"The Incredible Hulk"

Edward Norton is the Hulk? And I thought Bruce Banner got exposed to gamma radiation because he was blocking it and sheltering someone who was in the way. Instead, the movie makes it look like he Quantum Leaped the experiment and tested it himself. Then he spends the entire movie not being the Incredible Hulk. Was Bruce involved in the “Super Soldier” program? I watched the deleted scenes on the DVD and there was the extended scene of the General and Tim Roth talking about it and there was so much cut out that made much more sense with what happened to the “Super Soldier” program. This was obviously an attempt to hint at Captain America, and I read that you could see his shield in the storage closet where the General found the serum. I slowed the movie way down and scanned every square inch of the frame throughout the entire scene and saw nothing.

Of course, the General is the girlfriend’s dad. We have to make the story more interesting, err I mean, boring with the stone cold father trying to kill the guy who nearly killed his daughter. It’s only when Liv Tyler was literally under fire and the Hulk shields her from the fire when the General finally trusts him again.

I feel Tim Roth was comically wasted in this movie. I get it that he’s a fighter and he’s power hungry, but it makes you like him less because he’s squandered as a villain. He’s like the Shredder, scarred from war and easily defeated by a green creature.

The only time Ed Norton and Liv Tyler were enjoyable was in the taxicab scene.

Oh, let’s not forget the important reason we watch these movies now: the subtle hints of the MCU. In this film, Tony Stark makes an appearance, which I find weird because at the time Iron Man was made by Paramount and The Incredible Hulk was made by Universal and says to the General that he’s putting together a team. But the General lost contact with Bruce, so I’m curious how Bruce got into The Avengers later. Actually, let’s talk about that. In the very end of the movie Bruce is hiding in Canada doing his tai chi and then is heart monitor explodes, he smiles and his eyes turn green. So just doing tai chi makes him hulk out? And he smiles like he had a wonderful, awful idea. What’s up with that? I watched the trailer from the Iron Man DVD, and Bruce says the line, “If I could control it, I could use it.” He never says that in the film, but tai chi is him controlling it?

Let’s not forget Pre-Modern Family, Ty Burrell, as Liv Tyler’s forced love interest. What was his motive? Jealousy, I guess, because Liv Tyler suddenly became interested when Bruce returned in her life. He calls the General, and then he acts like he regrets calling him after the incident at the college. His only human trait was defending Liv Tyler helping Bruce, by saying, “I wondered why she never talked about you. Now I know.” Pretty stone cold coming from the silliest dad in modern television.
I'm sure there where people who, six weeks prior, saw a miracle, and they saw this and thought, "What happened?" It never really occurred to me that this was happening. I know I'm beating a dead horse about this, but the fact that the Hulk was created by a completely different studio would have to have thrown off some people. I do remember this coming out, but the only thing that comes to mind was a Mountain Dew ad where someone spills their Dew on the floor, and he Hulks out. Growing up I saw trailers for the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, the Fantastic Four franchise, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Iron Man came along and I considered it just another superhero movie. A month later, The Incredible Hulk stomped its way into theaters and that was it. The way I see it now was that Iron Man was the first hit in a long time, and this dissatisfying mess had to ride its coattails. Fortunately, it isn't so bad that it deters people from continuing to go see the movies.

I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: June 13, 2008
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt
Director: Louis Leterrier Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
IMDb Score: 6.8/10

Videos
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - The Incredible Hulk
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With The Incredible Hulk