw some light banding from time to time but aside from that the rest of the presentation is strong. Colors are balanced nicely and I didn’t see any shimmering artifacts at all. Depth of image is strong but dimensionality is average given the animation style.

The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks are good all things considering and above the level of presentation I would expect for short animated films like this. Surround envelopment was a bit weak with a very front heavy design but dynamic range was impressive for the most part. You get plenty of thunderous bass from The Hulk and his destruction and the voice work is actually pretty good though a bit too cliqued.

Each feature has its own supplements including dual audio commentaries for each. You also get production features that look into the creation of the features, retrospectives on some of the characters, trailers and a look at the introduction of the Hulk Vs Wolverine from Comic-Con. There are also first looks for an upcoming Wolverine and Thor animated release.

I would only recommend this to fans of the comics and these characters. They don’t have nearly the spit and polish of some of the bigger budget animated features out there and the storylines are pretty simple. For fans the A/V presentation is solid and there are plenty of features so this would be a safe buy.