The Incredible Hulk was a way entertaining adaptation of the beloved Marvel character

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2008)

Having managed to miss Ang Lee's Hulk from 5 years ago, I watched this version of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's green-skinned, gamma-radiated monster with an open mind. In a word: AWESOME! Nice recap of the origin during the opening credits before we find Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) in Brazil having basically stayed calm for at least a year. That won't last long. There's also General Ross (William Hurt), Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who later becomes The Abomination, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) who tries to cure Banner, and Betty Ross (Liv Tyler)-the general's daughter who stands by Bruce through all his trials and tribulations. Great mixture of drama, suspense, and action as provided by director Louis Leterrier. Eagle-eyed viewers who've lived for the last 40 years should have no trouble spotting previous portrayers of Banner/Hulk: Bill Bixby in a television scene from his earlier series "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", and Lou Ferrigno as a security guard who lets Norton in (He also says something as the Hulk in a later scene). And of course, Stan Lee puts in his Hitchcockian cameo! One more person I'd like to mention is Ty Burrell-late of the cancelled show "Back to You"-playing a shrink who also gets involved with Betty. In short, The Incredible Hulk is another very worthy movie made from a Marvel Comics character. P.S. My first real encounter with the Hulk was from a comic book I got for my 9th birthday that had a 45 r.p.m. record attached from Power Records that provided the voices of the characters and narration in that book. The Abomination was the villain in that one.