Sometime in 2011 or 2012, before the release of The Avengers, found out that The Incredible Hulk was indeed a reboot of the franchise and part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I watched it in order to get caught up on the larger MCU and I don't remember being impressed.
The film has always felt a bit out of place in the MCU and I don't think I'm alone with these thoughts. The Incredible Hulk is rarely talked about in the channels I follow, and it's even more rarely referenced in the other MCU films. Through the years I've learned to like it a bit more and after watching the special features included in my blu-ray copy of the film, I started to appreciate it more.
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Directed by: Louis Letterier
Screenplay by: Zak Penn
Produced by: Avi Arad, Gale Ann Hurd, Kevin Feige
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt
Based on a character created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The Incredible Hulk is the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After a science experiment has gone wrong, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) has ran away from the U.S. military to Brazil. Ever since the accident, whenever Banner gets too angry he becomes the Hulk, raging green monster with super strenght. While trying to find a cure for his condition, Banner is helped by his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and scientist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). After Banner is the father of Betty General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt) with the help of soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who'll later become similar monster to Hulk, called the Abomination.
The story of Hulk against the military and the Abomination I have no problems with. Far as I know that is a pretty classic set up from the comics (I'm more familiar with the recent than classic stuff). The movie has many things going for it. Action is actually pretty fun, I like the locations and sets, acting is mostly pretty good. I have problems in the film with it's tone and some of the relationship drama. It doesn't quite fit in with the early Marvel Cinematic Universe.
HULK SAD
The main issue I have with the film is it's tone. The film feels just too sad at the times. Especially in the middle of the film, when Bruce Banner gets back to U.S.A. and reunites with Betty Ross. The scenes between these characters makes me feel like movie thinks it's telling one of the most important love stories around. The feeling is enhanced by the dramatic score by Craig Armstrong and the heavy performance of Liv Tyler.
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| Just because you both are wet doesn't make this romantic. |
I don't think it's necessary wrong to do a sad superhero film, especially about Hulk. There for sure is sadness in the story and the character of Bruce Banner. I for sure feel for him when he's a fugitive in Brazil and scared of the monster within him. However when it's so heavy like in this film, it no longer feels natural. Even the few jokes in the film start to feel out of place. Especially in the end when Tim Blake Nelson's character gets introduced in the film. He obviously would've work better in a more comedic film.
Usually I really like it when film (or other entertainment) mixes drama and comedy. But this film just went a bit too far for me, and is missing the balance of the two.
HULK SMASH
When it comes to a Hulk film, what people want to see is Hulk punching stuff. I mean sure, like with every movie there needs to be a story and characters around it, but Hulk needs to smash. On that front The Incredible Hulk delivers three different action sequences that are pretty satisfying for me. Should be mentioned that watching the making-of videos from these scenes made me appreciate them more.
The first one is on foot chase through the streets of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil that ends at a bottling factory, where we see first glimpses or the Hulk. While we've seen chaotic running through the streets before, the location enhances this scene for me. The favela (hey I learned a new word from blu-ray bonus material and wikipedia) makes an excellent place to have people running away from soldiers. Seeing Banner and the soldiers jump from roof to roof to street and to roof again is quite fun. The end of the sequence at the bottling factory slows the chase down a bit. We don't see the Hulk fully yet, keeping the audience waiting while still excited for what's to come. I think they could've taken the factory part even a bit more slower to make it more horror-like.
The second one is good Hulk versus military action. We get to see Hulk fully in daylight now. It's fun to see him lift vehicles and smash them together. In this scene Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth, has now gotten some enhancements of his own and tries to take on the Hulk one on one. Roth's stunt double delivers some nice jumps, but in the end Hulk kicks him down like a bug. The scene ends with Hulk covering Betty Ross from the bullets and explosion, showing the good heart of inside the monster.
