Inject this other Hulk movie with originality steroids!

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 2009)

THE INCREDIBLE HULK
No Way! (Meeza's nostrils turn green!). You did not like my pun-infested movie reviews as the next one I will be throwing at you! (Meeza's shirt opens up while it pulsates as his entire body turns into a dark green complexion!). You thought the reviews were silly and a bit over-the-pun-top!!! (AAAHH!! Meeza is a pun green monster filled with rage & revenge!) OK, so these type of comments do make me angry! And you would not like me when I am angry, or maybe you would because I do not pun as much when I am angry. What also made me angry at times was viewing another mostly unsuccessful cinematic takeoff of the Marvel hero "The Incredible Hulk" story. Director Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk did break many backs but also showed Hulk as a silly crouching monster, hidden dragon; Sorry Ang! In this latest adaptation, Director Louis Leterrier does improve the Hulk story with a bit more power by giving it an alternative narrative but not enough to have a Hulkian cinematic effect. The steady Eddie, Edward Norton, stars as Dr. Bruce Banner (alter-ego Hulk). Leterrier quickly presents a five minute montage on why & how scientist Banner transformed himself into Hulk when he gets angry during the film's opening sequence. So kudos to Louis for getting those anger issues quickly out of the way. The rest of the film fixates on the cloistered Banner's quest to get the Hulk out of his system. Banner is being chased by arrogant General Thunderbolt Ross and his men to get the Hulkian formula out of poor Bruce to use it for weaponry defense purposes. The Thunderbolt eventually finds where the lightning Banner is hiding and therefore Banner returns back to the States. The good thing for Banner is that he has a banner time reuniting with his love Betty Ross; she even knits a Hulk flag for him and this Ross undresses for less for Bruce. OK, enough! General Ross is so livid that he cannot hunt down Banner that he eventually causes for one of his men Emil Blonsky to convert himself to another gargantuan creature named "Who Cares? It's Big, Scary, and Ugly" to battle & defeat Hulk. By the way, that is not the real name of Hulk's nemesis; but at that point I was not engaged in the whole formulaic monster battle between good vs. evil that most superhero films climax with. I do think that Norton was the right man for the Hulk acting job with his excellent performance. But the rest of the cast made me angry with their acting, and you would not like me when I am (ok, been there, said that). Liv Tyler as Ross, William Hurt as the General, and Tim Roth as Blonsky seemed were just doing their acting gigs to just collect the green. I was at a loss for words on how awful Zak Penn's harebrained loss-of-words screenplay was. Not good Pennmanship my dear Zak. "The Incredible Hulk" did have some action sequences that were a bit entertaining, but not enough originality was injected in the film to make me feel green with envy that I did not catch it during its original theatrical run. Therefore, I continue to have anger management issues with Hulk movies. *** Average