Tell Me What The Plot Was Again?

Rating: 4/10 (23 November 2008)

Hulkamania is back on the screen! He's green! He's mean! He's ...uh ...green and mean.
With less than five years separating Ang Lee's 2003 version entitled simply HULK, French director Louis Leterrier (who's done a few questionable films in the recent past, including TRANSPORTER 2 and DANNY THE DOG aka UNLEASHED), takes up the Marvel comic book reigns and takes a shot at the pi$$ed off Bruce Banner.
Replacing Erica Bana (MUNICH) as the Hulk/Bruce Banner is film star Edward Norton (THE PAINTED VEIL). Norton's film repertoire up to now has been fairly superlative: American HISTORY X, DEATH TO SMOOCHY, FIGHT CLUB, THE Italian JOB, DOWN IN THE VALLEY, THE ILLUSIONIST, and several other high caliber films decorate his resume, so I was expecting another engaging film from him. Although I found his performance to be good, the story suffered from a lack of direction; it's goal seeming to be only to tell you that another film is coming with the Hulk's involvement. In other words, no plot.
Marvel has had a couple of successes lately, though, and one can't necessarily knock them for doing what they're doing, which is setting comic book fans up for "something big". Their highest claim to fame is undoubtedly IRON MAN starring Robert Downey Jr. I loved Iron Man. Downey Jr. encapsulated the character and was both funny and cocky. A great match. But here, with THE INCREDIBLE HULK, we get a jumble of quality.
Part of the problem is undeniably due to the fact that this film comes off the heals of Ang Lee's version. Lee's Hulk was anything but perfect, let's make that perfectly clear. But it did reinvent Hulk and gave us a unique look at the dynamics behind the character. Here in The Incredible Hulk, we get a forced love story (with no background, really), an intro to the Abomination, and lots and lots (and LOTS) of guns. The Abomination's inclusion will obviously play a vital part in upcoming films, and I appreciate that, but let's tell a good story along with it. Lee's Hulk, at the very least, did that.
There are a few positive qualities here, though. The cast is fairly strong except for another wooden performance by William Hurt (INTO THE WILD). He seemed to be just going through the motions. There's also the fact that the film feels more like the television series, jumping us right into Bannon's life and his isolation due to his medical condition. We also get a glimpse of the original Hulk, Lou Ferrigno (if you pay attention).
But these positives do not outweigh the negatives. Lacking any real direction, The Incredible Hulk is interesting eye-candy with plenty of action but little substance ...which made me turn a bit green.