Not the Purple Pants

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2008)

Greetings again from the darkness. Kind of a return to roots for the big green guy. The action scenes are grittier, louder and bigger than in Ang Lee's version ... all with a scaled back, more believable Hulk. This time Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner and Liv Tyler is Betty Ross, his scientific partner and love interest.
An unlikely casting decision puts Tim Roth as Hulk's nemesis, Blonsky, and finally as The Abomination. And a very creepy looking Willliam Hurt is the military guy attempting to cover up his mis-deeds. Somehow, Hurt's character has access to every military weapon known to man ... and the authority to use it on a college campus and in the middle of NYC. Hurt looks a bit too much like the new Burt Reynolds. I guess that adds to the list of mutants in the film.
Actually, I was impressed with the action scenes ... they were what I had hoped for. Plenty of fighting and chasing and "smashing". The dialogue in the non-action scenes was pretty lame, but that's not really what anyone comes to see.
A couple other points of interest: creator Stan Lee gets temporarily juiced off the Hulk's blood, Lou Ferrigno shows up twice - once as a pizza chomping security guard and also as the voice of Hulk, Ironman Tony Stark (Robert Downey, jr) shows up for a scene that sets the stage for "The Avengers" and the late, great Bill Bixby (TV's Hulk) has a creative cameo via TV and "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". Speaking of setting the stage ... watch out for Tim Blake Nelson's character in the sequel.