GRIMSHAW'S ATTIC MEDIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ang Lee's Hulk would be consider an alright movie if it wasn't call Hulk. It is a bore to watch a film about terrible father-son relationships when you are expecting a green monster to go around smashing other monsters and causing large amounts of property damage. If you like it, more power to you, but I'm not a fan. But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about the reboot, The Incredible Hulk.

 

Five years after having an accident with Gamma Rays and a super-soldier serum that turns him into the Hulk when he gets angry, Bruce Banner is still desperately searching for a cure for his condition. However, as he goes on the run, the woman he loves father, General Ross continues to hunt him down in order to exploit his power. But soon they find they are going to need to put aside their differences when a new enemy called the Abomination arrives on the scene.

 

From the get go, director Louis Leterrier seems to get the material he's adapting. and Leterrier makes a lot of homages to the 1970s TV series. We get Lou Gerrigno and Bill Bixby making cameos in clever ways. The origin story brillaintly summed up in the opening credits is basically a modern day version of the one from the TV series.

 

As for the film itself, it's a clever look at what it means to be the Hulk. When Bruce Banner "Hulks Out," it's made clear that he has restart his life every time he calms down. Especially since he finds himself in a strange new location with nothing but whatever clothes Hulk didn't rip off his back. Sure, there's changes here and there, such the Hulk only appearing when he gets "excited" in anyway, but those changes help create tension in the film. It also helps that the Hulk looks a little more realistic this time around than he did in Ang Lee's Hulk. Sure, it's noticeably CGI still, but it still looks a bit better, especially when he's in action.

 

That said, the characters here are bit of a one-dimensional: Norton's Banner a driven smart man and Tyle's Betty is nothing more than a damsel in distress. Really, it's the villains that are the real stand-out characters, with William Hurt's General Ross feeling like he popped out of the comic book pages and onto the screen, while Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky slash the Abomination is actually the most interesting character, and I found to be one of the more interesting villain arcs of Marvel Cinematic Universe (After Loki of course).

 

But in the end, The Incredible Hulk is the Hulk film we wanted back in 2003: An fun action film with fun monster on military and monster on monster action. And my God did that sound bizarrely dirty. Anyway, it's not the best film in the series, but it's still worth checking out.