Hulk smash!

Back when we were kids with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon except beg Wander's mom to drive us downtown to Comics N Stuff for our weekly infusion of superhero goodness, we often dreamed about what some of our favorite Marvel characters would be like on the big screen. Fan mags would often report that an X-Men or Punisher movie was "in the can." Alas, none ever materialized, and we were left to dream on.

Now when we're all grown up, after most of us stopped reading comic books on a regular basis, an avalanche of the films we prayed for have come. And now I find myself wondering if adulthood has swayed my expectations as to what a comic book film should be.

The first adaptation of Hulk by Ang Lee was a somewhat more cerebral look into the psyche of Bruce Banner, the Hulk being the literal manifestation of the hidden conflicts of a man with suppressed rage and daddy issues. For those of us who kept arguing that comics were much more literature than mere kiddie reading, Hulk should have been a masterpiece. Instead, fanboys grumbled, critics criticized, and the general moviegoing public didn't come. Knowing there still was potential for a movie franchise, however, Marvel Studios gave the big green guy a second chance with The Incredible Hulk. The result? An adequate summer popcorn flick, but in some ways still not the magic combination I would have hoped for.

The new version of The Incredible Hulk is essentially a reboot of the franchise. No references are made to Lee's film. Instead the entire origin story of the Hulk is compressed into a flash of scenes during the opening movie credits and retold, although the basic premise is preserved. After a gamma radiation experiment that goes terribly wrong turning him into the Hulk whenever his heartrate reaches a certain threshold, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is forced to leave his love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and evade capture by General Ross (William Hurt) and the U.S. Army.

Louis Letterier's approach to this film seems to be in keeping with the spirit of the old Hulk TV, The Fugitive, or even his older work with The Transporter movies--keep the story kinetic and keep our hero running. For the most part this works to keep us entertained. Starting with Bruce Banner hiding out working in a soda factory, the film wastes little time with any real character development as it moves through Virginia and into New York City with almost nonstop action. This is oddly perhaps the flaw in the movie that keeps me from feeling like it's up to par with more superior superhero movies such as Spiderman, Batman Begins, or the most recent Iron Man. Something about how Letterier cuts the action together just seems to lack a sophistication that these other movies had.

The film slows down only to reunite Bruce and Betty for a brief moment. Liv Tyler, despite some rather corny dialogue at times, is pretty adorable in her part. Nothing is really established to piece together what their relationship was like before the movie, but somehow her presence and her interactions with Edward Norton make up for this deficit. Edward Norton, is OK as Bruce Banner, although I'm not sure if it's just that the character himself is a bit dull or if the script was lacking, but his acting skills seemed somewhat wasted in the film. William Hurt does an adequate job as the stereotypical military asshole, and Tim Roth as the primary villain William Blontsky and Abomination, plays his role quite well.

The CGI work is probably on par with what was done in Hulk. The Incredible Hulk looks sort of real, but still noticeably cartoonish (and luckily, not quite falling into that "uncanny valley"). Remarkably, though, the CGI wasn't nearly as distracting to me in this movie as it was in Ang Lee's film, and the action sequences with the Hulk himself are actually quite exciting. This, too, is a bit odd given the fact that this new version of the Hulk seems to have somewhat more tame powers than what Ang Lee's version did.

A few Easter eggs are dispersed throughout the film to keep any comic geek happy with some indirect references to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America, a couple of cameos Stan Lee and Lou Farigno, and, of course, the well publicized cameo by Tony Stark. The appearance of Robert Downey Jr. is a prime example of why nothing beats watching a movie in the theater with a full audience--once he came on screen, the entire theater was whooping and hollering it up.

In the end, this new take on the Hulk seemed to be almost a 360 degree departure from Ang Lee's version--almost zero character development, and almost full on action. If that's your thing, this film will be quite cheesy for you. For me, I would have preferred something a bit in between. Rumor is, Edward Norton was quite upset with the final cut of the film, and wanted something a bit more with that balance that I was hoping for. Perhaps a director's cut will show us what this movie good have been. Letterier, himself, has said in interviews that he has at least 70 minutes worth of footage that he cut and will include on future DVD extras. Still, it was an enjoyable movie for a summer weekend, and I'd recommend going to see The Incredible Hulk.

Oh, and don't bother waiting through the final credits--there's nothing at the end. Hey, you never know with these Marvel movies these days! ;-)