Review: The Incredible Hulk Is Anything But
- Jan 29, 2018
- 2 min read
I tried once again recently to sit through The Incredible Hulk, Edward Norton's 2008 portrayal of the big unfriendly giant. I made it through the movie, I am 99% sure I didn't fall asleep, and I'm still incredibly confused about what happened.
The major plot points work well on screen. Banner is hiding out and learning to control his anger, he gets found out, he's tracked down, Hulks out, and the enemy starts creating their own genetic weapon who obviously later becomes the big bad.
Then Banner finds his lost love, General Ross' daughter Betty. Some stuff happens, and eventually Banner meets a scientist who may be able to help reverse his 'condition'. It works for a time, but the guy who took the serum finds them and wants some of Banner's blood in him. He becomes an Abomination, and starts destroying New York, and it's up to Banner to stop him.
Besides the fact that no-one asked for another Hulk vs military movie, and even fewer people asked for a Betty / Bruce love story, the movie is just long, boring, and completely void of anything interesting. The entire movie could be trimmed down to 20 minutes, since the major plot points happen in short bursts rather than over time, leaving nothing of substance to fill the time in between.
I'd say that watching Banner learn anger management techniques for 90 minutes would be more enjoyable, but Norton is a totally unconvincing Banner so it'd be almost as bad. If I were to praise this movie for one thing, it would be for using the Evil Counterpart trope that's been used in all other MCU solo films since, giving us a half-decent Hulk battle at the end of the film. I'm glad Universal won't let Marvel make any more solo Hulk movies, and I'm glad that no-one seems to object to the franchise completely forgetting this movie ever happened.
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