The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Bruce Banner searches for a cure for his skin condition (it ain't easy being green) only to find that seeking the cure takes him directly back into the lives of the woman he left to keep safe and the military who wants him for experimentation. Lots of things get broken, but your brain won't be one of them.

Bruce Banner (Edward Norton)
Betty Ross (Liv Tyler)
Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth)
Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson)
Dr. Samson (Ty Burrell)
Gen. Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross (William Hurt)
Voice of The Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferrigno)

Year: 2008
Censorship Rating: M (for violence)

It's probably not possible to talk about "The Incredible Hulk" without talking about Ang Lee's "Hulk". To show my colours, I liked "Hulk" despite its flaws. It was too slow and the two leads (Eric Bana and Jennifer Connolly) had no chemistry, but I liked that it tried to show more motivation to the Hulk than 'get angry, smash stuff good'. However, most people wanted to see the Hulk smash stuff good and since not enough stuff got smashed, people went home unsatisfied.

Marvel probably wasn't too happy at the results - hey, if you hire Ang Lee as director, don't expect to get a typical genre piece - but have grown in power since then. At this point Marvel has its own dedicated movie studio and is in full control of its material, so "The Incredible Hulk" should be what it wants. So far they seem to have hit on a winning strategy (well, it worked for "Iron Man" and they seem to have followed it for "The Incredible Hulk"): get a geek director who shares your sensibilities, write a script that doesn't insult the intelligence of your audience (but doesn't challenge it either) and hire a fantastic cast of actors. And by "a fantastic cast of actors", I mean "some of the best and most solid character performers you can find". Ed Norton? William Hurt? Tim Roth? Not necessarily considered top A-list names, but good actors who can sell outlandish situations.

So, how does it work out? Sadly, not as well as you might hope.

This isn't to say "The Incredible Hulk" is a bad movie: it isn't. But it isn't a film in the same league as "Iron Man", so suffers from being released so close, nor is it a film that will date well. "The Incredible Hulk" is a film most people who just want some popcorn entertainment will enjoy, but probably forget about in time for "The Dark Knight". The plot, such as it is: Bruce Banner has been on the run for years, but a potential cure for his Hulk condition appears courtesy of an online contact that requires he return home, where he runs into his ex Elizabeth Ross. Meanwhile Banner is chased by General Ross, who wants to turn the Hulk formula into a weapon, and special operations soldier Emil Blonsky, who wants to be the ultimate fighter (both inside of and outside of the Octagon, I suspect). Millions of dollars of property damage ensue.

"The Incredible Hulk" does a good job of ticking the bases of what people probably expected to see from a Hulk movie, but there are a couple of reasons for this film not standing out.

Firstly, if you've seen comic book and / or action movies since 2000, little is going to surprise you in this movie. There are few "Wow!" moments and the script moves things along in a predictable if generally well-timed pace. To compare it again, "Iron Man" surprised me for showing the development of the suit in a way that was entertaining and funny; "The Incredible Hulk" had only one thing I don't think I've seen some variation of before (which was a sonic boom handclap being used to put out a fire - that was a really good touch). The action on screen is competently executed, but it's nothing new.

Secondly, the Hulk still looks like CGI. This doesn't matter when things are exploding around him, but for moments where he has to interact with live people, it just looks odd. Also, I can appreciate the Hulk looking like Norton - that makes sense, duh - but I didn't like that the Hulk always looked like he'd just stepped out of the beauty parlour having just had his hair done - it always falls perfectly around his face. For a creature of rage, he sure presents well (screaming aside).

Thirdly, the script appears to be a bit lost regarding how to handle Bruce Banner, or in fact have the characters interact on screen. Scenes where Banner is alone show the character off to best effect - Norton plays Banner as an isolated man very well - but scenes where Banner has to interact with other people leave the character looking flat. He has no charisma to make you interested in him, which is a problem when you are meant to be empathising with his situation. Although some easy chemistry exists between Norton's Banner and Liv Tyler's Dr Elizabeth Ross (it looks like the hours the actors spent together working out their characters paid off) there is nothing that drives the on-screen relationship past the cliche. Despite being an expert in Celluar Medicine, Ross is there for two reasons only - to touch / cuddle the Hulk to show off his soft side and to be a screaming damsel during any combat scene. I feel bad for Tyler because she deserves better given her performance - she does have some shining moments in the movie, but they are moments she brings due to her skill, not due to the script.

