Fictional characters often become associated with certain catch phrases they say ("Here's looking at you kid," "You're gonna need a bigger boat," etc.) and that's certainly true of those who appear in print, TV or movie versions of comic books. Superman has "Up, up and away" and a certain masked figure needs no more introduction after "I am Batman."
For a certain scientist who often turns green -- not from envy but rather anger management issues -- his well-known sayings are "Don't get me mad" and "You won't like me when I'm angry." Yet, when director Ang Lee stepped behind the camera in 2003 with "Hulk," that's the sort of reaction he generated among the character's fans, those who enjoy superhero movies and most critics alike.
And that wasn't just because Lee was best known for making art house flicks and seemed an odd fit. In our review, we stated "In fact, its core problem is that it takes itself far too seriously, what with all of the overwrought melodrama, pondering, brooding and attempted Shakespearean style family dynamics. While some of that might have been interesting, a little of it goes a long way and there's simply far too much of all of that on display here. The result is a tedious and overlong (140 some minute) experience that's far too often bogged down by its own self-importance."
Coupled with less than stellar special effects and characters we didn't really care about, the film opened decently but quickly deflated faster than its title character back down to Bruce Banner proportions. While not as bad as some of the "B" level adaptations ("Catwoman" anyone?), the 2003 pic has maintained a certain reviled status that certainly didn't bode well for a sequel.
Of course, that's never stopped Hollywood when the smell of cinematic comic book tales keeps promising another sort of green. Even so, fans and critics alike were taken aback when word got out that just five years later, yet another version of the big green lug would be hitting the big screen.
Yet, rather than being a sequel or even a remake, this is -- as the fanboys (and girls) on the net like to say, a "reboot" of the tale, where the last version has been deleted, necessary patches and fixes applied, and the whole thing started anew.
Wisely (and fortunately for viewers), the filmmakers -- director Louis Leterrier and screenwriters Zack Penn and Edward Norton -- have dispensed with spending time retelling the back-story and origins of the character, getting all of that done via various flash scenes playing under the opening credits.
When the real story begins, our hero (a more suitably cast Norton than Eric Bana last time around) is doing the Richard Kimble thing, on the constant run from the authorities who are after him. When not coming across old reruns of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" on Brazilian TV (thus providing a nice cameo for the late Bill Bixby who starred in the 1970s TV version of "The Incredible Hulk"), he's trying to come up with a solution for his unique genetic quandary.
You see, whenever his heart rate climbs to a certain number, his cells mutate and he turns into the, well, hulking title character (done, like last time, with CGI effects rather than painting Lou Ferrigno all green, although the bodybuilder also gets a brief and funny cameo of his own, as does, natch, comic book creator Stan Lee in a different scene).
Cue the bad guys led by an Army general (William Hurt, once again proving he's better in certain roles than others, this not being one of them) who's employed a commando (Tim Roth having fun chewing up the scenery) to capture him. The ensuing chase leads to anger and before you can say "pop goes the weasel," out comes the Hulk to do some bashing and smashing.
Back in Banner mode, the protag heads back to the states where he hooks up with his former girlfriend (Liv Tyler) and a researcher (Tim Blake Nelson) who try to help him. The former relationship provides for some beauty and the beast material (even briefly paralleling "King Kong" up on a rocky cliff), and the performers have some decent chemistry together. The latter is present to finish Roth's transformation into the exoskeleton-heavy The Abomination as well as a link to the next villain in the sequel.
Which seems quite likely since the filmmakers have shunned most of the brooding that occurred last time and replaced it with lots and lots and lots of action. Leterrier does a good job in the first half balancing that with the more human and smaller scale aspects (especially with Norton getting us to care about his character, and via bits of humor, including a running but not overused gag about the need for stretchy pants). Yet, like a bodybuilder after too many years of steroid use, the testosterone gets unruly in the second half when the CGI effects take over.
And speaking of them, while they're better than last time, they're still decidedly less than state of the art. That is, unless you consider what's offered in video games as just that, in which case you'll love the battle scenes between The Hulk and The Abomination. For others, however, such footage will look too much like a video game rather than the near photo realism of similar battles in last year's "Transformers."
Nevertheless, I'll still take this version over Lee's any day. Certainly not perfect but fairly entertaining (with a concluding cameo scene featuring another superhero from 2008 teasing a rumored all-star comic book adaptation sometime in the near future), "The Incredible Hulk" rates as a 6 out of 10.
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