The screenplay is so appalling that it makes George Lucas seems like Charles Dickens.

Rating: 5/10 (22 July 2010)

Many fans of Marvel comics will be outraged by my score for The Incredible Hulk. After Iron Man which was only average by my standards, I thought Marvel could do no worse. They fail to realize that bringing in a quality director is immensely crucial to a film's critical success. Fair enough, Iron Man was Jon Favreau's fourth feature film after Zathura's unlikely hit.
That cannot be said of The Incredible Hulk, whose director Louis Leterrier has a poor track record, making bad pictures such as Transporter 2 and Unleashed. Financially, The Incredible Hulk will score big because of its wide fanbase, as well as being strategically released after Iron Man. However, critically it is a whole level below Ang Lee's Hulk.
If there's one aspect that The Incredible Hulk does well over Ang Lee's version, it's the visual effects. The grayish-green title character is digitally rendered so well that it makes Ang Lee's light-green monster seem cartoonish in comparison. The action sequences have more in quantity but lack in quality, though the climatic battle between the Incredible Hulk and an even more hulky nemesis is a notch more thrilling than the lackluster one in Iron Man.
Edward Norton is not well-cast, but he's a more solid actor than the spiritless Eric Bana in the earlier Hulk. Another miscast is Liv Tyler who plays Bruce Banner's love interest. The awkward drama scenes between them are so incompetent that their character developments are half-baked.
To make matters worse, at least Iron Man was enjoyable. Alas, The Incredible Hulk abandons the most fundamental quality of cinema - to entertain. The screenplay is so appalling that it makes George Lucas seems like Charles Dickens. No creative input and narrative breakthrough, the story of Bruce Banner is told in the most uninspired manner even for a comic book character.
I'm not against Marvel, but they are definitely alienating the critical half of cinema lovers by their choice of filmmakers. Yes, The Incredible Hulk will appeal to hardcore fans, though the scary part is not the huge green ogre itself but how these people actually part their money so nonchalantly.
SCORE: 4.5/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!