Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Incredible Hulk’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

When one is asked to think about a powerful superhero, the kind that can accomplish wonders by way of their super strength, one name that quickly comes to the top of all of our minds, is Bruce Banner. Because ol’ Brucey’s alter ego, the Incredible Hulk, is an invulnerable being that can do just about anything, thanks to the strength behind his giant green fists, yet, despite everything the Hulkster can or could do, his time on the silver screen has been limited and I’ve always been quite amazed over the fact he’s in essence, a forgotten hero at the cinema.
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Because there really is a lot for this character to offer. He’s powerful, he’s fearless, and his alter ego is an average Joe (or Jane), like so many of us, he just happens to be a scientist whose experiment went awry. But that setup has led to far and few adaptations over the years, in fact, you can basically count every Hollywood themed Bruce Banner story on one hand. There’s the ever popular TV series that featured Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, and there was the Ang Lee directed film adaptation aptly titled, Hulk, and outside of that, there’s really only one official MCU focused Banner/Hulk film, one that came out in 2008 shortly after Iron Man made waves in the box office in The Incredible Hulk.

Now, what makes this movie so fascinating to me is that in many ways, this sucker should have been a slam bang success, but so many simply don’t hold this film in high regard and that’s odd because the formula here is pretty by the numbers for Marvel. There’s a phenomenal cast present since Edward Norton takes over the role of Bruce Banner here, and he’s counterbalanced nicely by Tim Roth as the evil Emil ‘The Abomination’ Blonsky and William Hurt drops in as well in his first run as General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross. Plus, the budget here is sky high with top notch special effects that straight up take your breath away. Which begs the question, why does everyone more or less feel as though this movie is the worst the MCU has to offer? Well, the answer to that is simple, it is…far too dark for this universe.

Think about it for a moment. While Iron Man and many of the movies that followed it had or have their serious moments, there’s a lot of fun to be found in those films and that’s simply missing from Incredible Hulk. It broods on darker moments far too often and there’s no joy to be found in Norton’s portrayal of Banner since he’s a man beyond desperate to be free of the green monster residing inside his soul and those elements simply sour the film as you watch. Which means that by the time you get to the Hulk/Abomination showdown at the end of the film, you’re bored, and disinterested and that makes the fight seem tame to say the least and that’s a shame, because with a little tender love and care and levity, this could have been quite the moving motion picture, one that would have held quite the flame to Tony Stark’s story.

But alas, the magic would have to wait for Mark Ruffalo to take over the role, leaving this one as the odd man out when it comes to Phase 1 of Marvel Cinematic Universe and the only reason I still watch this film, and recommend it, is to remind myself, and others I suppose, of how quickly Marvel learned from their mistakes since they more or less vowed to keep the fun rolling from here on out and we know how that turned out. However, while I’m making it sound as though this movie is simply unwatchable, since I too have more or less revealed that this one doesn’t really resonate with me, it’s still worth watching. In large part due to the fact that it is part of the official MCU, and it does set up Bruce’s future nicely and seeing as to how eleven years later this one is still part of our discussions, it obviously left its impact when all is said and done and perhaps someday, someone will figure out the right formula to make this character worthy of a long term franchise, like the rest of his fellow Avengers, received.  

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