Scientist Bruce Banner scours the planet for an antidote to the unbridled force of rage within him: the Hulk. But when the military masterminds who dream of exploiting his powers force him back to...
Let’s fast-forward things back in 2008,when Marvel was riding off the heels of Iron Man’s success and the fans’ mind-blowing reaction to the post-credit scene of Nick Fury introducing the Avengers Initiative.
After everyone saw Iron Man,everyone didn’t know where the Marvel Universe would go,so hearing the news of another Hulk movie was both great news and terrible news,since we know what happened to the last Hulk movie (also because Hulk is owned by Universal and stuff)…. And that’s where we had “The Incredible Hulk”,a movie that promised us a new version of the Hulk (and a refresher from 2003… Ok,I’ll stop).
But if we’re going to see if it’s any good or not 10 years later (kind of astounding how it held up by itself,honestly),let’s see if it still holds up or not.
So,the story. To understand the story,technically you’ll have to see the 2003 Hulk movie by Ang Lee (I guess,which if you don’t want to,glad they retell that for the new viewers in the title sequence) to get some explanations of what’s going on in the beginning of the movie (when we’re introduced to Bruce Banner’s life),but,cutting that flaw out,the rest is interesting to look at. We understand why Bruce Banner (played by Edward Norton) is having a troubled life with the military,his love for Betty Ross (played by Liv Tyler) and his anger/excitement issues that lead him to becoming the Hulk,as the title says. Even if in the end,he realizes that no matter what he does,the city still needs him,even if he’ll SMASH his way through everything.
Speaking of that,at the same time,in the 3rd act,we’ll get introduced to the villain,Abomination (played by Tim Roth),where I’m kind of mixed. Look,his actions are not really understandable: He’s a Professional Soldier,he gets angry after he got beaten by a kick from Hulk,then he gets crazy and crazy as the movie progresses,him and his creepy CG’d out body (he gets the Super-Soldier serum,so that’ll better explain something…),then he becomes the Abomination just so he can kick Hulk’s butt. It’s not horrible,but it feels like the writers saw a Videogame Rage Compilation and thought “What if the angry player gets his revenge on him,and actually wins?” to just get away with it.
Back to Bruce Banner, his relation with Betty is really sweet and Edward Norton plays a “scared,always on the lookout” Bruce Banner expertly.
Tim Roth is intimidating as Abomination and Liv Tyler was basically ‘Jennifer Connelly from Hulk 2003’ 2.0,since her lines are told in this weird,coff-y and muted tone,and a scene involving a Taxi Driver driving like if it’s a Car Chase (that was outta nowhere…). That,and the scene where Hulk throws a rock through the storm to defend Betty cracks a laugh for me. Sorry,but it’s just me.
Now,for the Special Effects...as of today,they look like the perfect Nintendo Switch videogame,ported by Panic Button. But,for 2008 standards,this felt serviceable. The action was fast and frenetic,and the Motion Capture was nice.
And yeah,the score is still another “Marvel Score where you’ll remember the theme and its action cues”,but it’s one of the better ones,being composed by Craig Armstrong (he also composed The Great Gatsby).
So in the end,I think The Incredible Hulk is an underrated MCU Movie that fans don’t necessarily have to go see now. Maybe for a fun time. And hey,it being a Universal movie from 2008 was kinda surprising since it has better qualities in it than Cash World Fallen Profit.
