The Incredible Hulk

The next entry in my Avengers build up is 2008's The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and Tim Roth. There was a movie in 2003 simply called Hulk, which I haven't seen all the way through, but assume it was only loosely based on the comic book character. Regardless, it was a terrible film and this one (mercifully) pretended it didn't happen, like we all do.

While this movie did make some adaptations to the Hulk mythos (which is always necessary), I think they worked for the better. I really liked the idea of Bruce Banner running as far away as possible to hide, work on a cure for himself, and also work on managing his anger to contain the Hulk. This was the first time I've seen Bruce Banner meditate and work on his breathing, and I thought it was an excellent idea that deserves a point.

I'll add another point for the humor in this movie. I loved the line "You won't like me when I'm hungry" and the Stan Lee cameo was one of his best ever. These small moments really helped move the film along.

The score will rise to an 8 with the first appearance of the Hulk. They did a great job of showing that he was big, indestructible, and scary. Getting the Hulk to look just right was essential for this movie to work, and they nailed it. I like that he wasn't bright green, but had some grey in him. He really was just a lot of fun to watch.

I'll also add a point for Dr. Samuel Sterns, or Mr. Blue, played by Tim Blake Nelson. He was just a really fun character. Smart, excitable, but unstable. I thoroughly enjoyed every scene he was in. I also liked the setup to turn him into the Leader, but I don't know if they'll follow through on that. Hopefully.

This film really had an excellent climax. One of the difficulties with the Hulk is finding somebody for him to fight. Here, they found a worthy adversary in Tim Roth becoming Abomination. Then, they set up the fight in a pretty awesome way with Bruce Banner falling out of a helicopter and turning into the Hulk. Such a great scene definitely deserves a point.

Now, I have to penalize the film for the ever-annoying Liv Tyler. I really just don't like her. For the most part, she was OK as Betty Ross, but she eventually wore me down. And then at the end, when Abomination smashed her helicopter, several soldiers wearing full battle armor were killed, while little Betty emerged dramatically with only a little bit of blood on her forehead. It's the whole slight cut on the cheek and dropping a book all over again. I must take away a point for that.

The main reason I reviewed this film is for its part in the Avengers series. This did a good job of alluding to super soldier serums and showing things made by Stark Industries, and then there was the after-the-credits scene with Tony Stark himself. It was nice to see him, but I think it would have been better had Nick Fury been there like in all the other movies. I won't add a point for this because it actually is rather confusing if you think about it too much like I tend to do. Why is Tony Stark telling General Ross about the Avengers? Stark isn't an Avenger yet, as we find out in Iron Man 2. Does he was Ross to join the team or help them find the Hulk? Ross hates the Hulk and doesn't even know where he is. I think this would have been better had they shown Fury and Ross talking about finding the Hulk and getting him to work for them. Oh well, it wasn't bad enough to take a point away, so it's all good.

This was really a good movie, but I think it still was hurt by the first Hulk movie. It really is hard to get something that bad out of people's minds. But this movie set things up for a nice new Hulk series tied in with the Avengers. Sadly, we won't get Edward Norton in the Avengers movie because he's apparently difficult to work with, which is a real shame because I quite enjoyed him here. Hopefully his replacement will be good enough to give this movie a direct sequel.

Final score: 9 out of 10.