*Directed by Louis Leterrier
*Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell
The Plot: With the Super Soldier radiation tested on scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton), it causes him to transform into a mutated green monster that grows twice his size and he loses control both injuring and killing people around him. General Ross (William Hurt) being in charge of this Super Soldier operation suffers these consequences and causes Bruce to flee from his old life and eventually becoming a fugitive with Ross and his forces chasing after him. On this journey he must find a cure for himself before things start to escalate amongst this conflict had with Ross and company.
In my youth this was actually one of the movies that surprisingly made me fall more in love with the comic book genre. I do remember watching it quite a number of times and that was probably due to the fact that this, Iron Man, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and both Hellboys were all I had to enjoy for comic book movies at the time. This wasn't only pre-Avengers, but pre-Thor and pre-Captain America. We're just so privileged now with comic book movies coming out every year with a majority of them being quite good.
Funny thing is that I wasn't the biggest fan of comics at the time because I never got into them, but the idea of seeing this wide variety of characters in these huge blockbuster films was something quite rousing. So, really, seeing a movie like The Incredible Hulk was exciting at the time because I'd never quite seen a superhero movie with this crazy amount of energy involved. The action just never stopped and as much as I enjoyed watching it then I still have a great deal of fun with it now.
I didn't catch it in the theaters, but I did catch it on TV. I was flipping through the channels and it was on Cinemax and remember thinking how exhilarating and intense the action sequences were. And for someone who looks closely at films the action scenes do still work and are quite well choreographed with really well done cinematography and intense editing. It could've been easy for these quick-paced scenes to look jarring, but everything was pulled off well. To go along with that the visuals are also a lot of fun to watch, albeit it's probably fair to say some shots with the Hulk are starting to look a bit dated. I mean the film is almost 10 years old. How crazy is that? But looking past that, it's still quite impressive to see what was accomplished.
Even though an entertaining experience, the real reason why this action works is because it has a really strong hold on its lead hero in Bruce Banner who's played quite well by Ed Norton. I really like the fact that outside of being the Hulk, Bruce Banner is just an ordinary guy who's intelligent and at times timid, and Norton does a very nice job bringing these different nuances to his character. William Hurt is also really excellent as General Ross, who I could really buy into as being this gray character that isn't quite evil, but just trying to do his duty and make amends. Granted, he's very flawed and sets this conflict off in motion while having tension with his daughter Betty, but the film does a great job of not making him feel so one note.
Liv Tyler plays a very solid love interest in Elizabeth Ross who shares very good chemistry with Norton's Banner. Tim Roth also plays a quite enticing role as the film's antagonist, but unfortunately his character wasn't really written to perfection. He does play a role in the film, but like Jeff Bridges' character in Iron Man there just wasn't a whole lot to the character. And at that they really don't flesh him out and there's not enough to latch unto to really a get a sense of his motivations. He just appears to be motivated as the film's villain. Roth did a great job in the role, but the writing for his character could've equated to his great acting abilities.
Some other issues I have with the movie are in its pacing where it does a great job of taking its time with his hero, but when its scenes with Hurt's Ross and Roth's character Blonsky, those scenes go by in a flash. And what's worse is that there is important exposition in those scenes, which are quite lengthy, so the film needed to simply take its time there. Also, in those scenes needed to make us understand Blonsky's character instead of being only a motivated soldier.
The film can also be a little melodramatic for it really plays up the romance between Banner and Betty Ross. I mean there's the typical clichéd scene where the two share an embrace in the pouring rain while the score swells in this moment. I appreciate that the romance was a key part of this story. I'll only admit it could be a little much. All that said though, the chemistry between these characters is done really well and I did care about the romance in the long run.
Compared to the first Iron Man, this was a more serious take as far as comic book movies went at the time. This movie and Iron Man were definitely trying to play around with what tone this franchise needed to take to get fans and just average movie goers on board. Iron Man was more fun with some dramatic elements, but Incredible Hulk was more dramatic with fun elements. It was a neat little experiment and I find myself quite satisfied with the end result as one of the first couple movies to kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I do really enjoy watching this movie and do find it to be underrated because the humanized version of Bruce Banner in this movie really gave this story purpose in the grand scheme of things for this franchise. Not to mention that it was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. I do have flaws with the movie, but for the most part The Incredible Hulk worked for me as a fan of this genre. I mean did you see the final fight between Hulk and Abomination?
Verdict: B+
I'd definitely recommend watching this film if you never got into the Marvel Cinematic Universe before. I'd say it's an essential viewing for it does a really great job of exploring the character of Bruce Banner and gives you great character depth before jumping into The Avengers. If it doesn't work for some people, that's cool. I just really dig this film and have a personal attachment to it. Glad it's one that still works.
Stay tuned next week for my review Iron Man 2 to continue this Marvel review series as well as a review for the new horror film Winchester. We'll see how the latter goes.
Thank you all for reading my review and be sure to follow me on social media in the links below as well as a link to my Marvel page for the other Marvel reviews I've covered:
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You guys are all the best! I hope you're enjoying your week and as always thank you and see some great freakin' entertainment!
Take care. :-)
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