The joke goes ‘don’t make me Ang Lee, you wont like it when I’m Ang Lee’, but, to be honest, I didn’t mind it when Hulk was Ang Lee – the problem with The Incredible Hulk is that it all gets rather boring when he is angry.
Louis Leterrier’s not a sequel but a ‘reboot’ (Marvel really didn’t like Ang Lee’s take on the green guy) starts with our hero (Edward Norton) on the run in South America. By day he works in a bottling plant and by night he runs a bio-engineering lab in his flat (I exaggerate, he merely studies blood sample reactions to various anti-toxins suggested by some bloke he has met on the internet – but it is nice and hokey all the same). Of course he is still on the run from the U.S. military and it ain’t too long before General Ross (a brilliantly hammy William Hurt) dispatches Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to intercept him…
Narratively it is these early portions of the film that work best. We all know the story and so flashbacks are kept to a minimum and the film feels very similar in tone to the Goa based start of The Bourne Supremacy. Although Norton is very engaging in the title role it is Roth you really grabs your attention as the uber-soldier assigned to bring him in. Blonsky is a ruthless man by anyone’s standards and his complete awe when confronted with Hulk is palpable. Following their initial encounter it is Blonsky’s desire to emulate his foe that really holds the interest and a college lawn dust up between the jolly green giant, a platoon of marines and a genetically enhanced Blonksy is easily the stand out scene of the film – but then economics dictates that things have to get bigger and this is where the film falters.
Just as the Hulk is best appreciated when hidden by shadow, so Blonsky becomes meaningless when Roth exits and GCI takes over. We started with a man on the run. He becomes a CGI beast but it’s okay because Tim Roth is here to supply the interest and act as the audience’s guide (which is an intriguing choice as he is the notional baddie of the piece but backfires slightly as it distances you from Norton), however as soon as The Abomination turns up we are left with two GCI puppets smacking each other, which is essentially Power Rangers with better sfx… but then how do you do a superhero movie without doing this?
Well, I don’t really think you can which seems to suggest that what’s missing here is simple humanity. Batman, Spiderman, even the fully CGI’d cast of The Incredibles all remain the people behind the cowl when the big payoff comes. They can do amazing things but they still have to overcome fear – Hulk doesn’t have this. Bruce Banner might but his alter-ego seems to have no emotion other than “Hulk smash” and it just doesn’t work too well on film – which is a disappointment because like Iron Man before it Marvel have otherwise put together a very efficient and slick piece of entertainment.
7/10
I rather enjoyed this new version of the “HULK”. It’s action sequences were a big improvement over the 2003 version. Unfortunately . . . the Eric Bana version has a better story.
If Marvel had taken the action of this movie and combined it with the storytelling of the 2003 version, it could have had one hell of a movie.