You wouldn’t like him when he’s…hungry? Edward Norton stars in this 2008 update/redo/remake/reboot of the Marvel superhero franchise. After Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk, Marvel reacquired the rights to the character and Zak Penn started to drum up a screenplay for a sequel that would be closer to the television series and to the comic book. Penn’s screenplay was met with revisions and touch-ups by Norton, who worked the movie into a reboot of the original concept by adding a prologue and fiddling with some of the elements. The result is The Incredible Hulk, of course.

Directed by Louis Leterrier, the director behind The Transporter and its sequel, The Incredible Hulk captures the original TV series with glee and mines the comic books for material. It is a funnier version of the character and it contains a lighter, quicker pace than Ang Lee’s version. It’s also not as good as Hulk and lacks the internal conflict and the focus on the psychology of Bruce Banner as a central character. While Norton does an admirable job as Banner, he’s simply not engaging enough and doesn’t drum up anywhere near the turmoil that Eric Bana was able to.

Norton is, of course, Bruce Banner. The film jets us through the origins of Hulk through a quick prologue, introducing us to a framework of central characters that includes Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and General Ross (William Hurt). We then catch up with Banner in Brazil as he works at a soft drink bottling factory and is trying to get a handle on his anger, which causes him to turn into the Hulk. General Ross is, of course, still tracking Banner and eventually tracks his location to Brazil. He dispatches a team and the chase is on.

General Ross uses special operations expert Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to try to track down Banner. Blonsky gets caught up in the madness and longs for the power he experiences when coming face to face with the Hulk for the first time. This desire guides Blonsky to not only chase down the Hulk but also to gather some of the Hulk’s power for himself. Banner, meanwhile, heads back home and meets up with Betty again to try to find a cure for what ails him. He is continually chased by both General Ross and Blonsky.

At its heart, The Incredible Hulk is a chase movie. Banner is consistently running from his pursuers and the film takes on a Bourne-esque quality at times. The chase sequence through Brazil is fun, for instance, and Norton plays the “man on the run” prototype quite well. It’s when he has to become the Hulk or when he encounters emotional diversity that he begins to falter in the role.

The CGI is uneven, as some scenes play out looking as though they were entirely animated. The employment of some of the worst-looking helicopters in film history doesn’t help the realism that Norton and Leterrier were aiming for, either. Battle sequences suffer from a certain lack of legitimate crunch, as when Hulk smashes a police car to make a pair of improvised boxing gloves. Instead of actually feeling significant impact from all of the Hulk-smashing, the action feels overly animated. Nowhere is this truer than with the closing fight between Hulk and Abomination.

With inconsistent CGI and unremarkable action sequences (I have to say that I actually enjoyed the action in Ang Lee’s version more), there was still enough fun in The Incredible Hulk. It was an enjoyable experience, I have to admit. The inside jokes that fans of the comic book and TV series will get were nice touches, especially with the appearance of Lou Ferrigno as both a security guard and as the voice of Hulk. The Stan Lee cameo was funny, too. Tim Blake Nelson had the best role in the film as Samuel Sterns and his moments are truly energetic and fun.

Overall, I’m giving The Incredible Hulk a slight recommendation. It does contain some smashingly good moments and, although the bulk of the action looks animated and inconsistent, it’s fun to see Hulk bash and crash his way around. Plus, the cameo at the end of the film is worth getting excited for.

5.5/10

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