The Incredible Hulk
(2008 review)

3 outta 5

2003’s Hulk was darkly psychological, gleefully weird, and something of a failure.  So now, The Incredible Hulk is Marvel’s newest take on the big green machine and much more commercially palatable.  This Hulk is also kind of uneven, but not in the bug-eyed crazy way its predecessor was.  Instead, Incredible Hulk has some moments that are pure comic book action, but it lacks some dramatic meat.  Incredible Hulk will sit better with audiences and it works as a pretty good entertainment.  Note the disclaimer: “pretty good”.

Mild mannered Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) has a problem: when he gets angry, he turns into a rampaging green beast called the Hulk. He is on the run from General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) and Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who want to capture Bruce and harness the rampaging beast inside of him.  When Bruce finds his former girlfriend, Betty (Liv Tyler), they go in search of a cure for Bruce’s condition… but Blonsky’s quest to defeat Banner may lead to the creation of an even deadlier monster known as the Abomination.

During the development of Incredible Hulk, Norton and Marvel had a public spat over the final cut of the movie.  He wanted the longer version; they wanted the shorter one.  The theatrical cut feels a bit incomplete, numerous scenes pop in the ads that are nowhere in the final product.  There will probably be an extended DVD release eventually, but the movie doesn’t need to be longer, it simply needs to flow better.  Example: a subplot that seems like it went under the editing knife was everything with Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) becoming Hulk’s future nemesis, the Leader.  His scenes are there to set up more installments, but only those with a PHD in Hulk facts will get it. Everyone else may be left wondering what the hell the hyperactive weird guy was in the movie for. 

Norton, who also did an uncredited rewrite of the movie’s script, is a good choice for puny Banner.  To Norton’s detriment, you never quite get the feeling he’s a simmering pot of repressed rage like Eric Bana’s version. But Norton does add an interesting dimension to the character: he’s scared to death of the Hulk and wants to stop it.  This is pretty similar to how Bill Bixby from the TV series played Banner. There are weaker performances from the two other big roles, William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross and Liv Tyler as Betty.  Hurt is never quite engaged with a righteous fury befitting a guy named “Thunderbolt”.  Tyler has a few good moments, but her insistence upon breathlessly whispering every other line gets irritating.  

The best performance is Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, an over-the-hill black ops spook who undergoes an injection of super-soldier serum to make himself better, faster, stronger.   When somebody asks him how he feels, Blonsky, sweating and grimacing like a junkie needing a fix, growls, “Like a monster.”  Roth sells Blonsky’s descent from consummate professional to compete substance-addicted psycho.  Blonsky takes beating the Hulk as a matter of personal pride.  Like all good villains, he believes he is in the right.   

The visual effects in Incredible Hulk are pretty decent.  Hulk doesn’t look as doughy and insubstantial as he was in the first film – he has more weight, and he’s extremely expressive.  However, the lighting integration of the CGI to live action isn’t always perfect.  But at some point you have to suspend disbelief and just roll with the giant green guy that smashes stuff. 

Action-wise, the pieces get more elaborate and better as the movie rolls on.  The final smackdown between Hulk and Abomination is suitably epic and moves at a blindingly fast pace.  As for the scenes shot in downtown Hamilton, it’s only there for about a minute when Hulk and Abomination tussle.  By the climax, the movie has really embraced its comic book roots, and hearing the Hulk yell, “Hulk smash!” with his voice provided by 70s TV show Hulk Lou Ferrigno is downright cathartic for comic-book geeks.

There is a scene at the very end of Incredible Hulk, similar to the post-credits scene in Iron Man, which teases a future Avengers movie franchise.  Marvel’s big movie masterplan is to combine all the actors and characters into one movie, kind of like Oceans Eleven but with superheroes. On its own, the Hulk final scene is good, but it deflates the true ending that occurs seconds before with a close-up of Banner’s Cheshire Cat smile.  If the final scene of Hulk had been moved to before the scene with Banner, or after the credits like in Iron Man, it would have played better.  As it stands, the “teaser” doesn’t work as a dramatically satisfying ending for this Hulk movie.

The Incredible Hulk is a decent entry into the franchise that should satisfy most viewers, even if it is a bit haphazard in its assembly.  But fans of the TV series and people who want things more action-packed should like it. With Incredible, the Hulk firmly smashes his way into modern film popular culture.  Maybe someday he’ll even get a great movie.