A visually stunning and exciting movie!

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 2010)

Now this is what I call a movie for the casual fans. I enjoyed the film every second of it, right down to the microscopic details in the lore and animation, to the grand action scenes and the marvelous acting, not just from Edward Norton but basically from the whole cast.
The movie progresses nicely with a steady pace. The action scenes are logical, lengthy and totally wicked. The calm dialog scenes are in contrast are calm, short and sweet. They are to the point and a lot of the time hilarious if you know at least a bit of the Hulk lore. The intro scene was a nice way to fill you in on how the Hulk got started and all that, so the movie basically tells you everything you need to know about Hulks beginnings in under 3 minutes, so you can jump directly into the main storyline. I liked that in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Watchmen too, so maybe this will become a must have in superhero movies.
There are many praises to be sang about the whole presentation so lets start with the most obvious, and that is the quality of the visual design. The Incredible Hulk looks absolutely amazing. The effort that was put into animating every little muscle in the Hulks body, every vein, pore, scar and drop of water on his skin is epic. And the attention to detail is just awesome, if you look for it. For example in one scene you can see the artery on his biceps beat in the rhythm of his hearth. Also the whole movie scenery is presented in a greenish hue, witch is to be expected, but it is not just a post production filter effect, as in The Matrix, but the green color is embedded into the scene itself. So the movie is full of green lights, trees and grass, green liquids, items and so on. Plus Banners journey takes you through many different locations but still manages to keep a sense of consistency and theme.
The cast is perfect down right to the last background soldier. Edward Norton fits like a glove for the role of Banner in a similar way Hugh Jackman is perfect for the Wolverine. You don't need to see Norton act, you can just look at a still picture to know that this is Bruce Banner. You can immediately recognize a smart, peace loving man, that wont hurt a fly. And that is a casting miracle in it self. To get such a perfect contrast going within a character is a hard thing to achieve. The puny and peaceful pacifist Bruce Banner turns into a raging, smashing and impossible to kill Hulk, a contrast made in heaven. Tim Roth, Liv Tyler and William Hurt also did a bang up job.
The ending is amazing, that is all I'm going to say. This is the type of movie that makes me run out of the movie theater to the nearest Internet point to check when is the sequel coming out. I will not compare this movie with the Hulk from 2003 because there is nothing to compare. The new one outshines the previous one in all aspects. Marvel Entertainment is off to an amazing start with movies such as The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man so let's hope they keep up the pace and keep bringing us marvelous superhero action.