The Hulk version that won't leave you turning green

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2008)

When rumours of a new Hulk film began to surface after the Ang lee version, reservations set in the hearts of many of movie goers, however, when it emerged this was to be a reboot, curiosity began to grow and after setting foot out of the cinema having heard the words “Hulk smash”, any reservations about this film had indeed been smashed.
With the remnants of Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk still prevalent in people’s minds, Louis Leterrier’s take of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ draws influence from the 80’s TV serious, with nostalgic music pieces and recreated scenes. Since the creation of the hulk from gamma ray exposure was commonly know, rather than invest heavily in to an origin story, write Zak Penn condenses it down to a neat little montage incorporated into the opening credit to allow for the story to take full steam from a spectacular opening shot of the slums of Brazil. In his new fugitive life, genius scientist Bruce Banner, played by Edward Norton leads a solitary life seeking a cure and some control for seemingly incurable condition. All the while he is evading a US government search for him led by General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross and his new recruit Blonsky, a 39 year old unaccomplished soldier trying to make a name for himself wanting the power of Banner, which he inevitably gets to become Abomination.
Taking influence from the Bourne films, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ opens with an edge of the seat chase through Rio leading to a brief opening glimpse of the Hulk and is an excellent setup to what continues as a well thought out film. When Hulk finally makes his full appearance on screen we can see that a much more generous input has gone into the CGI work. The actions sequences that follow will leave you in awe and the brute force, sumo style culminating fight will ultimately satisfy the child in you. Norton is excellent as Banner and able to bring a sense of desperation and inner torment to this role, but the film doesn’t really attempt to develop this or take the same risks to any level similar to what Ang Lee set out to do and we only see really see one side of Norton character. Liv Tyler as Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Ross, playing Banners empathetic love interest left a sweet feeling and gave an overall decent enough performance. Even with the obvious ‘bad guy’ stereotyping of Blonsky being Russian and British, the talents of Tim Roth still managed to come out of a one dimensional character.
So, with Leterriers playing the right cards are there any faults? Well, asides some unnecessary cameos and limited character exploration, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ manages to hit all the right buttons – it is a comic book adaptation done well with themes that not only make it work on screen but allows your average view to get involved with the central character, if only slightly. With comic to films adaptations having no end in sight and the as we enter the new dawn of marvel films with darker themes and crossover universes ‘The Incredible Hulk’ manages to keep the bar raised high and is the best possible pit stop to the climax of the summer blockbuster...The Dark Knight.