The Score

There’s a point in The Incredible Hulk where it loses all credibility for me. Something daft and needless and, although some will say I’m being quite the picky fanboy, something that, in my opinion, doesn’t sit well with the character. But more on that later.

First, the good. Louis Leterrier (yes, he of Transporter ‘fame’) has, contrary to many reports, turned in a solid, worthy and, dare I say it, exciting take on the Hulk. While Ang Lee’s movie - which I’m a huge fan and staunch defender of, by the way - was full of brooding melancholy, loss and tragedy; Leterrier goes almost immediately for the adrenal gland. Out go the close-ups of our conflicted heroes, the lime-green skin of the central character and the “Hulk like jumping” daftness of the final act and in comes a darker, more menacing, thoroughly more threatening tone. Perfectly suitable when your main character is in the habit of morphing into a 3-tonne wall of unstoppable muscled rage every time someone spills his pint.

Already, we’ve found my major gripe with this movie, though. Bruce doesn’t go all “Hulk” when he gets angry; no, instead it’s when his heartbeat hits 200bpm. Now, I don’t want to sound like a mardy Melinda here, but that kind of misses the point somewhat (i.e. that a mild-mannered man has to fight to control the rage within, lest he unleash an uncontrollable beast upon the world - cue commentary on the beast within us all etc.). That’s without mentioning the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to get your heart up to 200bpm. Even if you’re running flat-out for some distance, you’ll struggle to get over 180bpm without having a heart attack unless you’re an athlete. But, as ever, we’ll let such technicalities slide. This is, after all, just a movie.

So how does The Incredible Hulk fare as a slice of comic-book entertainment, then? Well, in some ways very well, in others… less so. Let’s take the good - numerous references to comic lore (SHIELD, Stark Industries, Captain America’s origin story and Dr Samuel Stern, for instance) and some proper Hulk action (ripping a car in half to fashion some impromptu steel boxing gloves; bringing down an Apache gunship) certainly lend the movie more credence as a translation of the source material than Lee’s more thoughtful, meditative film.

The CGI too is top notch. Early worries about the movie suffering from I Am Legend syndrome were misplaced; the Hulk moves, breathes, fights and smashes as realistically and believably as you could wish. One scene in particular - where Hulk and Betty shelter under a rock ledge as a storm breaks about them - was key in establishing the quality of the movie’s CG character work.

Then there’s the action itself. Significantly ramped up from Lee’s movie, Leterrier’s Hulk tears through cars and buildings, hefts fork-lift trucks and tackles squads of trained killers in breath-taking style. The first confrontation between the movie’s central villain - Tim Roth’s sneering super-soldier Emil Blonsky - is as good as anything we’ve seen in a superhero movie to date: a tense, pitch black cat-and-mouse game through an empty factory. The second confrontation almost matches it, taking place in broad daylight and throwing a much-improved Blonsky, a number of Humvees and the aforementioned gunship into the equation. Sadly, once Hulk faces off against his nemesis, the Abomination (a sort of anti-Hulk), the movie begins to run out of steam, CG and ideas. Oddly, considering the protagonists, the biggest problem is a lack of weight. The characters never seem to have the heft and realism of, for example, the characters involved in Iron Man’s titanic scraps.

Still, these complaints are minor in comparison to the cast. Liv Tyler executes her portrayal of Betty Ross perfectly well, coming across in a believable and sympathetic manner; for which she should be commended - the role has been written lean to say the least. Her father, General Ross, is played by William Hurt this time, Sam Elliott having tackled the character in Lee’s version. Frankly, he’s miscast. He lacks most of Elliott’s gruffness and all of his warmth, coming across as a cold, cynical manipulator instead of a well-meaning but misguided soldier. Even the central villain - a never more forgettable Tim Roth in the role of Emil Blonsky - is woefully miscast, Roth resorting to looking a little bit bored or slightly confused in place of emoting. His motivation is never well defined, his past never filled in and his sudden u-turn from model soldier to reckless idiot completely unbelievable.

However, the single biggest problem is the central casting of Bruce Banner. Ed Norton is simply not a fit for the character. Yes, he’s a talented actor, but Eric Bana’s portrayal knocks spots of Norton’s work here; being more subtle, layered and convincing. Sadly, Norton cruises through the film, delivering the, admittedly cheesy, dialogue (hey, it’s a comic-book movie) in a stilted, disinterested fashion and never really looking as though he truly cares about the character.

Still, there’s much to like about The Incredible Hulk. In tone, it fits perfectly with Iron Man and promises much with its cross-pollination and layering of Marvel lore. Leterrier clearly had a ball too, although you get the feeling he’s being leashed a touch - the action never quite hitting the inventive and daft heights of the Transporter films or Unleashed (aka Danny The Dog). In all, it’s well worth a watch. There are certainly worse things to do with a Saturday night; but it’s not the riotous adventure that Iron Man was; nor the dark, brooding piece masterpiece that it could have been. It’s merely an adequate and forgettable action movie.

A wasted opportunity, then, but possibly a good lead-in to better things from Marvel. Hopefully, the slew of movies they’ve planned for the next couple of years - Thor, Ant Man, Iron Man II, Captain America and The Avengers - will take a few leaves out of Tony Stark’s book and as few as possible out of Bruce Banner’s.

Jim