The third and final action sequence is the boss battle Hulk vs. the Abomination. Blonsky has now gone full Hulk, green and big and thirsty for blood. More excitement is brought to the sequence from General Ross and Betty Ross hanging around in a helicopter, trying to help Hulk, which of course means that Hulk actually has to try to keep them safe while trying to beat the Abomination. Now the scene is mostly these to cg characters punching each others and I'm there for that. Animators really went to town with the characters, it's pretty fun to watch even if effects aren't 100% up to date. It's one of those scenes where hero has to beat more stronger version of themselves and win because the hero has more heart. That works for me pretty well, and we hear the iconic "Hulk smash!" -yell from Hulk (voiced by Lou Ferrigno, who played Hulk in a tv-show from the 70s)
Honestly I think action scenes could've had even more punching, but seeing Hulk use pieces of cars as boxing gloves kept me satisfied. Especially after the making-of video showed the excitement animators had for their job.
The CG Boys
Almost everything in the movie is shot on locations or sets. The streets of Rio is actually Rio. End battle in New York's Harlem was made in Toronto (the mayor was apparently a Hulk fan) with real car flips. But of course there was no way they'd have the real Hulk or Abomination available.
Personally I don't see any other way they could've done these two monsters, other than motion capture and cg animation. Actors in suits probably would be either two small or have too hard time moving smoothly enough. And I don't think animatronics would move as smoothly either. I'm not the best when it comes to judging the quality of cgi, for me the ones they did for the film work fine enough. However I do have thoughts about the design.
Director Louis Leterrier wanted Hulk to look more like a big human than a pure monster. He wanted it to be of pure muscle with zero fat. I think to a some degree he got what he wanted. Hulk in the movie sure likes strong as hell and I guess you could call him a human-like. Personally I feel the design tried to be a bit too much. All the veins and details make it's unpleasant to look at. Also while I know they used motion capture to capture Edward Norton's face movement, I feel like it gets a bit lost, because the face of Hulk is made so different from Norton's. I've preferred the more comic booky and bright versions seen in The Avengers and forward.
While Abomination has bit of the same issues as the Hulk, I'm a bit more forgiving with them, because they made the Hulk first and of course the Abomination needs to match him. I like the idea of Abomination having bones too big to his body and them poking out. Especially when they're used in the final battle between the characters. Only problem is that with so much going on, I don't think that the Abomination is that memorable. But sure, he looks like... an abomination.
Does Abomination have a dick thou? He doesn't wear pants but we see nothing hanging...
The Meat Boys (and girls. No, more like "and A girl")
The acting in the film is mostly pretty good. I wouldn't call anything mind blowing but I do enjoy some of the characters quite a lot. On the other hand there were few I didn't enjoy as much.
Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the title's incredible Hulk, is played by Edward Norton. I think Norton does fine job in the film. His Bruce Banner feels pretty much like a normal guy who's in an impossible situation. He feels very down to earth and never really goes overboard with anything. This makes the character more relatable to the audience. Thing is that Robert Downey Jr. is a tough act to follow. Going from Iron Man to The Incredible Hulk audience might feel like Norton's boring compared to Downey Jr's energy and charisma. This is of course a bit unfair comparison, and should be looked past, but it does always come to mind.
Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination works for me. The character isn't really deep in his motivations, he's just eager soldier getting older, who wants to keep fighting. Through the movie Blonsky becomes more obsessed with beating the Hulk and keeps wanting more power to do so. I think Roth does good job portraying this obsession.
William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross is another high-light for me. Character works well with Blonsky, as this General who wants to catch Banner, in order to experiment and create more Hulk's for military use. There's something really powerful when Hurt yells the lines of General Ross. And in a scene where he says he considers Banner's whole body property of the U.S. military you really see a mean bastard.
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| Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) and "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt). I mean who doesn't like an older man in an uniform. |
The actor's I did have problems with, as mentioned way earlier in this text, are Liv Tyler as Betty Ross and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns. They bring quite the opposite problems to the film. Tyler is way too dramatic in her delivery. I'm under the impression that many like her, but for me it's just doesn't work. Nelson on the other hand is too goofy. He's doing this nerdy professor thing which just comes too late in the movie for me to work anymore. If the film had been more comedic from the beginning he'd probably work better.
There are not really other big performances in the film, but I do want to mention Ty Burrell from Modern Family, who plays Leonard Samson, Betty Ross' new psychiatrist boyfriend. Most of his scenes were cut so he kind of just is there. Bluray extras show the scenes and is nice to see more dramatic role from Burrell, when I've only seen him in a sit-com. That being said the scene's would've added too much relationship drama and made the middle of the movie too long.
