"HULK smash!"

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2015)

I would never have considered Edward Norton to portray a comic book character like The Hulk, but then again, I couldn't see Ben Affleck as Daredevil or Michael Keaton as Batman, so in that arena I'd be batting triple zeroes. Actually, Norton is Hulk's alter-ego Bruce Banner, but I think you get my point.
I used to watch The Incredible Hulk TV show of the late Seventies with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, so it was cool to see the muscular body builder portray a security guard, just like he did in the Ang Lee Hulk of 2003. The same with iconic Marvel comic book legend Stan Lee, opening the fridge and dropping that bottle of Pingo Doce soda. That would have been the tainted bottle from the Brazilian assembly line, but otherwise that whole business with Banner's blood was a maguffin, and probably could have been played for more noteworthy effect.
In the action department, 'HULK SMASH' acquired powerful resonance in this one. The big green guy had a field day on the campus of Culver University, and that battle with The Abomination (Tim Roth) was an all out blast. The CGI for those sequences was stand-out and creative as well, like when Hulk tore a military vehicle in half and used them as boxing gloves. But the scene that really grabbed me was when Dr. Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) tried the 'cure' on Banner and you had the midway transformation between man and beast. Very well done.
So all in all, a pretty cool action flick with a neat set up for the Avengers movie when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) meets up with General Ross (William Hurt) in the final scene. The Marvel folks have a unique way of tying their characters together to leave you clamoring for more.