Thanks for reading my review of The Incredible Hulk. 

Hulk…. SMASH!!!!  Is exactly what this film does in the Comic Book genre.  The newly built Marvel Studio’s is two for two as The Incredible Hulk does what it sets out to do, repair the damage that Ang Lee caused for The Incredible Hulk.  Directed by Louis Leterrier (Transporter) and written by Zak Penn, Edward Norton stars as Bruce Banner who also did rewrites on the Zak Penn script.  Norton’s rewrites however didn’t bring the actor any credit as the WGA sided with Zak Penn as sole writer.  Also starring is Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), William Hurt (General Ross) and Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky/The Abomination) with Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns.  Following a freak accident we follow Bruce Banner who is on the run trying to keep the beast that lives inside of him safe from General Thunderbolt Ross who wants to use it as a weapon.  After being reunited with the love of his life Banner faces an enemy created from his own blood who is stronger and larger than him, The Abomination.

In several respects I believe that The Incredible Hulk is just as good as Iron Man and since both films takes place in the same universe I can’t help but feel extremely excited for future Marvel movies leading up to  The Avengers.  Granted Iron Man holds a better and more solid script, The Incredible Hulk has so many elements that makes this film a top notch winner in my book.  We all know who Edward Norton is and we all know his work as an actor.  He has a remarkable talent as an actor and after  watching this film, he proves to be an excellent as a writers as well.  I have to say, the casting of Norton was pure genius.  As much as I like Eric Bana who plaed the same role in Ang Lee’s film, I think everyone would agree that Norton has Bana beat by a long shot.  Everyone who will see The Incredible Hulk will not be disappointed by Norton’s performance as Bruce Banner.  He has the look of an unassuming man that transforms into this Incredible green beast but with out his superb skill as an actor and to embrace the role as he does, Banner would have been nothing.  William Hurt is of course a grand actor in anything he does, so to say that he was great as General Ross would be a given or an understatement.  What makes Hurt so enjoyable is, because I’m a fan of his work, it’s nice to see him as something other then the soft spoken reasonable and wise personality that we always see him in, and I’m not going to give examples, just look at his profile on IMDB and you’ll understand.  All of us know that Liv Tyler is gorgeous but we also know that she can’t hold a film by herself but to my surprise, I thought she was just fine as Betty Ross.  She makes Ross look so innocent and shows so much love towards Banner but that’s not why we wanted to see The Incredible Hulk, we wanted to see Hulk Smash!  That is exactly what we got.  So far out of all the action films that have come out this summer, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk wins for best action and most action.  With exciting set piece’s and a totally kick ass fight with the Abomination at the end of the film, The Incredible Hulk will please those fans that like pretty explosions and mayhem.

To continue on the elements that made me enjoy this movie lets move on to some of the other aspects.  The opening credits is perfection because within just a couple of minutes, the origin story is told to us and we didn’t have to spend an hour on just how the Hulk was created, thank god!  The credits was basically a clip show of how the Hulk was created and what happened to him before we start the film in Brazil.  Without speaking and using too much time, the back story of Banner, General Ross and Betty Ross was showing to us and conveyed, very well, were each of them stand.  If your a fan of Marvel or you just pay attention to certain things you’ll notice that during the scene where Gen. Ross explains to Blonsky when the program that created the Hulk started he says “a super soldier program that started in World War II”, more or less…. That’s right! A hint to Captain America’s origins, again leading to The Avengers movie in a couple of years.  On top of that, some other super hero makes a cameo, Tony Stark and that’s not a spoiler.  If you didn’t know that by now that you’ve been locked in a closet.  Besides hints that will lead to The Avengers, this movie also hints at the next films bad guy.  Well known in the comic book world, the character Samuel Sterns eventually becomes The Leader.

In all honesty, I can’t find a lot to complain about this film.  I suppose the biggest complaint would be the script not being solid enough, with some bad dialog here and there and some plot holes especially towards the end of the film.  The plot holes could be attributed to the fact that apparently over 70 minutes was cut from the film and from what I hear, the deleted scenes are going to be on the DVD release.  Tim Blake Nelson’s character, Samuel Sterns, might have been set up for the sequel but I have to say… he is really annoying!  I found the character to be kind of lame and the little comedy that was used for his scenes really didn’t work.  There is also one scene at the end of the film during the final fight between Hulk and Abomination that really annoyed me.  I’m not going to say what it is because it would be a big spoiler but it involves Liv Tyler’s character and it’s just really stupid.  You’ll have to see it to understand, I’m not going to spoil it for you.

Overall, The Incredible Hulk really is an awesome comic book movie with very solid acting from Edward Norton and the rest of the cast.  I really suggest you see this movie, especially if you liked Iron Man because this film is linked with the other.  Marvel is proving to be a fantastic studio and they give me hope that the next character installments from Thor to Captain America will be something really fun.  On a scale from 1 to 10, The Incredible Hulk is a solid 8 out of 10.

-Phil