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The Incredible Hulk
By: Myles
Hughes
Edward Norton is
perfectly cast in the action-packed Hulk.
In 2003, Oscar-friendly auteur Ang Lee attempted to give
psychological resonance to a baby-boom era comic book by directing a
film adaptation of Marvel’s The Hulk. The film was justly
crucified by fans and critics for being incoherent, dull, and featuring
a title character who looked like what might happen if Shrek and the
Staypuff Marshmallow Man gave birth to a gummy bear. Five years later,
Marvel Studios is making their own movies now, and have decided to give
the beloved green giant another shot, and so here we have The
Incredible Hulk, a re-imagining of the titular hero’s story
(re-imagining being a nice way of saying “the first movie was dreadful
so we’re just going to pretend it never happened”). So now Ang Lee (Brokeback
Mountain) has been replaced by Louis Leterrier (The Transporter
1 and 2), Eric Bana with Edward Norton, Jennifer Connelly with Liv
Tyler, Sam Elliott with William Hurt, and the roly-poly neon-colored
Hulk of the first film with a vein popping, muscle-bound grayish-green
Hulk who wins points for looking at least mildly threatening but loses
some for looking absolutely nothing like the actor playing him.
So, how was the movie itself? I know there are a lot of fans
that had the pitchforks of skepticism ready after being let down so
thoroughly by the first film, but put your fears to rest, dear readers,
as it’s not that bad. I’d actually recommend the film; very much on the
basis that it delivers everything a Hulk movie could reasonably deliver
without ever being suffocatingly pretentious. You’ve got a great cast
doing strong work, cameos up the ass (everyone from stars of the
original series to other Marvel heroes make an appearance), and CG that
is excellent by video game standards, but in terms of creating
action-packed sequences of sheer violence and terror are more than
serviceable. It’s not quite on level with Iron Man, but that’s a
tough act to follow, and the character is far too serious to emulate the
self-conscious wit and style of that film. Speaking of which, there’s a
nice little cameo at the end that anyone who wasted five minutes of
their life to see Samuel L. Jackson after the Iron Man credits
will start to get really excited about.
The story is simple and summed up in a few sentences: Bruce
Banner (Norton) is a scientist who is hunting for a cure for the
infection that turns him into a tantrum-throwing monolith whenever his
pulse spikes above 200 (instead of just getting pissed off as before).
The government, as embodied by General Ross (Hurt) and soldier Emil
Blonsky (Tim Roth, always an effective villain), wants to capture Banner
so they can harness the Hulk and turn it into a weapon. So Banner runs
from them, runs into his old flame Betty Ross (Tyler), and eventually
turns into the Hulk a few times. You can basically figure out everything
that happens in the movie by watching one of the trailers. It all builds
up to a climactic showdown between Hulk and Blonsky, who turns himself
into a super-Hulk thing called the Abomination. All you need to know
about this scene, aside from the fact that it is well-executed and
gripping to watch, is that there is a point where the green guy actually
says “Hulk Smash!”, which is about as cheesy as it is totally f***ing
awesome.
Ultimately, the best thing the movie does is cast Ed Norton
in the lead. Everything Ang Lee tried to do to explore the depths of the
character is achieved in Norton internalized, insightful performance.
The film sets itself up for a sequel, and I must say, they’ve got me
excited.
***/****
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