The Incredible Hulk

After the amazing success of Iron Man, Marvel is back, with a re-boot of The Incredible Hulk. Although Ang Lee’s movie Hulk was profitable, the general feeling was that it underperformed. So the new movie does not pick up where the last ended and features an all-new cast.

After a flashback sequence that explains the Hulk’s origin runs behind the credits, we see Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) in Brazil, where he is on the run from General “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt), banner’s nemesis and the father of his true love, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Banner has been over six months without a Hulk “incident”, thanks to practicing meditation techniques. An accident in the bottling plant where Banner works reveals his existence to Ross, and a military team is sent to capture him, with the predictable result of being destroyed by the Hulk. The leader of the military team is a British marine (Tim Roth) who becomes obsessed with gaining the power of the Hulk.

Although the movie isn’t as good as Iron Man, it is a lot of fun, and there’s a lot to like. Although the CGI isn’t perfect, the look is much better than the first movie, where the Hulk looked like an angry Shrek. The director makes a wise decision to keep the Hulk in the shadows for most of the first part of the movie, teasing the audience, and building up to the full reveal. The cast is also much better. Roth and Hurt are always great, and Edward Norton captures the angst of the frail-seeming Banner than Eric Bana, who came of as somewhat bland in the first one.

All in all, a great popcorn movie, and a good addition to the comic book movie canon.