Plot On the run, Bruce Banner (Norton) is struggling to rid himself of his gamma-infested monster. When General Ross (Hurt) tracks him down, Banner escapes but finds no respite – his girl Betty Ross (Tyler) has moved on and super-soldier Emil Blonsky (Roth) is becoming obsessed with his green alter-ego.
Review
Marvel's Great Studio Crusade: Chapter II. With Iron Man successfully fizzing off to franchiseville, it’s on to the fledgling outfit's difficult second picture. And, it has to be said, this summer's blockbuster anomaly – a sequel that goes about its business like its predecessor never existed.
Ang Lee's Hulk remains, and probably will remain until we get Terence Malick's Dangermouse, the least super of superhero adaptations, a patience-clobbering analysis of the comic’s themes sopping with Freudian anguish, tempestuous id-issues and Nick Nolte’s R-rated tramp hair. But by the time this title montage has faded, the origin story’s been altered and ruthlessly compacted (experiment turns scientist into smashy fist monster). Then, immediately, Rio: Banner’s (Edward Norton) a fugitive in the favelas, trialling antidotes and pining for lost-love Betty (Liv Tyler). The sequence also devises a shorthand to the rage dial that's almost Speed-like in its simplicity – pulse hits 200, Banner go boom. It’s concise, engaging stuff, and a solid foundation…
…That, eventually, cracks. As William Hurt’s flinty General Ross leads the Hulk-hunt and the pace picks up, there’s the sense of a risk-assessed movie running on rails – including its lead. On paper, Norton seems the perfect fit for the schizo Banner – this is, after all, an actor who made his name channelling Mr Internally Conflicted in Fight Club and Primal Fear. You expect edge. What we get is a vanilla hero on a cure-finding quest, too self-righteously doomed to wrestle any inner-demons. All the rage is fed into his CG alter-ego, and Bruce (a runner, not a fighter) would be entirely passive if not for a subtly striking turn from Liv Tyler, the film’s emotional heart.
Still, Hulk 2.0 is certainly a more convincing proposition than the tank-shotputting hot air balloon of Lee’s movie. With more weight, heft and sinew, no flying nonsense and, mystifyingly, Ronnie O'Sullivan's hair, there’s a convincingly primal boil to the super-ogre that often recalls that other iconic misunderstood-monster, King Kong. In The Abomination he also has a roaring nemesis to grapple with (styled here as a gristly uberhuman rather than the comic’s reptilian beastoid). Their climactic, sidewalk-cracking Harlem smackdown serves up a crunchy spectacle, but it’s the film’s mid-movie action riff, with a feral, superhuman Tim Roth taking on the Hulk on a college campus, that throbs with an invention largely absent elsewhere.
Marvel clearly see gold in Hulk’s future – fanboys will be stoked by numerous winks to series character cameos, from Tim Blake Nelson’s mad scientist Samuel Stern to a tip-off to a forthcoming Avengers flick. For now, you’ll get spectacle, extreme vandalism and the sight of Mr Hulk using a trashed police car as a pair of boxing gloves (a wonderfully OTT flourish that could only have come from director Leterrier, whose Transporter movies were abuzz with bonkers fight skits). What you might not get is a sense of fun. This is a broody, moody action movie that never quite gets the blood boiling. As a search and rescue mission to reclaim one of Marvel’s flagship figures, it has to be judged a success – but you do wish Norton was more dynamic and Leterrier had been let off his leash. The Incredible Hulk could have done with being a little more incredible.
Verdict A franchise rebooted with efficiency, energy and sporadic invention, although Hulk 2.0 hardly smashes it out of the park.
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Average user rating for The Incredible Hulk
...getting better...
...a big improvement on the first, but still not riding as high as other Marvel films like Spider-man 1 and 2, Iron Man and X2!
Story is simplier and better for it and the fight at the end is awesome.
I actually think the actual Hulk LOOKED better in the 1st film and don't understand why nearly all Hulk-scenes had to be in darkness. Alittle light would have helped at the final fight in telling the Hulk and the Abomination apart! ... Read More
this was incredibly unincredible, average at best. This film was a massive disappointment for me the only good bit was robert downey jr. at the end and that was iron man coming in at the last second to make a hulk movie worthwhile seeing! the avengers is now the thing to like forward to and i will always view the hulk as a wasted franchise something that could have been so great but sadly isn't the story and characters have great potential to be a fab film but sadly ang lee tried to make a film ... Read More
Better then Hulk (2003)
Better then Iron Man
Better then Batman Begins
Better then Dark Knight
Better then Hancock
Better then X-Men (1, 2 or 3)
Better then Spiderman (1,2 or 3)
Better then Hellboy (1 or 2)
In fact The Incredible Hulk may just be the greatest superhero movie in many years!
For me, being a huge Hulk fan (in particular Peter Davids run on the comic) I loved this version of his story, I loved the references to the old series and the comics, the ... Read More
Marvel, that generally-respected company that holds a significant percentage of the world's comic book properties in its iron grip, has recently been undergoing a bit of a renaissance in terms of their approach to films based on their properties; or, at least, that's what they'd i]you to think. Iron Man, the first film out the gates of the new-and-improved Marvel Studios, was a fun ride with a slightly underwhelming third act, but it drove home this notion of a renaissance well. However, The In... Read More
Considering the popularity of Bill Bixby’s incarnation in the 1970s, it is surprising that The Incredible Hulk has not really taken off in recent times, even being surpassed by some of its other lesser Marvel stablemates. The problem for the Hulk, in a rather Jekyll and Hyde kind of way, is that the good guy and the bad guy are the same person, making it a bit of a conflict to root for either.
Ang Lees version of this film was a distinctly average effort with Eric Bana and Jennifer Conn... Read More
I enjoyed Ang Lee's but was really looking forward what promised to be a more action packed remake/sequel type thing. This movie definitley ups the ante action wise but you leave it feeling a little empty. I know its a summer popcorn flick but it just felt like something was missing from this one. At least Lee's got you talkin about it. I agree with previous posts that making General Ross such a simple villain was a huge mistake. ... Read More
Better than Ang Lee's version. Norton makes a perfect choice for the role. Tim Roth as the villian is perfect. Good action, good SFX, humor too. ... Read More
Apart from the good action, all the character scenes were so brief and uninspiring that it felt liked we'd joined them half the way through the conversation. A lot more focus on the dialogue, more rounded characters (the General was way too 2D as the bad guy) and a better script next time please. Unfortunately, as a result of this lack of depth, it affected the action scenes too. How can you care about characters you've hardly got to know?
The only saving grace was Tim Roth, who was by far th... Read More
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