THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Louis Leterrier, 2008) ***

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2008)

I recall disliking the overblown, gimmicky and far too somber HULK (2003); even if the creature’s leaping skills were a staple of the original comic (an animated series of which from the 1960s I used to watch as a kid), I found them especially silly in the live-action version – thankfully, here, they’re relegated to the very end. Anyway, when this was first announced, I had little faith that it would be any good: at first, I even doubted Edward Norton’s suitability for the lead but, seeing him in action as Dr. Bruce Banner, he brings the right elements of intelligence, paranoia, tenacity and anguish to the role (his relationship with Betty Ross – nicely played by the luscious Liv Tyler – is very moving, making for one of the more compelling couples in this type of film).
As for the Hulk himself, I’m still reeling from the ultra-fake look of the CGI technique: I know having a body-builder painted green (like Lou Ferrigno was in the popular TV series from the 1970s I’m also familiar with) wouldn’t cut the mustard in this day and age of blockbuster movies filled with large-scale gratuitous mayhem…but when the alternative is so unsatisfactory?! Incidentally, it was nice of the film-makers to acknowledge both actors from that earlier incarnation: the late Bill Bixby (the original Bruce…er…David Banner) appears in a bit from one of his other TV series on Brazilian TV(!), while Ferrigno is the lab guard whom Norton bribes with a pizza(!)…not to mention the character’s creator, Stan Lee (he has become a staple of these modern renditions of his work), who’s the old man infected with Banner’s blood at one point.
Another definite strong point to the film is the performance by Tim Roth: his typically riveting intensity makes up for the deficiencies of the character as written – so that he’s believable nevertheless as both a man of action and one who’s curious about the possibilities of science (as always, both the experts in the field and the military callously want to use the techniques to their own selfish ends rather than in the service of humanity); even more importantly, he’s an ideal adversary for both Banner and Hulk (when he’s himself transformed into the so-called Abomination). On the other hand, William Hurt disappointingly (I should say, lazily) hams it up in his one-dimensional role of the cigar-chomping General – one can’t help smiling at his apparent ability to summon all the heavy artillery employed in the pursuit of The Hulk at the bat of an eyelid!; having come to his senses by the end, he is seen taking a drink at a bar when he receives a visit from one Tony Stark…
The action is the slam-bang, give-‘em-all-you-‘ve-got routine we’ve come to expect in this form of mass entertainment – which, after a while, begins to look all the same (especially in the way Hulk seems to be impervious to practically anything they can throw at him!); besides, Abomination seems to throw in the towel all-too-easily during their showdown (I guess being a monster in love gave The Hulk greater motivation). Since romance in the usual sense isn’t possible because Banner’s accelerated heartbeat would constitute another transformation into the green giant, we get a bit of King Kong tenderness between Tyler and The Hulk himself in a cave but which, thankfully, isn’t carried on too far.
I’d never heard of French director Leterrier: looking at his brief resume' on IMDb, it seems he was chosen for this on the strength of his work on the actioner TRANSPORTER 2 (2005)! – he does seem to have an annoying preponderance for sweeping “helicopter” (crane/overhead) shots. In any case, his next film, looks like it’ll be another remake – this time of the Ray Harryhausen mythological opus CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981) which, for what it’s worth, had featured extensive shooting in Malta!!