Hulk Out

Due to the good fortune of Scartoe being an industry insider, I get to see The Incredible Hulk today before the theatrical release.

The Hulk is perhaps my favorite comic book character. When I was young, I watched the Bill Bixby / Lou Ferrigno show, played with my Mego Hulk figure, and even got a mask and Halloween costume. Eventually I got into reading the comics, and at the time they had really started throwing the character into some interesting changes, from a green skinned brute to a smart, grey behemoth (he was grey in the first issue and turned green) and eventually into a hybrid of Dr. Banner's smarts and the Hulk's strength (I think that being over seven feet tall, totally ripped and weighing half a ton would be kinda cool).

Needless to say, I was super excited when the first movie was being made...and then I saw it. Gamma dogs. Father issues. Fake looking CGI. Yeah, it was a let down. So when they started talking about doing a sequel / reboot (a la Batman Begins) I had mixed feelings. Gone was Ang Lee (who was a huge gamble that didn't work), Eric Bana's Hulk, and Jennifer Connelly's Betty Ross (yummy). Instead, we have Louis "The Transporter" Leterrier, Ed Norton, and Liv Tyler.

Let me say without giving the details away that this movie is a vast improvement on the first. It has a nod back to the television series with the "man on the run" plot and makes the conflict between the Hulk and Emil "Abomination" Blonsky fit in context of the relentless pursuit by General Ross and the army. Norton, Bill Hurt, and Tim Roth are all capable actors and each does their parts justice. Throw in cameos from Stan "the man" Lee, Ferrigno, and Robert "Iron Man" Downey Jr. and the film is a fun 100 minutes. It was entertaining and a possitive step for Marvel's new film division, which looks to make up for some of the last chapters in their franchise trilogies (yes, X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 - I'm talking about you).