Incredible Marvel

By Dan Hudak

Edward Norton plays a scrawny guy with a big anger problem in The Incredible Hulk.

This is how it should’ve been the first time.

The Incredible Hulk is a loud, chaotic action movie about a big green monster that tears things to pieces, and every minute of it is a great thrill. It’s certainly a marked improvement from the 2003 mistake directed by Ang Lee called Hulk, and those who are hesitant about the new movie because of its predecessor would be wise to give this one a chance.

Writer Zak Penn (X2: X-Men United) and director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) have ignored everything about Lee’s film and started from scratch. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is a smart, scrawny guy with a big problem. Because of gamma radiation poisoning, whenever he gets angry he morphs into the Hulk, a giant green monster whose only soft spot is for Bruce’s beloved Betty Ross (Liv Tyler).

Betty’s father, General Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), seeks Banner for a different reason. He wants to harness Banner’s DNA into an indestructible army of super soldiers. To help find and secure Banner, who’s hiding in Brazil, Gen. Ross injects a soldier named Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) with a special serum that will give him strength to rival the Hulk’s. But when a monster named Abomination emerges, trouble abounds. 

Overall, the acting is solid, with Roth nicely conveying Blonsky’s overzealous barbarism, Tyler (The Strangers) doing her damsel in distress bit and Hurt effective as the power-hungry general. Norton, who co-wrote the script under a pseudonym, may be a bit flat as Banner, but the role doesn’t allow him to feel much more than beleaguered. It’s also worth noting that Norton and Roth shot the Hulk and Abomination scenes using motion-capture animation, which means they created the movements for the monsters while the visual effects experts at Rhythm & Hues designed the look.

Speaking of the visual effects, they are splendid. There are great action sequences in a bottling factory, a university green and on 125th Street in Harlem, home of the Apollo Theater. The Hulk may look fake (how couldn’t he?), but it’s so cool when he splits a police car in two and uses each side as a boxing glove that we don’t care. He’s full of rage and testosterone, and so is the movie — and it’s a blast because of it.

Fans of Hulk lore will notice cameos from Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, who respectively played Banner and the Hulk on The Incredible Hulk television show from 1978-82, and Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee appears as well. There are also references to Iron Man, Captain America and other properties in the Marvel canon for the comic book fans who just can’t get enough.

In fact, with this and Iron Man, Marvel has established itself as a legitimate film production company. Accordingly, the ending of The Incredible Hulk is very smart and well-conceived; suffice it to say that the future for Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and the other Marvel heroes looks very, very bright. And profitable.