Hulk Me One More Time
I went this week with my permanent wingman Zinsk to see The Incredible Hulk, Marvel's Studios latest superhero flick. This movie had some big shoes to fill, coming out after the much loved Iron Man. I just have to say it did alright, is it as good as Iron Man? Well...no. However, it does kick some original ass of it's own. First of all the cast in this go around is great, Ed Norton as Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler as Elizabeth "Betty" Ross and last but not least Tim Roth as the Abomination. That's right, spoiler alert fanboys and girls the Abomination is the baddie here.
This Hulk movie focuses more on the cult classic TV series, Dr. Banner is a fugitive from the American Government and always on the move. He spends a lot of his time in hiding trying not to get angry and finding a cure for his unique condition, that being an excess of Gamma radiation in his system and the small matter of him becoming the greatest ass kicker of all time The Incredible Hulk. In the beginning of the film he is hiding out in Brazil, as an anonymous gringo working at a soda pop bottling plant. As you can guess the people that are hunting him find him there, and boy I bet they wish they had not. Dr. Banner goes on the run again and decides to return home to New York City, because as we all have learned from Hollywood, nothing ever happens anywhere except in New York or Los Angeles.
Ed Norton is a fine choice as the good doctor, he plays it a bit mellow, but that's the character, and after all we are not there to see Dr. Banner, we want the Hulk! Liv Tyler seems to be in every other movie that comes out now and I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. She has been showing up in more mature roles lately and is showing she can really act, this movie is no exception. Tim Roth is in my opinion, so very underrated, he always brings a subtle menace to his roles and he hits it out of the park in this feature as a career soldier and adrenaline junkie who actually desires to become the Abomination so that he can go a few round with the Hulk, and that my friends is pretty bad-ass.
This movie is a lot of fun, the acting is solid and the story in somewhat simplified from Ang Lee's much maligned version. This time the Freudian elements have been left behind and the story is basic- big green man verses the military zealots. The action is superior, the look of the Hulk and Abomination are incredible this time, the CGI has made bounds since the first film and the overweight, latex look of Ang Lee's Hulk have been replaced by a leaner, meaner, grittier and vastly more detailed Hulk. As we all would hope, a lot of things get destroyed, crushed and blown up..YAY! The final fight between Hulk and the Abomination is great fun, we're talking soldiers, Humvees, helicopters, a ridiculous amount of shooting and healthy dose of property damage. This Hulk offers everything you want, decent story, great action and a great cameo at the end that leaves the door wide open for Marvel's Avengers movie in 2009. Go ahead and see this one without the biting fear of fanboy disappointment, it is worth the money. It is not quite on par with Iron man but is a good, stand alone superhero flick.
The Incredible Hulk receives forty dead anonymous army bad guys out of a possible fifty.