Universe building
The Incredible Hulk does a fine job standing on it's own. Like I said in my text about Iron Man, building an universe starts with a one film. And the second one shouldn't be filled with pointless foreshadowing either! In the opening montage and later in the movie, they mention S.H.I.E.L.D, organization that was also mentioned in Iron Man. Stark Industries logo is also shown quickly, so you know it's the same universe.
To drive the point further home, Robert Downey Jr. makes an small cameo appearance as Tony Stark in the post-credits scene. Which is actually not a post-credits scene at all, because it was moved to be the last scene of the film before credits. I guess that was so that they could justify spoiling the scene in the marketing.
The context of the Tony Stark cameo was actually later changed in a Marvel short film
The Consultant
The later installments of the MCU have not been kind to The Incredible Hulk. Events of the movie are very rarely referenced, other than few easter eggs in tv-show and a throw away line in The Avengers. There's probably few reasons for this. One is that the film wasn't a great success. Neither critics didn't really praise it and it didn't make that much money on the box office (it's the lowest grossing film in the franchise). Also the fact that the star Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo in the later films. My understanding is that this was because Norton was very difficult to work with and demanded lot of control.
Anthony and Joe Russo did bring back William Hurt to reprise his role in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The directors felt they wanted to make The Incredible Hulk relevant again and had a role that fit the Hurt's character. Even though The Incredible Hulk does teass character Samuel Stern becoming The Leader from comic books and The Abomination being alive at the end, with Tim Roth having three-picture-deal with Marvel, none of the films other characters have appeared again.
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| Sorry mr. Nelson, maybe you get to go full comic book villain in the 2015 Fantastic Four? |
The film has never gotten a sequel. This is probably because it was distributed by the Universal Studios who still has the distribution rights to any Hulk movie Marvel Studios decides to make. Other early films were distributed by Paramount who sold it's rights to Disney after Disney bought Marvel Studios. However distribution rights aren't something I'm expert at, so I'll leave them at this.
In the comics...
I've mentioned before that I focus mostly on the recent Marvel Comics in what I read and collect. However I am aware of some of the earlier things as well. In the classic comic books Bruce Banner is caught in an explosion in an weapons demonstration for a bomb that he made. Gamma ray's used in the bomb make him the Hulk. In the film Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk in an attempt to recreate the super soldier serum that made Captain America.
Other change I know about is that Emil Blonsky in the comics was a KGB agent. For the movie character was changed to a Russian born British soldier. This was because the film makers felt KGB wasn't relevant to the story. Also probably because this way Tim Roth wouldn't need a Russian accent.
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| Hulk was first grey because of a coloring mistake. Or he became later green because of a mistake. |
I've collected some Hulk comics. The ones I have aren't really relevant to The Incredible Hulk, but I would love to see some of them adapted or used as a source of inspiration for future MCU films. Especially The Totally Awesome Hulk, where young Korean-American kid Amadeus Cho becomes the Hulk. Amadeus is a genius like Banner, but unlike Banner, Amadeus loves being the Hulk. It's a fun run about kid who thinks he's in control but finds out that being Hulk has it's dark side as well.
Also She-Hulk would be fun to see on screen. Jennifer Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner, is a shy lawyer who finds confidence when she gets her super powers. She's a fun, usually, more light hearted character in the Marvel universe and with MCU having so little female led films, she would make a great one. Also she did the breaking of fourth wall before Deadpool.
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| The Totally Awesome Hulk #1 and She-Hulk (2014) #1 |
Mixed green bag
The feeling I have for The Incredible Hulk remain mixed. The movie isn't bad, but there are just something's that really don't work for me. It would also be nice if it was more relevant in the larger MCU and didn't feel so forgotten. I have some good time every time I watch it and seeing the care and love the crew and cast had for the film made me appreciate it more. When doing my MCU marathons I never skip it, but I can't really blame the people who do.
Next time I'll be talking about Iron Man 2 (2010). The movie I still like, but is often said to be one of the worst and overstuffed films of the MCU.
Have fun. Love and respect each other!
- O.K.
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