Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Review: The Incredible Hulk



Few comic fans, and avid movie goers can ever forget the fiasco that was Ang Lee's take on the Hulk. For many fans of the Hulk, the movie was epic in its failure. We were encouraged when we heard that Ang Lee, an accomplished director of near legendary status, was tapped to helm the project. It was also encouraging to hear that a top notch cast including Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte, and Sam Elliot had been assembled. Despite the failure of Hulk, there is no denying that Lee's vision for the film was bold. He sought to highlight the emotional complexities that went along with being the Hulk, including the painful childhood of the protagonist, and the Hulk's alter-ego, Bruce Banner. Unfortunately, Lee's vision just did not suit an origin story. It would've been a great film had it been perhaps the third, or even fourth film in a series of Hulk projects.

Anyways, enough about that. Marvel Studios, with its second feature film (the first being the wildly successful, and genuinely great, Iron Man) decided to reboot the Hulk franchise with The Incredible Hulk. This time Marvel annointed French director Louis Leterrier, best known for the Transporter films starring Jason Statham, as the director. They once again have assembled an A-List cast with Edward Norton (Bruce Banner), the beautiful Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), William Hurt (General Thunderbolt Ross), Tim Blake Nelson (Samuel Sterns), and Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky). The flick begins with Bruce Banner (Norton) living in the projects of a Brazilian city (the name of which escapes me) attempting to control his emotions in order to prevent an "incident" (i.e. becoming the Hulk!). Eventually, a series of events culminates in Banner's return to the US, where he reunites with his long lost love Betty Ross (Tyler). General Ross, Betty's dad, see's this as an oppurtunity for him to capture Banner and harness his power in order to use it as a weapon. Injected into this is the underutilized Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, a Russian-born Royal Marine on loan to government and he seeks, with the aid of Samuel Sterns (Nelson) to become a super soldier, in a similar grain to the Hulk.

Overall, this film is an improvement over Ang Lee's take on the not so jolly green giant. Bruce Banner actually spends more than 15 minutes as the Hulk. The action scenes are exciting enough, if not groundbreaking. Unfortunately, for some inexplicable reason they had Hulk try and talk, which I'm sure confirmed many stereotypes and induced many a snicker for those non-fans in the audience. Aside from Tim Blake Nelson's performance as Samuel Sterns, most of the actors meet expectations, but certainly don't exceed them. I have to admit that I expected more from Norton, a gifted actor, especially considering his proclaimed love for the subject matter. That being said, the movie managed to keep me entertained and the audience seemed to enjoy it as well. While not as good as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk will be, with good reason, seen as another success for Marvel Studios. Way to go guys! Your'e 2 for 2!

Rating: **1/2

*Uwe Boll/Michael Bay bad **Keeanu Reevesish ***Great ****Excellent