The Incredible Hulk

The concept that you never get a second chance to make a first impression was obviously lost on Marvel and the filmmakers behind The Incredible Hulk. Despite the fact that the classic green icon’s first foray onto the silver screen in 2003 was an underwhelming dud, we’re greeted this summer with another installment—only, instead of getting a sequel, audiences are being offered a complete reimagining of the gamma ray-infused tale. Yes, Hulk gets a do-over.

Throwing the original’s heavy, brooding, and sleep-inducing plotline out a smashed window, The Incredible Hulk also trades in its actors. Goodbye Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly; hello Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. It’s a rather fair and equal trade as far as acting goes but, let’s be honest, Oscar-winners needn’t apply. The first movie faltered because it couldn’t turn a classic comic into a thoughtful, character-driven, thematic opus. Hulk is a man who morphs into a not-so-jolly green giant when you make him angry. This shouldn’t be a picture about acting. It should be a picture about action. Thankfully, that’s something French director Louis Leterrier knows how to bring. After helming The Transporter and its follow-up, it’s safe to say he gets off on making set pieces go "Boom!" And in that, fans of onscreen fireworks, mangled metal, and shattered glass will feel right at home, as the story keeps things very simple and lends itself instead to lengthy and detailed rock 'em, sock 'em battle sequences.

Three major throwdowns populate the picture. The first takes place in the gorgeously cramped streets of Brazil. It’s here that Dr. Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) has been hiding since an experiment went awry, desperately trying to suppress and remove his urge to go green and postal every time his heart starts pounding. When he’s discovered and finally cornered by the military and General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross (a one-note William Hurt), people who’d love nothing more than to harvest his superhuman abilities, we get our first glimpse at Hulk 2.0 (or is it Hulk 2008?). Leterrier toys with his audience, keeping the beast in the shadows, but when we are eventually offered that peek—while Hulk is hurling a forklift, no less—it’s not at a green, prosthetically enhanced Edward Norton; rather, it’s at the unveiling of a giant computer generated creation. The revelation, in all its sinewy gray-green glory, is a bummer. It’s not to say the special effects aren’t good, it’s just to say that, from this point on, The Incredible Hulk starts to resemble a big budget version of a video game. Come on, even The Fantastic Four’s Thing was spared a CG fate! Alas, it wasn’t meant to be here. Especially given the explosive scenarios screenwriter Zak Penn (with the help of Norton) has created. Hulk tears cars into two pieces like they’re loaves of bread, then uses them like cymbals to bludgeon his adversaries. He flips tanks with ease and he bellows like King Kong on a very bad day. No, it’s not easy being green, and it’s understood why this film had to go the digital route (after all, another green-dyed Lou Ferrigno in torn purple sweatpants we did not want). Still, it would have been nice for scenes, namely the climax where Hulk and a gamma-radiated military monster (Tim Roth) smash their way through New York rooftops and city blocks, to feel a little less controlled by a fanboy’s joystick.

Beyond that, Edward Norton and Liv Tyler, who seems to utter every one of her lines on a breathless exhale, make passable do with the mushy material in between the eye-popping mayhem and explosions. It’s almost a surprise, in fact, when some steamy chemistry finds itself seeping into the movie’s quieter moments. But don’t worry, Mom, this one’s still for the kids. Indeed, The Incredible Hulk is a quintessential "summer movie," an escapist comic book flick that delivers enough wallops and "Wow!" moments to warrant coming in from the sun. It’s nothing more and maybe only a little less than what it should be, a bonus notion that far outshines the franchise's initial misfire. Finally, we can forget that other Hulk. Because, at the very least, this green giant knows how to have a little fun.

—Matthew Allard
06.13.08

Marvel Studios hits another home run with this highly satisfying revamp of their big green gamma gargantuan in The Incredible Hulk, a superhero romp that delivers solid dramatics when it's not rousing the audience with heavy doses of rock-'em sock-'em action. Taking cues from the Bill Bixby television show proved to be a smart move by the filmmaking trio of screenwriter Zak Penn, director Louis Leterrier, and star (along with uncredited script doctor) Edward Norton. Going back to Bruce Banner's on-the-run storyline successfully gives the film an immediacy that plays well into Leterrier's deft delivery of suspenseful set pieces. Another angle that plays well is the film's scope and use of location -- from the impressive Brazilian locales to the dreamlike pollen-filled air of early summer in Virginia, the size, color, and overall feel couldn't be more refreshing after the arid surroundings that housed Ang Lee's monster with daddy issues in the desert outing. As a revitalization of the franchise, the revamp works from minute one. Smartly, the studio once again put its trust in some gutsy casting, populating the film with sufficient talent that leaves the awkward days of Ben Affleck and Jessica Alba in the dust.

The similarities between the production and its equally successful 2008 cinematic cousin, Iron Man, are evident in the casts alone. Just as Jeff Bridges lent an air of respectability to that picture as the heavy, so here does William Hurt in the role of General Ross, the war-mongering father to the film's love interest, Betty Rossa (capably played by Liv Tyler). Aiding him is Tim Roth, who, as viewers have seen in the past (most notably in Rob Roy), exceeds at being a dastardly counterbalance of the protagonist -- in whom we're handed a curious but inspired choice in Norton. The actor brings a nice gravity to the role of Bruce Banner, a character whose battles with self-control greatly figures into the crux of this performance. Never straying too far into melodrama, with bits of humor spread throughout (thanks to a welcome key role from none other than Tim Blake Nelson), the cast of The Incredible Hulk strikes a unique tonal balance all their own and manages to sustain a valid take on the material over the course of the nearly two-hour time frame.

As for the main monster himself, he's handled very much in a smart way -- mysterious at first, then taking center stage as the two-fisted misunderstood hero later on in the pic. Effects-wise, the green beast is a vivid onscreen presence hampered only by a scant amount of far-too-fast movements, which in its defense, hampers most of his other effects-driven contemporaries around this time (i.e. Transformers). Otherwise, there are a handful of inspired performance-driven animated scenes at play here -- best seen in the softer moments that push the character beyond his patented "Hulk Smash!" tagline. Thankfully the production knows that that is exactly what much of the audience is there for -- and it has no problem delivering the smashing scenes with gamma-radiated gusto. When it comes down to it, the film achieves what it set out to do -- successfully revive a character in such a familiar way that audiences don't get wrapped up in the semantics of whether it's a sequel, prequel, or doggone reinterpretation. This is the Hulk that everyone knows and loves -- and it's a pleasure to see him roar the way he's always been intended to. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide