"The Incredible Hulk" Review - Written by TonyD

“The Incredible Hulk”
2008
**½ out of ****
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth


In my years of going to the movie theater I haven’t seen one movie that took itself so seriously like “The Incredible Hulk” does. Before the movie, I just walked out of “Wanted,” a movie that requires nothing short of an imagination and Red Bull, and after that, I received my hydration by walking next-door to the Chinese place for a big ass Coke and filled my hunger with chicken fingers and French fries. The most ironic thing about this is that this is the same thing that I ate in between my double feature of “Walk Hard” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” I still really love “Walk Hard,” but I despise “Alvin and the Chipmunks” just as much as ever.

Well that being said is that “The Incredible Hulk” is an improvement of Ang Lee’s version four or five years ago, but it still isn’t a VAST improvement. There are still many problems with the story, the characters, the pacing, the development, and the acting, but I think that there is a lot more to the story. I came into the theater dying to see that famed Captain America cameo, but instead only got to see Tony Stark again talking about the same thing that I was thinking when I walked into the theater. When I walked out? All I thought was, “How the hell can Captain America be living in the present when the story is taking place during WWII?”

Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) has finally settled in Brazil, where he is hiding from the United States government. He is trying to be an everyday man, but at the same time he is looking for a cure to his sickness. Whenever he gets mad and/or excited, he turns big, green, and badass. The government wants to use his disease as a weapon, so he leaves Brazil and makes his way to the country that doesn’t want him unless if he has something to give – the famous U, S and A.

That is pretty much it. What I just said is what I understood. Liv Tyler plays his ex-girlfriend or ex-scientist who helped him and now won’t. Tim Roth plays a guy who wants his power, so much that he is willing to fight in an anti-climatic fight sequence. Tim Blake Nelson plays… umm… who the fuck does he play? I’m still confused why he was even in the movie. William Hurt plays Tim Roth’s general, in which William Hurt replies to a question that Tony Stark asks him saying, “Yes, I’m playing a fucking general again.”

I know that “The Incredible Hulk” is supposed to be about a superhero with complexity. But all I heard about “The Incredible Hulk” was how action-packed the film was. Umm… no. There is one action scene in a college park that I really enjoyed, but everything else is very anti-climatic and boring. The movie starts on a down-note and ends on a down-note, and is that what we really expect from a superhero movie?

If filmmakers learned anything from the original Ang Lee film, it was that you have to make sure that the complexity of your story doesn’t slow it down. I do like the fact that director Louis Leterrier took time to develop the story that “The Incredible Hulk” follows, and it does stay true to the material, but the pacing is off. Sometimes I became uninterested in what was supposed to be interested in and other times I became interested in stuff that was supposed to be uninteresting. I can usually orgasm over the usual Stan Lee cameo, but I yawned. His cameo came somewhere within the first fifteen minutes. If I’m bored within that time, imagine how bored I will be by the end of a two hour movie.

The greatest scenes in “The Incredible Hulk” involve when Edward Norton tries to find his cure while running from the government. Norton is known for rewriting scripts, so you can’t credit anyone but him for giving him the best scenes in the movie. He writes the scenes so he knows how to act them, and greatly, I should add. He works because, unlike Eric Bana, he can act like that he doesn’t want this power, but at the same time, he would rather keep it away from the government. He at least put emotion into the role, and therefore I solute.

But he is the only one that does, because everyone else is just as tiring as waking up at 8:30 in the morning to go to this double feature of mine. Liv Tyler gives the word “bored” a whole new meaning. Tim Roth does just as much as what he did in the remake of “Funny Games.” In that role, he had to look like he was paralyzed. In this film, he was so paralyzed it wasn’t funny. And don’t even get me started about Tim Blake Nelson. If you can describe a scientist with the word “silly,” then I can say that we are definitely screwed.

I know that I was surprised that “The Incredible Hulk” was cut because it dragged too long, but if that was the case, then they probably still have to cut twenty minutes out of the final cut. The film is missing a certain feel. The scene where Bruce tries to kill himself but is stopped by the Captain was cut out of the film for reasons why people would think it would be too dark for the film. Wouldn’t you rather want to impress the fans of the comic and the television series instead of trying to impress little kids?

But there is plenty to keep fans happy. Stan Lee and Robert Downey, Jr. don’t only make cameos, but as does Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the Hulk. People will find it easy to compare it to “Iron Man,” and it’s a shame. It’s a standalone film, and Tony Stark was obviously just used for a promotional technique for “The Avengers.” I’m not the biggest fan of the comic to begin with, but I will have to admit that while it is filled with flaws, I have to give it credit – this one doesn’t have any aliens either.