Featured Review: INCREDIBLE HULK

The Incredible Hulk



Starring- Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Lou Ferrigno



Directed by Louis Leterrier



Grade: B




"As far as I'm concerned that man's whole body is property of the US Army."

Edward Norton's Hulk gets angry when you compare him to Eric Bana's Hulk. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. Indeed, much of The Incredible Hulk's credo is trying to stay as far away from the first film as possible, despite the mere five years it took to reboot the franchise. For all that it gets ridiculed, Ang Lee's Hulk wasn't THAT bad. But with new people in charge and Marvel Studios primed to handle their property better, The Incredible Hulk is made bigger, better, stronger, and less touchy-feely. Was it worth it?

With an ample amount of projects in the pipeline for Marvel Studios, one has to ask if making another Hulk film was relevant. After all, with Thor and The Avengers and Ant-Man (yes, Ant-Man) needing summer real estate property, why remake a superhero that's been tainted in the public opinion not so long ago?

These auspicious beginnings start the film off cloudy. Unlike Hulk's summer brother Iron Man, this film doesn't have an extensive origin story. In fact, it has none at all. We see the basic idea of Norton's Bruce Banner undergoing his gamma radiation accident, and small clips of the ensuing rampage during the opening credits. General Ross (William Hurt) fills Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) and the audience in with vague details of why Banner was working in the lab, but it never evolves. If the viewer wanted to know why Banner became the Hulk, they'd have to recall the 2003 film, which is the entire antithesis to the reason this one was made.

The second scene salvages the non-existent backstory. We see Banner years after his exile from America, living in the slums of Brazil, trying to find a cure for his 'disease'. The foreign set and action pieces, combined with the choppy history of the character's past actually conjures up vibes of the Bourne trilogy. Immediately we realize they're going for a grittier movie than Lee's version.

Hulk's CGI is grittier as well. Gone is the smooth, bright green, almost cartoonish texture that the campy television show and the last film featured. Leterrier's version is ripped and bumpy, dark green and almost gray like his original comic counterpart was. He eschews the bright purple gym pants for normal ones (even making an inside joke about them. Take THAT Ang Lee!).

There's just one noticeable problem about the casting. While Marvel did a little too good of a job replacing Jennifer Connelly with Liv Tyler and Sam Elliott with William Hurt (did anybody notice the difference between any of them?), they didn't re-tool the CGI character for Norton. Both the 2003 and 2008 Hulks, while different in many aspects, still feature the same kind of brute-faced, black-haired look. While Norton is always a refreshing actor in films, his superhero identity still looked like Eric Bana. The whole reason Bana was cast in the first place was because he looked like a human version of what his character became. If they truly wanted to separate themselves from the previous installment, they could've took some liberty with molding the Hulk a little closer to Norton's image.

Tim Roth also seems like an odd choice as the super-soldier Emil Blonsky turned mutant villain Abomination. His acting was spot on, but Roth is a mere 5'7, playing a world-class military expert who eventually gets drugged up enough before transforming that he has human superpowers. This slight can be worked around, but Leterrier shows a critical moment in the plot where Roth has to stand side by side with William Hurt, who's 6'2. The difference is staggering, and distracts from remembering Roth is supposed to be nearly invincible at times.

Otherwise, the film is an entertaining two hours. Most of the action scenes are thrilling without being overlong or tedious. The CGI is more polished than its predecessor, as is the acting. It's not as good as Iron Man, but we can basically see where Marvel Studios is going with its projects. Packaged with Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark cameo and Tim Blake Nelson's quirky supporting character tie-in as Samuel Sterns, The Avengers better be a masterpiece, since in effect Hulk and Iron Man boils down to being two hours teases for the future films.

If they decide in 2013 that this Hulk is unsatisfactory, and another reboot is made, that'll make me angry. You'd like it when I'm angry, makes for a better blog.