The Principles: Louis Letterier (Director). Edward Norton. Liv Tyler. Tim Roth. An army of pixel movers.
The Premise:
Dr. Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays, turned into The Hulk. Ain’t he unglamo-rays! Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull, ain’t no monster clown who is as lovable as ever-lovin’ Hulk, Hulk, Hulk!
Is It Good:
Yes. More or less. Mostly! Look, The Incredible Hulk isn’t perfect. The movie has some pacing issues, and I think that elements of the script feel half-baked (or pulled out of the oven, perhaps by an enthusiastic star, before they could get fully baked. Or something. An analogy like that), but Louis Letterier’s film offers pulse pounding Hulk action in the great Marvel tradition. Say what you want about the Ang Lee Hulk (I’m against it), but even the film’s defenders must admit it ends with the Hulk fighting a fucking cloud. In The Incredible Hulk the movie ends with Hulk fighting a huge ass monster with nasty bone spurs.
You can pretend that this movie takes place in continuity with Ang Lee’s, but the opening credits really throw that out the window (even though the movie starts in the same geographical region where that movie ended). The film’s real continuity is with movies that haven’t come out yet; the Super Soldier Serum, a component of The First Avenger: Captain America, shows up, and at the end Tony Stark walks into the film to discuss The Avengers (for those anally retentively keeping score, The Incredible Hulk is set after Iron Man 2).
And while Letterier’s film may not have a scene as flat out awesome as Ang Lee’s Hulk bounding through the desert, it does up the action factor considerably. There are some terrific action beats in this film – the favela chase ending with the Hulk fucking up a team of commandos, the assault on the college campus and the final battle in and through the streets of Harlem – and while I do wish that the stuff between these action beats had been tighter, I still really enjoyed the film.
Is It Worth A Look:
Yes. If you’re a Marvel Movie Universe completist that goes without a doubt. If you’re a fan of action movies, the same. If you’re a fan of big monsters punching each other movies then yes, for sure. I won’t pretend that The Incredible Hulk works on the level of an Iron Man – there were too many cooks in this kitchen and I think that nobody quite figured out how to make the movie in between the scenes of the Hulk smashing. But Letterier is a stylish director who stages interesting action, and can even get you involved in a fight between two completely virtual opponents.
Random Anecdotes:
I love the intensity of the favela chase. Tim Roth’s body should always be clothed. I like that they included a pizza man best friend for Bruce and Betty. There are some shout outs to the stultifying TV show, but they’re kept manageable. Hulk should have talked more.
Cinematc Soulmates: Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Planet Hulk. Raging Bull
Tally So Far:
19 comments
I really enjoyed this movie. Never been a Hulk comic fan other than Peter David's run, but yeah, this was a really, really good Hulk movie. However, "Mr Blue" turning out to be The Leader was lame.
While Iron Man is, on a technical level, a better film, I enjoy The Incredible Hulk way more. The combination of Leterrier's astute direction, Ed Norton clearly having a blast, the best action of any Marvel film AND a Martin Star cameo, I find I enjoy Hulk more than pretty much any other recent Marvel flick (aside from Blade 2).
GREAT film!!! And thanks, I could never figure out what they were singing in that '60s Hulk theme song. Unglamo-rays. Who'd a thunk it?
I think it was smart to reference the TV show – for all it's slow pace and melancholy it still has the best/most humanistic take on Banner's story. But it's hard to beat that Desert/Happy Leaping Hulk sequence – with that big green glorious bastard free of all that "greek tragedy" silliness.
Not to mention the CGI in this film's HULK pounds the gamma out of Ang Lee's.
eh, I don't know — TIH is the dumbed down version of Ang Lee's HULK.. dumbed down = better for most people
I LOVED The Incredible Hulk. Just a great movie all around. I think my favorite character was Blonsky, which was an interesting direction for them to go in. Kind of made me sad that if there is a sequel (they've been talking of doing one after the Avengers movie) that he is stuck as the Abomination and can't turn back into Blonski.
Ang Lee's HULK was aweful, and the only way to watch it is with Quiptracks:
http://quiptracks.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=13&zenid=9a92c161943c801d0c2092536b844454
It's good until the movie leaves Brazil.
Interesting how after 8 comments, we haven't had 1 Ang Lee gusher come in a try to spew shit about how the 2003 HULK ws better and I'll tell ya: I'm a big fan of the HULK, and grew up on the character right down to the TV Series, but no way can someone tell me that Ang Lee's version was better than Norton's simply because the law of physics was shit right down to the sand dune tumble in the 2003 movie and HULK looking more like a mongoloid baby having a fit for not getting his way while the 2008 HULK made certain to separate from Ang Lee's HULK in that he made you want to shit your pants when he was on screen right down to the facial closeup shots… Let's hope THIS HULK ends up being in the AVENGERS, even if he's the villain which is the only way it'd work anyway…
Ang Lee's Hulk blows. This was much closer to the movie version of the Hulk I was hoping for.
I both hate and love this movie. On one hand it's unapologetically a monster movie, on the other it's stupid as hell. Standard saturday morning cartoon shit. Say what you want about ang lee's hulk but you can tell he was trying to be all deep and shit with it.
Hulk HAS to be brought back to fight Thor. There's your Marvel Movie Universe cameo in the Thor movie right there, even if it's just Stark and Banner. Maybe it could even be in the opening bookend segment of Captain America. Their battle (or maybe an early version of the Avengers team) leads to the discovery of Cap's body/cue main WWII storyline/Cap is revived in modern day. Ta-da!
SO glad they cut out those extra Norton scenes. Watched them on the Blu-Ray and they're ALL actor jack-off improv bullshit. Painful.
I wish this film had been a bigger hit so that we could look forward to more Tim Blake Nelson. Perhaps in The Avengers?
Im glad they're trying to keep all these superheroes in the same universe/dimension for an eventual avengers flick.. too bad ant-man and the wasp are too lame to get their own franchises..
If one wants to, it is quite easy to fit this with Lee's version. the opening credits montage contains almost no dialog, we just get the story from context. But it's just as easy to assume that what happens in the montage is an attempt by Bruce and Betty to de-hulk him, between the films. Plenty of precedent for such in the comics.
This was a fun movie, but I enjoyed Lee's film more (and I'm not a huge fan of Lee). Devin is right that the ending was incredibly weak. The rest I thought was wonderful.
Totally enjoyed this one from beginning to end. Plus, Tim Blake Nelson as the leader. That might make for a pretty good Avengers villain, look at what he's doing in the comic books right now.
I liked this movie. I really liked the first half more because it felt like the old T.V. show which was better than the first movie. It had the piano music, Ed Norton seemed like the late Bill Bixby, and even was watching the Courtship of Eddie's Father which was funny. The last half was good, but the feel of the movie changed which was kind of strange. I wonder what someone like Crononberg would do with the Hulk stories.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.