Despite looking like a smug ferret at times, it is Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky who ends up being more watchable as an aging soldier with serious envy issues. He gets more room to show off his character, especially when he bounces off Willaim Hurt's General Ross. General Ross is without a doubt the true villain of the film and Hurt uses his flint-eyed dead fish stare on pretty much everyone - as a character, he comes close to being a parody of being the uncaring military man, but Hurt manages to make him so cold that there is nothing funny about him. If General Ross had to kick puppies to death in order to get to the Hulk, he'd be there with his best steel-capped boots on.

As for the supporting characters us comic book geeks were meant to get excited about... well, Dr Samson appears in the trailer for about the same length of time he appears in the film (I gather there were some cut scenes with him in them) while Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel Sterns does a fantastic job of bringing some initial light relief to the movie, then transitioning it into something darker.

Finally, the action scenes pretty much followed the same routine, which was:

• Hulk gets in fight.
• Hulk starts to get beaten down in fight.
• Betty Ross gets in trouble; screams.
• Hulk sees Betty in trouble, pops an Inspiration, gets up and kicks the stuffing out of whatever is in front of him.

This happens three times in the film at least. Seriously, can't the Hulk fight his own battles without needing his girlfriend to scream and encourage him? It's a let down.

As for the fight scenes, I feel that Ang Lee's "Hulk" handled Hulk versus military weapons better - why do all those soldiers keep trying to shoot the Hulk with M16s when it so clearly didn't work the past 50 times? - although the shortish-sequence between super soldier formula Blonsky and the Hulk made me excited for the planned Captain America film. The key fight, between the Abomination and the Hulk, is unfortunately a let down because the film seems unwilling to let them go at it for very long before the Hulk gets knocked away. It's less a knockdown brawl between two behemoths than a few skirmishes interrupted by shots of the other characters. The ending is a let down as well, because it seems that the Abomination has a glass jaw - he goes down to seemingly a lot less punishment than he dishes out to the Hulk. It's all so anti-climatic.

"The Incredible Hulk" does have some nice touches - the "Days Since Last Incident" counter that pops up occasionally, the thought that has gone into Bruce Banner's management of his condition, the depiction of Bruce Banner's loneliness, the fact that the Hulk has killed people in the past - but those are all around the edges. The meat of the movie just isn't solid enough. It's a good dumb comic book movie, but it is only a dumb comic book movie. I'm sure that the people who wanted more Hulk smash from "Hulk" will be happy with that aspect from "The Incredible Hulk", but may feel left empty in any areas since this movie requires no thought to digest.

Perhaps it is only fitting that the film ends with probably the best acted scene yet no Banner in sight - Tony Stark pays a visit to General Ross to indicated "we are putting a team together", which sees William Hurt bounce off Robert Downey Jr in some of the best dialogue in the movie. Sadly, this just served as a reminder that I wasn't watching "Iron Man", which isn't how Marvel probably wanted me to feel at the end of "The Incredible Hulk".

Bruce Banner? Check. Gamma radiation? Check. Gets big and green when under stress? Check. Love interest? Check. Bad guys to bash on? Check. Nerdy scientist gets to kick the crap out of tough jock military men? Check.

Yeah, it covers the basics. It's not a gamma bomb that causes the exposure to radiation and no annoying Rick Jones character that requires saving, but the outline is there and the title sequence does a good job of bringing the audience up to speed on what happened before the film proper starts.

"The Incredible Hulk" is not a bad film, but nor is it a good film. It's a well presented dumb popcorn movie that will probably thrill the eyes on the first viewing, but doesn't have much substance to it past that.

An expert in celluar biology who repeatedly serves as a screaming cheerleader of sorts had me rolling my eyes, while male model Hulk during the 'touching heart-felt scenes' also stand out.

Date of review: 11 June 2008

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