The Incredible Hulk Movie Review
Finally had a day off today and used part of it to go see The Incredible Hulk movie starring Edward Norton.
I’ll admit I thought this movie was going to suck and only went to see it for the simple fact that it’s a Marvel superhero movie. But I was pleasantly surprised. In every way possible, this movie is an “Incredible” improvement over the Ang Lee version of 5 years ago and a decent movie in it’s own right.
First, Norton does a much better job of portraying Bruce Banner than Lee’s Eric Bana, bringing out more of the character of Dr. Banner that we all know from the comic books. His courage, his fear of the beast within, and his willingness to bring out that beast when crunch time comes and no one can save the world except The Hulk.
The story itself is also more in line with the comic book history that fans are familiar with and know. With the exception of a missing Rick Jones and Major Talbot, we get to see Banner, General “Thunderbolt” Ross, his daughter and Banner’s love, Betty Ross (though as a scientist in her own right and not a helpless female as portrayed early on in the comics), plus villains such as The Abomination (with a neat twist on his origin that involves a certain red, white and blue hero) and the foreshadowing (maybe for the next movie?) of The Leader. We get a different, more up to date origin for the Hulk, but the basis is still the same; Gamma radiation.
The story itself is enjoyable. The writers (and Norton?) wisely assume that fans know the backstory and quickly highlight the salient points and then move on to the story at hand. We pick up Bruce Banner hiding out in Brazil, working as a manual laborer in a bottling plant, studying with a local fighter to hone judo-style skills and learn anger management, as well as trying to learn to speak Portuguese (which leads to a funny and familiar exchange later in the movie). Though living in a slum, Banner does have a laptop and a fast Internet connection with which he is communicating (via encrypted chat, yet) with a mysterious “Mr. Blue” (Banner is, appropriately, “Mr. Green”) regarding their mutual research into a cure for Banner.
Soon though, through an incident that involves the perennial cameo by Stan “The Man” Lee, Banner is tracked down by General Ross and an elite squad chosen to capture Banner, but things don’t go quite as the General expected and the Hulk makes his first appearance, mostly in shadows. We’re also introduced to Blonsky, one of the elite squad who will become a major part of the rest of the film.
Reverting to Banner somewhere in Guatemala, Banner somehow makes his way back to the US and the site of the original accident at Culver University in Virginia. Soon he and Betty are reunited and Banner gets the data he needs that Betty hid on a flash drive, but General Ross is still after him and a huge fight ensues between the Hulk and the military which now includes a slightly super-soldier enhanced Blonsky. Still, the Hulk prevails and escapes with Betty, whom he kept from being killed by the General’s forces.
Blonsky ends up in a hospital in traction and probably won’t ever walk again, much less eat solid food. Hulk takes an unconscious Betty to a cave he finds and shelters her from the thunderstorm in which they find themselves. Betty regains consciousness and soothes the Hulk as they sit and watch the storm. In the hospital Blonsky is up and walking, a result of the small amount of super-soldier serum he had been given earlier, while out in the forest, Betty and Banner awake and make their way to a hotel to plan their next step; a trip to visit “Mr. Blue.”
Ross agrees to give Blonsky another injection of the super-soldier serum in hopes of taking down the Hulk and afterward we see some bony protuberances running down Blonsky’s spine. Banner and Betty make contact with “Mr. Blue”, better known as Dr. Samuel Sterns. After inducing a “Hulk-out” in Banner, Sterns administers his proposed cure and the Hulk reverts to Banner. But the question remains; is this a permanent cure or a single instance occurrence?
When Sterns begins talking about other test subjects Banner becomes alarmed and finds out that Sterns had replicated his Gamma-radiated blood to use on test subjects ranging from rats to monkeys. But at that moment Ross and his team have once again tracked Banner down and a tranquilizer dart is fired into Banner. Blonsky bursts in and manhandles Betty, knocks Banner completely out and send them out with a military EMT crew. he then forces Sterns to inject him with Banner’s blood, but the combination of the super-soldier serum and Gamma-radiated blood turn him into what Sterns appropriately calls an “Abomination.” Blonsky/Abomination smashes Stern into his equipment, opening up a gash on Stern’s head. While lying on the floor, some of Banner’s blood drips into the gash and Stern’s skull begins to enlarge to grotesque dimensions.
General Ross is transporting Banner and his daughter on a military helicopter when word comes that the Abomination is rampaging through the city. Banner tells Ross their only hope is the Hulk and jumps out of the helicopter, hoping his fear will induce him to change into the Hulk. It does, but only at the very last second before impact.
The climactic battle between Hulk and Abomination is, of course, the high point of this movie. After defeating Blonsky, Hulk bounds off to escape the military.
My only disappointment with this movie involved the CGI and I had a similar problem with the Ang Lee version. In scenes involving the Hulk, I felt like I was watching a sub-standard video game. The CGI character was just not believable or realistic. I know there’s no other way to do it when you’re talking about a 7 foot green giant, but the result was substandard.
I did enjoy the “tip of the hat” references to the old TV series including showing Bill Bixby in a “Courtship of Eddie’s father” episode on Brazilian TV; Lou Ferrigno as an easily-bought-off-with-a-pizza security guard; the mention of a college newspaper reporter named Jack McGee; the classic “eyes only” change that signalled Banner was hulking out and even the use of the TV series theme music when Banner is walking down a deserted road, recalling the typical endings of episodes when Bixby’s “David” Banner would be leaving town.
Overall, even with the disappointing CGI, this was a very enjoyable movie and a great way for fans to spend 2 hours with one of their favorite Marvel Comics characters.
With questions swirling about lately regarding a replacement for Tobey Maguire in the next Spider-Man movie (Maguire has stated that his involvement is contingent upon Sam Raimi returning to run the show from behind the camera), Raimi himself had this to say:
“Right now James Vanderbilt is writing the script, and he’s working on it, and I’m excited to read it,” Raimi said in a group interview in Century City, “I think it’s going to be done in a few months. I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and hoping it feels right for me, because I love Spider-Man, and I’m hoping I’m well-enough rested to, like, really embrace it and hoping that Sony wants me at that time to direct it.”
In 
“Now, about that blue suit.”
“In tests - and we did several - the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party. [See the still from the TV series at left as an example-Jeff] Going to black brings back his essential mystery, his Zorro-like sexiness. It also makes that red tie of his look very, very cool. So I made the call, with all respect to Eisner’s creation, and most importantly, to what I perceived as his underlying intention. It was an easy call for me to make. The Spirit dresses in black, and looks much the better for it. As I said, my desire was never to slavishly follow the rules of ’40s printing into campy oblivion, but to reintroduce Eisner’s creation, via modern technology, to our brave new world.”
Superman, the original and greatest superhero of comic book history, made his debut in Action Comics #1, which hit the stands 70 years ago this month.
John Hodgman (if you don’t recognize the name, you surely recognize the face of both “PC” in the “Mac vs. PC” ads and a regular “correspondent” on The Jon Stewart Show) has written a 
Mr. Hodgman shows a fan’s knowledge of the content of both Kirby’s and Vaughan’s works; understanding what both were attempting to say and, even better, how they were attempting to say it. It seems obvious that he did not just grab some representative work of each and quickly scan through it, but actually sat down and read these creations, immersed himself in them and then emerged to intelligently discuss them.