The Incredible Hulk
(dir. Louis Leterrier)
Hulk... smaaaash.... GOOOOOD!!!
In this rebooted/reworked version of the jolly green giant, they've taken the lessons learned on the pretentious Ang Lee version and returned everything to its solid Marvel roots. No father issues, no over-worked Greek mythology references, and no Eric Bana.
Instead, we get a solid blockbuster ride, that brings out the best thing about the 70s TV show: the Hulk is really Littlest Hobo. Maybe tomorrow he'll settle down; until tomorrow he'll just keep moving on.
The best thing about this version is that it skips right to the good bits: it assumes you know all about how scientist Bruce Banner exposed himself to Gamma rays and had his standard issue Marvel freak accident. So instead of playing that all out again over the first hour, it's zipped through in a montage at the start - a bit like those intro panels in comics - which is great. Just enough to remind casual viewers what's going on, and actually a much subtler way of getting the story going for anyone who didn't know.
Then, we're straight into Banner-on-the-run. He's working in a factory in South America, living in a favela in Rio where he's trying to find a cure with the help of a mysterious "Mr Blue" who he occasionally emails (yes, his log-on is the super-secret "Mr Green"). Once he's hunted down by the US military, lead by Tim Roth (who's pretty interested in the possibility of being that strong once the Hulk comes out to play), we're geared up for a big shantytown chase, that borrows a lot from the last Bourne movie.
Ed Norton's great at bringing out the sadness of the Bruce Banner story - all that Gamma radiation is messing with his chance at a normal life with nice scientist Liv Tyler, and to make things worse, her dad William Hurt is the General who's hunting him down. That's one uncomfortable Christmas.
On the downside, the CGI battles are still pretty disappointing. There's probably no way round this now - especially when you see the Lou Ferrigno cameo and realise that he's not really that big - but still, it would be nice to watch one of these films and not feel like you were in the middle of a giant game every five minutes. That said, there are some artful shots where they hold back from showing you everything all the time, and the whole "uh-oh, my eyes are green again" moments are pretty entertaining.
As you may have seen from this spoilerish trailer, there's a Tony Stark cameo from Robert Downey Jr, setting up The Avengers team-up movie that's going to be on the cards once they've established Captain America (the first second world war Super-Soldier) and got Iron Man 2: Rust Never Sleeps out of the way. This is really the start of the whole Marvel Universe on film, and given the way they're treating it so far, it looks like we're in for another few summers of fun.
p.s. there's a blink and you'll miss it cameo from Omar too, Wire fans…
Links
Tags
10th Jun 2008 - Tumblr
3