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| The Incredible Hulk (2008) |
Let me begin by sort of rehashing myself from my Iron Man review, as I do feel like this movie and that movie are very similar in my eyes. Not necessarily in terms of content or tone, but the general atmosphere. Like Iron Man, the first act of this movie is my undisputed favourite part of the entire film. Watching Bruce's life in South America is interesting to see how familiar his routine has become, and the ways he attempts to keep himself under control. It's also a good idea to only really touch on the 'origin story' in an opening credits montage. Granted, with this formula we lose the 'discovering the powers' segment of the movie, but you don't really need that with the Hulk. Everyone basically knows the gist of the character, so if you don't need to waste time with the backstory in order to devote as much time as possible to telling the story you want to tell, then don't. It's also worth noting that I'm especially impressed with how long they kept the Hulk back from the audience. We barely get a good look at him during his first attack scene in the bottling factory, and he comes across like a monster movie creature. It's a similar tactic they used in Alien: only giving us glimpses of the threat in order to build up its later appearance, and it works really well here.
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| Edward Norton as Bruce Banner |
The middle section of the film is where a lot of the more character-driven stuff happens, and it's probably the slowest part of the film, but it's not necessarily my least favourite. The pacing slows down a lot after the first Hulk scene, but not unbearably. The movie takes its time to focus more on Banner and Betty, as well as the army guys. I'll use this time to note that I really like Edward Norton in this role. He's apparently been a Hulk fan for a while, and re-wrote parts of the script. His is a very grounded performance, and it helps us to relate to Banner so we can sympathise with him when he turns into a giant, green monster. Liv Tyler's performance is also really nice, and she and Norton have good chemistry with each other. Betty Ross herself isn't a very well fleshed-out character, and she's really only there to service Banner's story, but she plays her part fine. Honestly, it would look a little out of place if she were standing up to the great hulking masses and attempting to go toe-to-toe with them, and her scenes alongside the Hulk are really well handled, especially the one in the mountainside cave. The other actors do a well enough job. William Hurt does a great general, Tim Blake Nelson is the comedic highlight and Ty Burrell is criminally underused in this role.
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| Liv Tyler as Betty Ross |
Tim Roth, however? Yeah, this was a good choice. Blonsky isn't necessarily the deepest character in this film, but his journey is probably the most interesting. It's tough to say, but I honestly prefer his scenes to a lot of Banner's ones. At the end of the day, I just don't find Bruce Banner that interesting a person in this movie. His motivations are fairly one-note, and there's nothing wrong with that in a movie like this, but it just seems a little flat at times. Blonsky, on the other hand? This is an interesting character. Does it make for the most interesting villain? No, and I'll touch on that in a moment, but Blonsky's journey in this film is certainly interesting to watch. His morbid fascination with the Hulk and its power is fascinating, especially in that one fight scene where he's almost a match for the Hulk pre-transformation. On that note, all the Hulk fight scenes in this movie are incredibly entertaining to watch, and the CGI is good enough for 2008 that it holds up fine today. The Hulk will certainly look better as time goes on, but that's to be expected.
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| Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky |
Time for me to continue mirroring my last review in saying that the final act of this movie kind of drops the ball a little. The Hulk vs Abomination fight is fun to watch, but I feel like Banner's journey to get to that point was a little too sudden. If it was a more gradual growth to get to the point where he could see the positives of being the Hulk, I could get on board with his arc, but for the vast majority of the movie, not only is he constantly pointing out how bad it is, but the movie presents it that way as well. Yeah, it's perfectly natural that he would come to that decision upon seeing the carnage going on, but in terms of a progression of character, it was all a little sudden. Plus, while the fight itself was entertaining, I was constantly distracted by the endless hordes of onlookers constantly running away. It's not like the two Hulks were taking the fight to the citizens. At least while it was on the street, it was pretty static. And, yet, there are constantly extras in the background fleeing for their lives. You'd think that after the first few minutes they would all have evacuated, but it's almost like they were too busy watching the fight to know to back off until the struggle got within about 10 metres of them. It all just felt a little excessive. Also, and this is unrelated, but I need to bring this up now because the review's almost over: the story is somewhat predictable. You can kind of guess at where Banner will end up by the end from the start. Granted, how he gets there is not necessarily predictable, but you can essentially gather from the beginning that by the end he'll have accepted being the Hulk for the good it can do. And, yeah, that's what happens. Coming right off the back of Iron Man, I think it's pretty easy to see why this film didn't do as good. Not that it's bad, but let me put it this way: the movie sets up a cliffhanger or two that, so far, hasn't been addressed in the entirety of the MCU, and I'm sort of okay with it. That's not to say that I'd not be interested to see where it would have gone, but I'm not screaming at the gates for a sequel, lets put it that way.
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| William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross |
The Incredible Hulk (2008) is a fine movie. More entertaining than not, and I'd certainly recommend it, but it's not as grand or epic as a character like the Hulk deserves. There is a terrific Hulk movie that can be made, I know it, as there's just so much untapped potential in there. They've yet to find that magic on the big screen, however, at least as far as a solo movie is concerned. 7/10.
Next: it's Iron Man 2.
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