Hulk Smash Puny Box Office

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2008)

Come to think of it, ballet has a lot in common with super hero comics...the story being merely an excuse, a framework to show off the artists skill with the form. That and the melodrama...the acrobatics...and the tights..."-Bryan Talbot
Even though this movie makes some small attempts at back story, it's very easy to view this movie as a sequel to Ange Lee's Hulk, for instance Ang Lee's film ends with Banner in South America, and this film begins with Banner in South America.
Like many sequels, we begin with action already taking place, and characters who already have experiences with each other. Unlike Lee's Oedipul Comic Book come to screen, "The Incredible Hulk", exchanges pathos for chance to see Hulk slug it out on a crowded downtown street with "The Abomination"(another big mutated guy).
If super hero stories are action ballet's where the central character is just a big symbolic suite(or costume), to add some differentiation between this particular dance, and the next one, than the Incredible Hulk, is well worth the watching if only for it's exercises in special effect slug fests between giant monsters(which is at the heart of every Hulk comic).
The first movie set up the pins of the story(but lacked a substantial comic book villain, the Oedipal stuff with the father made sense it just didn't make the most thrilling action spectacle to watch), this film while having no emotional core to the volatile Hulk/Banner dichotomy, does have plenty of "Hulk Smash!", not as charming, and appealing as Iron Man. Good for those who like the ballet, bad for those who can't kick without content.