The Incredible Hulk (***)

Directed by: Louis Leterrier (Transporter 1 & 2)
Starring: Edward Norton, William hurt, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth
Seen: June 15th 2008

*** Out of ****

Edward Norton as The Hulk? Why, certainly. The Hulk needs a good, big-name actor to really portray the depth of emotional guilt Bruce Banner goes through while trying to reverse the science that made him what he is. This one was made more as a reboot than a sequel to The Hulk (2003) by Ang Lee, which was generally panned by critics and fans alike (even though I quite enjoyed it). Establishing a new back story during the credit sequence – Banner became Hulk in a military super-soldier research project – the film starts with Banner living in exile in Brazil, working in a soda bottling factory, completely off the radar.

In his free time we see him logging on the web via secure connections to a “Mr. Blue”, who can or cannot help him fin a cure for his condition. We are introduced to a smart device on screen – indicating to us the elapsed time since his last “event”, at the start of the film 158 days. Then the inevitable happens, as Banner cuts his finger in the factory, and a drop of his blood ends up in a bottle of soda headed for Milwaukee, where it kills an old man – played by Stan Lee.

Now the hunt is on again, and while Banner tries to stay ahead of the military, and in particular General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Hurt), the father of his estranged girlfriend Betty Ross (Tyler). General Ross dispatches a team to Brazil to apprehend Banner, led by the Russian-born British special ops expert Emil Blonsky (Roth), injected with the super soldier serum, giving him enhanced speed, agility and reflexes. But once there the Hulk proves to be too much for them and the battle eventually moves back stateside, as Banner has now heard of a researcher who could help him to remove the taint that is the hulk from his blood.

Once again more fighting breaks out, and all hell keeps breaking loose until the even more injected Blonsky returns as the Abomination, and a massive fight between the two rips the city apart. We see Hulk actually speaking for the first time in this film – giving us some more from the comics. This final battle is also pretty impressive, with several Hulk “abilities” being put on display.

I did really enjoy this Hulk, and even though I didn’t see much wrong with the previous one, this one is more critic and audience friendly. If you like comic book films, this one is another must see – and with a promising prospect to look forward to also coming from this film – the Marvel universe’s Avengers are being put together, yes, Robert Downey Jr. appears in this Hulk as none other than Tony Stark – I’m waiting with bated breath.