Don't make you angry? Well don't make us angry first Marvel.

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2008)

Scouring the earth looking for a cure to his gamma ray poisoning, Bruce Banner is in Brazil when the army, who want to harness the monster within him as a weapon, locate him. General Ross and the power hungry Emil Blonsky will stop at nothing to capture Banner and his significant other angry half, but Banner's true love, Betty Ross, and the mysterious Mr Blue, are allies hoping to cure Bruce of his ills, but is it all in vain?
Those who hated Ang Lee's thoughtful and emotionally driven version of Hulk in 2003 will find this a far more rewarding experience, a mere 20 minutes in and the green one arrives to raise the pulses and set comic book enthusiasts hearts a racing. Not skimping on action or in fact an emotional core, the makers here have managed to blend both the fundamental aspects of the duality being and almost pulled off a great movie, but it's still some way short of being a comic book adapted classic. The pluses do however far outweigh the minuses, this Hulk incarnation is one you can take the kids to see and they can't possibly be bored, the introduction of the wonderfully named The Abomination as a Hulk nemesis ensures the audience is eagerly awaiting the big smack down, thankfully when it arrives it's thrilling, totally daft and entirely within the spirit of the Hulk origins. Major kudos to Tim Roth who as Blonsky, soon to be the monstrous looking Abomination, delivers a delicious line in ego driven badness, and with a fact of movie life being that a film of this type is only as good as its villain, Roth steps in to keep the film above ropey waters.
Annoyingly, considering the cast list here, the film is not without problems. Edward Norton is clearly one of the best actors of the modern age, and his restrained showing here as Banner is certainly not at all bad, it's just an odd casting choice to me, almost as if this role is far too beneath him, watching his turn was like an itch I just couldn't scratch. Liv Tyler as Betty Ross steps into the slender shoes vacated by Jennifer Connelly in Lee's 2003 version, it may be unfair to compare the two, but where Connelly had much emotional heart in her portrayal, Tyler has nothing, and her emotional play off with Norton in the crucial scenes just lacks the spark needed to make it work to the full. William Hurt works well enough as General Ross, following on from his bad boy turns in A History Of Violence and Mr Brooks, Hurt is finding something of a working resurgence in devilment characters, while Tim Blake Nelson perfectly dons the caricature hat of scientist on the edge, Dr. Samuel Sterns.
The CGI of Hulk has vastly improved, still a borderline problem, it just may well be that we all should accept that Hulk as a character is never going to be a CGI dream? With that in mind it is perhaps churlish to do down Incredible Hulk based on its entertainment value? Which is certainly very high. Yet it's notable that Edward Norton offers nothing by way of a commentary on the DVD package of the film, Tim Roth joining director Louis Leterrier for the gag track only fuels the fire that apparently leading man and director were well at odds about the direction the film was taking. So is Incredible Hulk recommended to the average thrill seeking movie lover? Most assuredly yes. Is Incredible Hulk a worthwhile comic book adaptation? Well sort of: Better than Daredevil and Darkman, but well short of Spidey and The Bat. At times looking like a cheap knock off of Peter Jackson's King Kong, Incredible Hulk has a willingness to entertain, and maybe we all should just focus on that and enjoy the ride? 7/10