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by Guest
Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:30 pm
Forum: Full Reviews
Topic: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Replies: 1
Views: 1027

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

After Ang Lee's stupendously horrible attempt at bringing the Hulk to the big screen, there was truly no where else to go but up. With that being said, it comes as no surprise that The Incredible Hulk (debuting 5 years after the Lee's original) is a marked improvement over its predecessor. This Marvel reboot wisely avoids being an origin story, instead jumping right into the action. The Incredible Hulk sums up all necessary background information in a two minute long title sequence (as opposed to the punishing hour we spend in Ang Lee's version before Hulk even appears onscreen). Unfortunately, The Incredible Hulk remains a forgettable action romp, despite its valiant attempts at damage control.

Ignoring the events of the 2003 Hulk, director Louis Leterrier's film contains a confusing story that isn't really worth trying to follow. The gist of it is that Bruce Banner (Hulk's alter-ego) is trying to live a quiet, isolated life so that he can prevent himself from turning into Hulk and risk hurting other people. Unfortunately, the military has a beef with him (explained very flimsily through flippant exposition), so they locate him in an attempt to capture Banner. But Banner manages to get away and meets up with his former girlfriend who Banner had previously abandoned to avoid killing her by accident. The two are now fugitives, and must try to avoid the military.

The Incredible Hulk is watchable enough to pass its 114 minute runtime. But the scant fulfillment of its most minimal obligation is not enough to recommend the feature. You need strong characters, a good script, and in the case of a superhero film, entertaining action sequences. The Incredible Hulk doesn't really have any of these things.

To be fair, Bruce Banner is actually a fairly interesting character. His quietly heroic nature is a nice contrast to his enormously destructive alter-ego. And Edward Norton delivers a very good performance as the lonely, conflicted character. Unfortunately, the supporting cast and characters are significantly weaker.

Betty Ross - Banner's love interest - is given the stereotype Mary Jane role. She's someone for Banner to save. Someone for Banner to miss. Someone for Banner to worry about, and someone to worry about Banner. She's more of a plot device than a character, and Liv Tyler's performance fails to say otherwise. Tim Roth as the antagonist has virtually no motivation for any of his actions. He's nasty enough I suppose, but he never feels like much of a threat. Also of curious note is Ty Burrell, who has perhaps 90 seconds of screentime, and is given a role that could have been played by anyone.

The action sequences suffer from the same problem as the first film, in that Hulk's invincibility renders the whole affair as almost pointless. There's never a concern for Bruce Banner's safety, so we never feel especially engaged when the Hulk is onscreen. And per Marvel standards, the last 30 minutes are pretty terrible, containing a CGI-overloaded finale that ends on a absurdly anti-climatic note that was perhaps an indicator that no one on set really cared anymore.

Craig Armstrong's score is a bright spot on the production. It's interesting and enhances the events onscreen. Armstrong pulls off the jungle rhythms much more seamlessly than Elfman did in Hulk, and he employs some un-traditional action-movie effects (such as a pipe organ on a few occasions).

Movie-goers looking only for spectacle, explosions and general destruction should be satisfied with The Incredible Hulk. But the film lacks memorability, and the finale is extremely unsatisfying. The Incredible Hulk easily manages to improve over its unbearable predecessor, but I'm certainly not clamoring for a third installment.

Score: 6/10