The Hulk Film We've Been Waiting For

Rating: 10/10 (13 May 2011)

I thought this was an incredibly good Hulk movie. It was everything that Ang Lee's Hulk wasn't. The Incredible Hulk was perfectly reminiscent of the beloved Bill Bixby Hulk series. It had a great combination of smashing Hulk, "just wants to be loved" Hulk, tormented Banner, and "learning the Hulk isn't completely evil" Banner.
The cast does a terrific job. Norton certainly works better than Bana did. The others are quite good, though I can't really say whether they were better or worse than their counterparts in Ang Lee's version.
The story is pretty straightforward, without all the unnecessary art house mumbo jumbo. No overly complicated daddy issues. Just Bruce learning to accept his other half and Hulk looking for a place in the world. Emil Blonsky also has a good story arc with him trying to overcome his age limits and reclaim his glory.
I loved the slow reveal of the Hulk, much like what Paul Verhoeven did in RoboCop. The monster in the shadows then the hand in the fog. So that when Hulk is fully revealed he's been built up and appears even more spectacular.
The CGI is very well done. Hulk and Abomination look like they could actually appear in the real world. The level of detail on the two exceeds anything done in Lee's version.
The action was terrific. It didn't overwhelm the slower, character moments but it was enough to satisfy action fans. The chase in Rio and the college battle are both exciting. The ending is particularly what is needed more in comic book movies. Showing too powerful creatures beat the crap out of each other while innocents are caught in the crossfire. It's what too many others are lacking. When someone like Hulk or Superman has seemingly unlimited strength, they need to fight someone with similar abilities to really show off their powers.
The movie did a great job setting up future films without feeling forced like Iron Man 2. We get the set up for Leader, Doc Samson, S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers, and Captain America. But it all feels natural, like all these characters exist in one universe whereas Iron Man 2 sometimes felt like "Hey look, comic book references!"
My only real complaint is that General Ross is portrayed as more of a straight-forward villain. Sam Elliot's version was more a man doing what he needed to do. He loses some of his dynamic character in this version.
Overall the film did what it needed to do, it was fun from beginning to end and didn't dumb anything down just for entertainment.