Review of The Incredible Hulk (2008) by Dave M — 11 Feb 2013

First off, this one succeeds exactly where the previous Hulk movie failed. The Incredible Hulk, as opposed to Ang Lee's 2002 Hulk, appreciates and draws from the mythos and lore that has been built in the past by Stan Lee, Marvel, and the TV series. The filmmakers actually cared about the loyal fans and knew what pressure points to hit. I'm not going to compare it to Iron Man but I will say that the building of the entire Marvel Universe and the Avengers creates a very epic tone of anticipation. It feels like it's building towards something very exciting.

So the Incredible Hulk is first and foremost a balls out monster action movie, the characters and story take a slight step back as a result, but there's just enough humor and drama for me to care about everything happening in front of me. The effects are and will always be CG looking, but it's damn good CG and I was never really one to care about that shit anyway. Edward "don't call him Ed" Norton was a very believable and capable Bruce Banner as well as Liv Tyler as a delicious Betty Ross. Probably my favorite thing about this movie... Tim Roth. Always a good villain, but he really floored me after he tries to take on the Hulk pre-Abomination. It is absolutely BAD ASS.

I've heard from multiple sources that Louis Leterrier has like 70 some minutes that were cut from the film which might be cut back in with the Blu Ray release. Now I don't know about no 70 goddamn minutes tacked into an already 2hr movie, but this flick was lacking a little bit on the dramatic character development side. Don't get me wrong, I love the popcorn action, but give me just about 20 more minutes of emotional investment and I'll love you as if you were one of my own. Overall though, if this movie had a hole, I'd fuck it.