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The Incredible Hulk | Film Review

Sun, 06/15/2008 - 14:10 — MRiedlinger

Smashing
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            Let me sum up the plot of The Incredible Hulk for you: Smash smash smash, smashy smash smash, love, smash smush, pissed off British guy, run run run, smash run, crazy scientist, bad military, love, smash smash, love. That’s really about it. It doesn’t take a S.H.I.E.L.D. special projects genetic research scientist to tell you that this is EXACTLY what fans wanted the first time around. When Hulk shows up, stuff gets broken, be it people, places or monsters.

            Edward Norton does a good job of portraying Bruce Banner this time around, capturing the pathos of Bill Bixby better than, well, Bill Bixby. The film starts off with him in Brazil working at a bottling plant so he can fund research into a possible cure for his big green condition. An on screen counter even lets us know how long it has been since Bruce got “you wouldn’t like me” angry. That’s right folks, director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Unleashed) doesn’t waste much time on the origin and back-story of the green guy. There’s a minor flashback or two, but most of the “science experiment gone wrong” sequence is in the opening credits and set against file images from the now beloved Stark Industries. Besides, that part of a Hulk story is slow and boring compared to turning cop cars into boxing gloves.

            The action starts pretty quickly in The Incredible Hulk actually. Once General Ross finds out Bruce is hanging out in Brazil, he gathers an elite strike force that includes Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs, Funny Games U.S.), a British Royal Marine from a Russian immigrant family. This update in Hulk cannon makes sense, seeing as there is no Cold War and most of the audience probably thinks Vladimir Putin is probably a Russian dessert. In any case, Blonsky survives an initial tussle with Hulk and for some reason becomes obsessed with kicking the green guy’s ass. Once he signs on with Ross for a myriad of injections of Super Soldier Serum (one of many Captain America references in the movie), he starts to lose his cool and makes hunting down Dr. Banner a personal goal.


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            Of course, Leterrier is better at the fights and explosions than emotion exposition, so Blonsky roids up, finds Banner, brings out the Hulk, and gets his ass kicked. Wash, rinse, repeat. After the third round of Blonsky bashing, Bruce and Betty Ross (Liv Tyler, making up for her abysmal role in The Strangers) finally make it to New York to see an eccentric research scientist who’s been trying to help Bruce via the lowest-tech email I’ve seen since the 90’s. That scientist is none other than Samuel Sterns, so get ready to see The Leader in any future sequels.

            Dr. Sterns finally gives Blonsky what we’ve been waiting for since we saw the first trailers for this movie. When he becomes Abomination, his escape from the lab in New York causes enough damage that Sterns winds up with Hulk-juice dripping into an open head wound. The final throw-down is just a tad better than a WWE Main Event and just before the credits it seems like Bruce is on track to use yoga to control his transformations into the Hulk. Some parts of the movie are funny, and one or two scenes get a little sappy with Betty, but over all it was pretty good. The payoff down the road here will be an Avengers movie, but it is also the reason why this one is only “pretty good”.

            Just before the credits, the film gives us our “Avengers Nugget”, much like the post-credits Nick Fury nod in Iron Man. Indeed, the scene feels like it belongs at the end of the credits, but the rumor is that Marvel Studios changed its mind last minute and didn’t want audiences to have to wait that long. Tony Stark walks into a bar and… Okay, even though it sounds like the beginning of a great joke, I won’t ruing the movie’s best scene for anyone. Unfortunately, the caliber of this scene made me realize that the preceding 112 minutes were nothing more than a big green Avengers cock tease. Realistically, the writing is only on par with your average episode of The Incredible Hulk TV show from the 70’s, but it is still worth seeing in the theater. Maybe now we can forget the Ang Lee version and he can go back to being the Crouching Tiger guy.