Hey Fallott

Different people use different meshes and methods. Studios are prone to using the 'what works best' method. Gollum was a mesh whose skin was driven purely by a muscle system, if it popped out of place they would just dial a numeric figure in to correct that particular skin area.
Where as the Hulk was a pure blend shape model, which was a poly proxy with over 300 separate shapes for the muscles so they could be directorially controlled, adding a dynamic skin effect for the driven motion of each shape. But for a bit of geekyness, the Hulks hair was actually Nurbs planes converted into cloth strips!!

Sorry getting carried away again!!!

Choose what you think suits you best at the end of the day but bare in mind a straight smoothed poly model will be okay to animate all by itself, but you can still parent 'stand in geo' for body parts to make it faster, but a subd will always require a lo res version connected to it to animate as its a 'heavy' surface once its been bound to a rig.

Hope this is a help to you.

Regards
Jay