Poster for "The Happening."
Nipping at the coattails of “Iron Man,” comic book icon “The Incredible Hulk” storms into theaters with less grace than a gawky teenager.
Even with a cameo appearance at the end of the film by Tony Stark, the suave and debonair Robert Downy Jr., “The Incredible Hulk” fails to sweep me off into superhero land.
How can I so blatantly compare “The Incredible Hulk” to “Iron Man?”
Because “Iron Man” portrays the superhero character to perfection.
“Iron Man” offers a plausible and unique story line, important friendships, stellar cinematography, first rate actors throughout and smart dialogue.
“Hulk” offers much less story and in its place a sequence of fight scenes (well done, mind you) and an implausible and hokey ending.
The opening scene of “Hulk” is engaging and well done. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) hides out in South America but is still trying to cure the beast within him.
He works at a bottle packing factory and takes anger management courses from a really cool fighter.
What works about the opening scene and throughout the film is the pacing.
Although the movie lasts nearly two hours, it never sags.
The film keeps a good clip and provides enough awesome fight scenes to satisfy even the 14 year old boys in the audience.
The fighting reminded me of the only parts worth watching in “Transformers”: the CGI characters/monsters that look awesome throwing cars around and beating up innocent people.
Although “Hulk” is a decent movie, the main character, Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk, is not the strongest part of the movie.
The villain, Emil Blonsky, who Tim Roth plays, is much more visually interesting and better acted.
Even before Roth transforms into a mutated monster, things start getting tense.
In addition to Roth stealing every scene that he is in, William Hurt turns in a great performance as the military leader that is trying to harness and control Bruce Banner’s radioactive transformative ability.
Much to my expectations, Liv Tyler as Banner’s former girlfriend Betty Ross comes off as flat and boring.
The romantic encounters she shares with Banner are clichéd and ridiculous, making me remember the clever avoidance of gushy Hollywood romance in Iron Man.
“Iron Man” and “Hulk” do have one thing in common though: the lead actors are small and unassuming as heroes.
Although this might distract or even outrage potential viewers, it shows America that one does not have to look like Hulk Hogan to play The Hulk.
That is what computer graphics are for.
Although The Incredible Hulk is not the best superhero movie this summer (or ever), but it also is not the worst.
What director Louis Leterrier needed was an actual storyline with smart dialogue that made all the characters come to life, not just Tim Roth’s character.
Also, “Hulk” might have suffered from the fact that “Hulk” is just not a cool superhero.
As seen in various shots in the film, “Hulk” is reminiscent of “King Kong” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
Those moments have already been done, but that didn’t stop “Hulk” from repeating much of the clichéd moments that made those stories famous.
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