The Fantom Reviews: The Incredible Hulk

I have a love/hate relationship with the Hulk. Although I respected Ang Lee's efforts with the Green Goliath in his first feature film, the movie was bad. Its predecessor, Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk, is similar, but essentially comes down to this: Its just another Hulk film.

This is were my love turns to "hate".

There really is not a lot you can do with the Hulk, and while individuals like Iron Man and Batman are characters that have "legs" in the story department, Hulk simply has one. Hulk smash. That's how he will solve all his problems, and that is really all you have to look forward to in the film. The smashing looks and sounds amazing, but compared to the first film, its essentially the same with the exception that in the new film, the Hulk has someone to hit (unlike Superman Returns). The battles are well crafted, although telegraphed in a sense. You know the fights are coming and that's what really pushes this movie forward. Not the acting, not the story, just the fighting. One scene after another builds upon each other until just when you think your getting bored, BAM! Hulk smash.

The CGI looks pretty good. People are going to complain that the Hulk looks fake, but come on, hes what, a ten-foot, 600 pound guy? There is no way to make him "look" real. In comparison to the others films, Hulk looks... different. Not better. Just different. I may be alone here, but I really liked the way the other Hulk looked and moved in the first film, especially in the spectacular desert fight scene. He was large and gentle, and retained a lot of Bruce Banner. But when he got pissed he was mean. The new Hulk matches that look and feel, although I don't see Banner as much as I would like in him. Edward Norton (Bruce Banner) channels the feelings well as a man, but as a beast, a lot is lost. Also a lot is lost in the Cloverfield-esque filming.

Ultimately this movie ends as a confusing mess, just like most Hulk comics. Even the appearance of Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark adds to the confusion, rather then creating some sort of new angle. Let me try to explain this:

• This film, and the rest of the Marvel movies to come, will all be 75% based on the Ultimate Universe, a more adult and modernized vision of the Marvel Universe in the 21st century. In the Ultimate Universe and especially within the Ultimates book, its hard to tell who the heroes really are. Captain America is a bit of jerk, Hank Pym (Giant Man) beats his wife Janet (the Wasp), and Thor may or may not be an absolute lunatic claiming to be the Norse God Of Thunder. The public will be (And I feel is confused) by these portrayals. Adding a scene featuring Iron Man speaking with a General in the Armed Forces about a monster who needs to be stopped adds to this confusion. "Isn't Iron Man a good guy?" they ask themselves. "Why would he want to hurt Hulk? Why would he build weapons for the military to hurt him after they said in the last movie he would stop making weapons?" The common sense answer is "Because the Hulk is guilty of the death of hundreds of people, and millions of dollars in property damage." But for the average movie goer who is new to the "Marvel Experience" they just won't get it, and honestly I'm a bit confused myself.