Norton has difficulty emoting in cartoon movie.

Rating: 6/10 (13 June 2008)

This movie feels more like a reboot, such as "Batman Begins", but it is missing the "Alfred", or Morgan Freeman's character, an ally. Here Bruce Banner is alone, with virtually no one to reveal his inner psyche to (at least for the first half of the movie). Poor William Hurt can't seem to find the soul of his character, and doesn't make a great villain either. I understand that 70 minutes of the film was removed, and I can only assume that the soul of these characters were lost in the editing room. As for the monster itself, that never felt like Bruce Banner. During the opening credits, we see the whole lab episode to show how Banner became Hulk. A great innovation during this sequence was "Hulk Vision", and eery POV shot that gave you an idea how it felt to be the Hulk. Sadly, this vehicle is never used again in the movie. There might need to be a change in the Hulk universe, where perhaps Hulk can speak a bit more, which works well when Tim Roth undergoes his transformation. Frankly, it's still too unbelievable that a man turns big and green, and back again when working it as a feature film. It still feels cartoonish.
So a delicate balance is needed, between the accepted reality these characters live in this movie, and the bizarre creatures that require a leap of imagination. Ed Norton, an Oscar calibre actor, invested a lot into internalising this character, so he is understandably upset that nuances were removed. As for the action set pieces, they are fun to watch, and the cinematography surpasses almost any other comic book movie, even better than "300". What the studios wanted with this reboot is not a lot of luggage, not another Ang Lee, and for that they get my approval (you can read about my ongoing rant about 2+ hour movies in my other reviews). I would have settled for perhaps 10 more minutes of Bruce's psyche, what helped make "Batman Begins" so good.
The problem with William Hurt; perhaps it was the moustache, or his non-military sounding voice, or the ambivalence of being both the bad guy and the father of the Bruce's romantic interest. He did not possess the tenacity to be feared and despised. Sam Elliot fit the bill very well in the last movie (and the moustache was even real). Tim Roth ends up being the only interesting character of the bunch, and his screen time is limited. This is a muddled effort to reboot the franchise, but I am happy that Ang Lee's disaster has been overlooked. I'm confident that a sequel will be made, and perhaps Ed Norton can show more psyche, and maybe someone more fierce can replace William Hurt (perhaps a friend of Tony Stark).