The Incredible Hulk (Louis Leterrier, 2008): USA

Reviewed by Richard Feilden

When I was six years old my favorite t-shirt was emblazoned with Marvel’s not-so-jolly green giant and my favorite toy (taken lovingly to school on any day it was allowed) was a little truck with a cage on the back from which the Hulk could escape.  I tell you this for the purposes of full disclosure, to give you a chance to meter the praise (and criticism) with which I am about to lavish The Incredible Hulk.

Transporter director Louis Leterrier, together with screenwriter Zak Penn (thankfully lifting himself above the derisible scripts for previous hero flicks Electra, X-Men: The Last Stand and Fantastic Four in which he had a hand) and ever-eager contributor and star Edward Norton bring us an effective reboot to the Hulk franchise, opting for a story and atmosphere closer to the 70s TV show and some versions of the comic than to Ang Lee’s Hulk.  This ‘Batman Begins’ approach has paid dividends, even in the eyes of someone who enjoyed Lee’s more cerebral interpretation, giving Leterrier the freedom to ditch some of the baggage without having to spend too much screen time focusing on the origin story – the bane of many first installments.  Here we are immediately dropped into a world where Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is on the run, hiding from the overzealous General Ross (William Hurt) who wants to capture the beast that lurks within Banner and exploit it for military purposes.  Banner, hiding within the chaos of a Brazilian favela, studies relaxation techniques and martial arts in an attempt to control his green-skinned rages, while communicating with a mysterious scientist named ‘Mr Blue’ in an attempt to discover a cure.  But Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), one of the men under Ross’s command, is intoxicated by the power he witnesses in a failed mission to capture the Hulk (voiced by Lou Ferrigno, who embodied the goliath on TV and who represents one of many winks to the characters past incarnations) and undertakes an experimental procedure in an attempt to level the playing field.

Visually, this film is a treat.  The cinematography in the favela is particularly beautiful, pulling the viewer right into the claustrophobic environment, without turning the slums into the pit of despair that they could have easily become.  And then there is The Hulk himself.  Gone is the neon green ‘Mr Stay Puft’ from Lee’s film and in his place we have a creature with real weight, more a Greek God (if in an odd hue) than a nauseous, overgrown toddler throwing a tantrum.  He seems much more connected to the world than his previous incarnation did, which is important when you have a character who interacts with the world as much as, and as violently as, the Hulk.

The story moves along at a pretty brisk lick, offering moments of respite between the smashing which don’t throw the pace of the film off kilter, whilst allowing the audience to catch their breath and gird their loins for the next onslaught.  Unlike Iron Man it doesn’t seem to be too schizophrenic, keeping a pretty even tone all the way through.  I will be interested to see what effect the promised additional seventy (yes, seventy) minutes of footage in the home release has on the film.  More background to the characters would be nice, but this is an action film and care will need to be taken not to turn it into ‘Sense and Sensibility: New York Rampage”.

The acting is generally pretty good, but with one glaring weak spot.  Norton gives us our tortured hero without descending into Hamlet styled hand wringing and Roth is convincing as a soldier desperate to recapture the vitality of his glory days.  Hurt is occasionally unconvincing as a man driven so hard that he is willing to perform genetic experiments on his own men but, on the whole, he plays a convincing ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross.  Liv Tyler, playing love interest Betty Ross, sadly falls short of the mark.  She seems unable to snap out of the role of Elven Princess.  Simpering in a film where she is surrounded by gladiatorial monsters, she seems out of place and unworthy of Banner’s, and the Hulk’s, infatuation.

Marvel no longer license their characters to film studios and can now place their characters within the same world.  Here we have Stark Industries (from the recent Iron Man film) producing military hardware and oblique references to Captain America.  The best Marvel Stories, such as the recent Civil War, have always involved multiple characters interacting, so these references not only provide for a more believable world (where the fantastic is accepted because it is, well, less fantastic) but also give the promise of greater things to come. To that end, there is a brief scene which sets  up the forthcoming Avengers film, although unlike Iron Man you won’t have to sit through the credits to see it.

If, like me, you are a fan of the Hulk then this film will not disappoint.  You’ll get that line from the TV series, good CGI, plenty of action and a story which rips along.  If you have no more interest in this green giant than you have in the one who sells corn, then there should still be enough action and fun to keep you interested.  For me this is the first summer blockbuster that has delivered on its promises.  A smashing (Damn! I almost made it without a bad pun!) good time