Smashes Expectations

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2018)

The Edward Norton version of The Incredible Hulk is a lost nugget in the MCU. As a stand-alone film, it does more to connect the universe than any Avengers film when you consider all the references to the Avengers, yet it's one of the more forgettable films in the MCU. And it's not because it's a bad film-because it's not. It's because this isn't the Hulk that Mark Ruffalo embodied and turned into the fun-loving brute with anger management problems that we've all come to love. This is The Incredible Hulk as envisioned by a producer at DC, not Marvel-dark, brooding, yet competently executed. It's entertaining, just not memorable.
The film starts in South America, with Banner in hiding, mastering breathing techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters and working at a bottle factory. He works with a band of scummy warehouse workers who sexually harass their co-workers and taunt him. Of course, they're just props for the Hulk to justifiably smash in between social messaging a scientist who is supposed to help him find a cure. Of course, Banner can't take a leak without the government tracking his scent, and the mad dog sent to track him is Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), an angry Black-Ops guy with age insecurities. Luckily, the government just happens to have some of that handy Captain America super-soldier serum to give him, and unlike Rogers, the serum amplifies Blonsky's worst attributes. When Blonsky attempts to go one-on-one with the green one, and it ends with nearly catastrophic results for Blonsky. So note to Cap, don't fight don't Hulk. Leave that to Thor. Liv Tyler stars as Banner's estranged lover, Betty Ross, the daughter of the stone-faced general Admiral Ross, that's hunting the Hulk. She's completely wasted as a whispery and dotting ex who seems to serve the male gaze and not explore Liv's talents as an actress.
The film boasts some thrilling action sequences, so it has that going for it. The first battle between the military and the Hulk is fast, hard-hitting and badass. It's a huge improvement over the Ang Lee version that lulled audiences to sleep with psychedelic colors, mutant dogs, and real-life comic book frames that played out simultaneously to confuse everyone. No, this film doesn't make that mistake; it makes new mistakes.
Instead of building off of Blonsky as a human super soldier threat, they decide the only way he can battle the Hulk, is as a Hulk, or as comic book fans know him-Abomination. I wouldn't have a problem with that if the creation of Abomination happened earlier and presented an increasingly difficult challenge for the Hulk. At no point do you ever feel like the Hulk might lose? Abomination is literally a throw-away character that even Marvel chooses to forget about when it comes to the MCU. Toss in the dark and muddy tone of the film, and you have yourself just a run of the mill smash 'em up film in New York. But if that's what you came for, then this is a smashing good time.