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• Director: Louis Leterrier
• Genre: Adventure/Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
• Year: 2008

“Hulk, smash!!!” Two words that are surprisingly descriptive of this movie. You can choose to look at this in two ways; the half empty statement would have you thinking this is numbingly simple; the half full statement would say numbingly simple but also unpretentious and unapologetically so. In comparison to Ang Lee’s visually stunning but thematically convoluted and metaphysical nightmare of an attempt, The Incredible Hulk is really a stripped down chase movie, but it is a fun chase movie that makes no attempt to disguise itself as nothing other than that, and in that, one can only respect it.

Gone is the tediously boring origin story, compressed into one quick paced opening scene that tosses more cookies and biscuits at you than you can shake a finger at, which if you look closely makes all sorts of references to other members of the future Avengers team. This is a neat little tool that is placed from beginning to end and which adds another sub-level of fun. It also should be said that it is a good thing that the origin story is mostly forgone, because as it is the movie starts off with a stagger. Nevertheless, like the character at the center of this movie once the movie gets rolling, there is nothing to stop it all the way to the no-holds barred blow up of a climax between Hulk and Abomination.

This is not a perfect movie, by any stretch of the imagination, even when compared to other comic book movies, a number of them easily come to mind that surpass it (Iron Man, X-Men 2, Spider-Man). The acting also falls short, which is unfortunate, Liv Taylor, is basically useless in this film and John Hurt is about as scary an antagonist as a walrus in a military uniform. Thankfully, both Tim Roth and Ed Norton pick up the slack where the rest of the cast fails. It also needs to be said that Hulk and Abomination never quite seem to fit into the world. This is a problem that plagues a lot of the movies that choose to employ CG. Something that Lord of the Rings did superbly and something that this one did not. In the end, the Hulk looks something out of a video game superimposed into our world and never is fully believable.

Going into this film without high expectations then, is a good idea, because this film delivers on the surface everything it tells you is. Hulk, smash! If you want to see a big green guy bust the crap out of things using cars as punching gloves, then yes, this movie will satisfy. On the other side of the token, when you compare this movie to the main body of work based on comic books, it still is a shinning star, because it stands head and shoulders above a great many others.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: Violence, of course, all over this one, but it is PG-13 violence, never quite so gory to justify most kids out of the theater.
Quote: Betty Ross: [Betty and Bruce need to get across own in New York City] The subway is probably quickest.
Bruce Banner: Me in a metal tube, deep underground with hundreds of people in the most aggressive city in the world?
Betty Ross: Right. Let’s get a cab.