Hulk Smash!

So, after everyone beat me to the punch on the Iron Man review, I thought I better pull my finger out with The Incredible Hulk, and headed down to the cinema last night for the preview. So far, it seems only Nige got in there first.

Still, after my glowing report on Indiana Jones & The Sequel Everyone Else Hates, you may not put much worth in my critical faculties any more. Especially when I tell you that I was one of the few puny humans with mostly good things to say about the Ang Lee / Eric Bana version. Yes, it was flawed, and the ending was a mess (they seemed to run out of money, so turned down the lights on the special fx in the Hulk's climactic battle with Nick Nolte's Absorbing Dad so nobody could see what was going on), but it still wasn't as bad as everybody makes out... I mean, come on - haven't you seen Ghost Rider? Anyway, if my opinion still amounts to any more than a hill of beans (remember when the Hulk loved beans? Ah, the Seventies...) then do read on. Otherwise, go check out Ain't It Cool News or Rotten Tomatoes or something... I'm sure Derek Bradshaw will be ripping the Hulk a new one in The Guardian any second now. Oh yeah, here he goes...

So then... Incredible or not so? Hmm. That's hard to answer. The truth is, I liked this film a lot... but it was the eight year-old kid in me who was cheering loudest, the Marvelite of almost 30 years standing, the Bill Bixby / Lou Ferringo fanatic I've never lost touch with. Most of what works about this film is lifted straight from the comics or that old TV show - from the origin of the Abomination (and latterly, another major Hulk villain who won't be a surprise to anyone with any knowledge of the strip) to the kooky Stan Lee cameo (and the homage of the 'Stanley' character) to that heartstring plucking Lonely Man theme (which they really could have made more use of for me). We certainly get a more heroic Hulk than in the Ang Lee flick, and though "Hulk Smash!" is guaranteed to raise a smile, I personally preferred the earlier rumbles of "Leave me alone!" (though "Leave Hulk alone!" would have been even better). The tension of 'when will Banner change?' is right out of the TV show, and once you get used to the CGI, the action sequences have slightly more comic book impact than Ang Lee's. (That said, this film did cement a growing realisation in me that superhero fight scenes will always work better on the page than the screen. The frozen images of a comic book panel allow for detail and nuance that the speed of moving pictures just won't allow you to properly appreciate... unless you do that by-now hackneyed Matrix slowdown effect. One up for the comics then.)

As expected, Edward Norton is excellent, particularly as he's given very little to work with at times. (Tone complains Norton always acts like he's got a stick up his bum - I say perfect casting for Bruce Banner!) The best that can be said about the script is that it's functional. It keeps the story moving at a pace, with little embellishment and the odd clod of exposition. I suspect many of Norton's own - surely more interesting - additions ended up on the cutting room floor (which probably explains his dissatisfaction) along with a few key sequences of plot that appear to have been dropped at the last minute (like the rumoured Captain America cameo). Marvel's concern seems to have been - after the critical drubbing the last film got for being too arty and cerebral - to keep this one lean and mean... but if anything they've gone too far in that direction. A little more depth would have been appreciated, and I can't help but feel that that's what ended up cut. Meanwhile, while director Letterier handles the action and chase sequences well, he doesn't seem to have much of a gift for comedy. There are some nice moments of light relief in the script - such as the aborted sex scene that gets Bruce's pulse racing - but they fall flat through no fault of either script or actors. Another director - step forward John Favreau - would have made these the highlights of the movie.

The rest of the cast do equally well with what they're given. Roth sneers like nobody else on film, and brings a real nastiness to the role of Emil Blonsky that his spikey-spined alter ego can't really match. Liv Tyler is well, Liv Tyler. And in those glasses too. Sigh. William Hurt is wasted though - I found myself hankering after Sam Elliott's Thunderbolt Ross just because... well, it was Sam Elliott. But there are nice cameos from Lou Ferringo and even the late, great Bill Bixby himself.

As a comic fan, I found much to love in The Incredible Hulk. As a movie critic, I have a harder time excusing its flaws. I doubt it'll have the crossover impact of Iron Man, but I'm not sure it'll miss its mark with the general public to the degree that Bana Banner did. On a scale of Ghost Rider to Spider-Man 2, it's better than the Fantastic Four films and Superman Returns, and probably on a par with Spider-Man 3 or... ironically, the very film it struggles so hard to forget (though it succeeds and fails in completely different ways). I expect an extended DVD Special Edition might be its saving grace - as was the case with Ben Affleck's Daredevil... but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.