The Incredible Hulk (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Good
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / June 18, 2008

The first thing you probably want to know is if this new Hulk movie is better than Ang Lee’s “Hulk” from five years ago. Yes, it is. But I didn’t hate the 2003 version like most other people did; I was just disappointed. Lee made an arty superhero movie that investigated the hero’s feelings more than his powers. But with “The Incredible Hulk,” director Louis Leterrier and writer Zak Penn give us (mostly) what we wanted, which is carnage.

In 1996 I saw “Twister” with my best friend, Bill. After it was over he made an insightful comment. Bill said, “I think it’s funny how they [the filmmakers] knew we’d want to see a lot of big stuff thrown around.” Well, Leterrier and Penn also knew this odd desire of American moviegoers. We want to see the Hulk “toss a forklift like a softball,” not search his feelings.

Notably, “The Incredible Hulk” also successfully portrays Bruce Banner’s lonely, alienated lifestyle. He is correctly depicted as a wandering stranger, drifting from place to place, trying to keep his cool and his head down. Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) is pensive and tormented.

The next thing you’ll probably want to know, after reading these first three paragraphs, is why didn’t I rate this movie as “Excellent,” or a “Masterpiece”? Two words: computer-generated imagery. CGI has proven, beyond dispute, that it is possible to have too much of a good thing. This movie might have been Excellent, but the Hulk’s face looked too much like a cartoon, and it killed the movie’s chance at any semblance of realism.

Once again I’m forced to cite the example of King Kong. I don’t know about you, but while watching Peter Jackson’s remake, I was visually convinced that I was watching an actual giant gorilla — not a cartoon. Take, for example, the scene where Kong is frolicking upon the frozen pond with Ann, and he slides into the snow bank. Snow gets into his fur, so he shakes it off. Amazing. Absolutely incredible.

So, after seeing what can be done and what wasn’t done for “The Incredible Hulk,” its cartoony Hulk knocked it down to just “Good.” But hey, it was good enough, I suppose.

In “Hulk” (2003), Eric Bana played Bruce Banner, and he’s no slouch when it comes to acting. But casting Ed Norton for the Banner role in the new movie was brilliant. Ed Norton has remarkable range as an actor. He can be funny (“Keeping the Faith“), despicable (“The Italian Job”), troubling (“Fight Club”) and downright frightening (“Primal Fear”). In short, he can be anything he wants to be, apparently, except chums with Louis Leterrier.

What pleased me most about “The Incredible Hulk,” however, was the way it dispenses with the origin story altogether by presenting it to us in brief flashes at the beginning of the film. So, within about 45 seconds or so, we see what happened in the Hulk’s past, and we pick up later on in Banner’s saga when the movie begins. Bravo.

Banner is hiding out in Brazil and desperately trying to learn to control his anger. He has a wristband that monitors his heart rate. If he gets too worked up, he hulks out. Also, from time to time we are shown a useful counter that lets us know how long it’s been since the big green guy was provoked. As the movie begins, we’re told that there have been “158 days without incident.”

But the short-sighted Gen. Ross (William Hurt), who had hoped to make genetically enhanced super-soldiers, relentlessly tracks down Banner, again and again, because he was a remarkable fluke-of-a-success story for super-soliderdom. And because the Hulk is too powerful to be contained, the general experiments with enhancing another dangerous solider, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), whose love for the strongman juice makes Barry Bonds look like Mr. Peanut. Of course, Blonsky’s insatiable lust for power and strength turns him into a monster, giving us the big clash-of-the-titans duel for a grand finale.

As far as big-budget popcorn movies go, “The Incredible Hulk” is worth renting, at the very least. But I’m a little worried about something: If Hollywood is shameless enough to try to make something like “Speed Racer” into a feature film, then I don’t think we’re safe from the likes of a “She-Hulk” movie. Please, no.

Directed by Louis Leterrier
Ed Norton / Liv Tyler / Tim Roth
Action / Sci-Fi 114 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content)

U.S. Release Date: June 13, 2008
Copyright 2008: 300