Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

After the 2003 release of The Hulk, starring Eric Bana, I was somewhat put off by the Hulk’s story. Needless to say, I was skeptical of what Transporter 2 director, Louis Leterrier, would have in store for the audiences of The Incredible Hulk. I was pleasantly surprised.

The film opens with a montage of the Hulk’s back story. This seems to be a trend with newer movies with character heavy history and I like it. It’s a good refresher course for the masses and it helps the action start quicker rather then spending 30-45 minutes explaining character origin. The Incredible Hulk follows the basic outline of Bruce Banner being a loner and constantly running from the advances of the government. This film delves a little deeper into Banner attempting to cure his condition and coming to grips with who he is. There are some tremendous battle scenes, which depict the Hulk as the tough guy he is and some scenes that are actually a bit frightening. Over all, the story is plausible and dialogue is not overly cheesy.

Going into the film, casting was merely one element I was concerned about. Edward Norton stars in the film as Bruce Banner, our tragic hero, with Liv Tyler as his leading lady, Betty Ross. I am a huge fan of Norton’s work, but just wasn’t sure if he was right for the role of Banner. I am also a fan of Tyler’s work. She seems to mold herself into her roles and does a wonderful job executing her parts. I was mostly concerned about the story not being able to carry the film, not the actors’ abilities. Luckily, the story held together and the pair had some great on-screen chemistry, pulling off their roles almost flawlessly. Tim Roth, Emil Blonsky, did a great job being a power-hungry villain, as did William Hurt playing the role of General Thaddeus Ross.

My biggest criticism of the film is the trailer. It left no surprises for the movie. The longer two-minute long trailer shows the villain, the hero and parts of their epic battle. this is an unfortunate trend with movie trailers. A job of a trailer, especially a teaser-trailer, is to entice the audience into wanting to see it. The Incredible Hulk’s trailer shows the entire story. After seeing it, why would anyone feel the need to spend $8 to see the film? Well, I will tell you that spending the money on the ticket is worth it especially for Marvel fans. It’s basically another character set-up for The Avengers, scheduled to be released in 2011 (I’ll write more about that later).

I will give The Incredible Hulk a rating of 4.5. I think it is definitely worth seeing in the theater, but some less than hard core fans could wait to see it in the cheap theater.