Synopsis:

Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) lives in shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote to the gamma exposure accident that has turned his world upside down.  Desperately wanting to capture him and channel his powers into an unstoppable weapon of war, General Ross (William Hurt) heads a team of elite soldiers including hot head Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who stay just a step off Banner's trail.  In his quest to find solidarity in his violent double life, Banner is filled with personal anguish over the urges to control his powers and desperate heartbreak for the only woman he has ever loved, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). 

The Freak's Rating: B : In the summer of 2003, Marvel comics brought The Hulk to theaters.  Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Nick Nolte seemed strong enough in star power to carry The Hulk to box office success.  Throw in acclaimed director Ang Lee and you have an audience.  I was in that audience and though it sounded like a good box office cocktail, it was not.  In fact, it was an enormous disappointment.  With dramatic elements stretched out, unbelievable size comparative issues (sometimes Hulk was 20 feet high, sometimes 4 stories) and a rotten script, it never stood a chance.

Amazingly, Marvel decided to reinvent the character with a new take on the superhero a mere 5 years later.  With a cast of A-listers and a rumor that Norton had his hand in many scenes, I was leery.  However, after reading more about Norton's integration and insistence upon certain "human" elements being included, I became more eager to see it.  The Incredible Hulk did not disappoint.

Opening with brilliantly fast character development, The Incredible Hulk quickly tosses the audience into the story and moves with a brisk pace that never lulls.  With homage to the original television series and cameos by many involved in the history of the comic series franchise, The Incredible Hulk doesn't come off as too big for its britches (pun, of course, intended).  Audio in the film is excellent, with one scene boasting a sound wave weapon that I will surely use for a speaker check in my home theater.  There are editing issues (as Nate mentions below).  At some points in the film I found myself lost, with scenes having obvious gaps.  I lean away from Nate's thought on rating and tend to go with the idea it was a running time issue that caused the cuts.  Coming in under two hours is a pretty big deal in Hollywood and Hulk just makes it at 114 minutes.  Either way, pacing of the film lags a hair in these areas because of the editing. 

Along with William Hurt spewing wonderful ignorance and condescension as the General, doe-eyed Liv Tyler pulls off the damsel role with all the intensity of a puppy dog.  After seeing her turn in The Strangers and now this, I firmly believe Tyler can't pull off any emotion on screen that won't make me giggle at her incompetence.  When she sticks to reading the script and doesn't act much (read - overact), she's adequate.  Tim Roth, having booked a spot in my memory for the best opening sequence ever in Pulp Fiction, is blissfully unlikable as Blonsky.  Originally thinking his part would be a throwaway role, Roth impressed me in the latter two thirds of the film and is a quality enemy for Hulk.  Norton is the star of the picture and is more impressive than I imagined in the role.  Having starred in what I deem the most overlooked acting performance of recent memory in American History X, I had no doubt acting would be nicely done, but I was curious what the Academy Award nominee would do with a superhero role.  His turn as Banner is worth the price of admission.

I was particularly pleased with an element of the CGI.  Lost to this point was the humanity of The Hulk and the CGI team for The Incredible Hulk does a wonderful job of breathing life into the monster, especially in facial expressions.  The Hulk has quite a bit of screen time in the picture and though resemblance to Norton is difficult to see, humanity is revealed well.  Marvel is on quite the roll as of late, having Iron Man breaking all sorts of records and being a crowd-pleaser no one saw coming.  Containing an awesome final scene, lots of good action and overall fun at the box office, The Incredible Hulk is worth a see.

Angie's Rating: C : To be fair, I have no interest in the Hulk series marvel comics.  I think there is a possibility of a decent script considering the storyline behind the character, but even with my favorite actor on board, I really didn't care for the movie. I think this movie tried to put more of a inner-struggle human element into the character of Hulk, and wisely chose Ed Norton to do that, but it just didn't quite achieve it. To make it worse Liv Tyler's acting is really embarrasing. I found myself hating almost every scene that the Hulk appeared... mostly because you loose Edward Norton's acting and the focus is left on Tylers' really terrible damsel in distress, cry-over-my-man parade.  I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but I will say that if you really loved the Hulk comic books you may have a different opinion from me.  The computer graphics, settings, overall film style, and early character development were good.  However, I will not be watching this again.    

Nate's Rating: B : It's strange.  I really enjoyed this movie, but I have to give it a B for technical reasons.  Mostly, the dead-weight script and the cliche of the single-minded military. 

Fortunately, there isn't a whole lot of dialog and I thought the director was more than capable of telling the story without extended expositions.  I loved Edward Norton as Bruce Banner and I thought Liv Tyler was good as Betty Ross (but not always good enough to pick the script up off the ground). 

The special effects were good, not perfect, and the action is pretty gripping, but some of the editing, especially during the action sequences, seemed rushed.  I'm guessing that they had to cut some of the coolest action shots to get under the "R" rating.  A director's cut would be interesting.

Style-wise, the film ignores Ang Lee's Hulk and adheres closer to the 70's TV show, which is a good move.  In fact, it could *almost* be seen as picking up where that show left off, and fans will enjoy the many references made to the old serial.

Cameos abound, and are a little distracting at times, but not enough to hurt anything. 

Despite the B rating, I'd highly recommend it.  Unfortunately, I don't think it will do very well at the box office because of the timing and marketing, but it deserves to do almost as well as Iron Man.  Oh, and if you see it, be sure to stay until the credits start roll.  You won't want to miss the last line.

Side note: Liv Tyler's put on a little weight, and I like that.  I'm so sick of looking at surgically-augmented anorexic distortions of womanhood that it's very refreshing to see someone who, while still thinner than average, looks like she likes a little gravy with her taters.

Sebastian's Rating: B+ : no this movie doesn't deserve an A yet, but it has great acting and great action, and sure is entertaining. I do recommened anyone out there who likes superhero movies (like me) rent this out

Brian's Rating: A- : I ended up enjoying this movie a whole lot more than I thought I would. It ended up kind of getting lost in a summer of Iron Man and Dark Knight, and deserved better.

I do not know squat about the comics, but it is quite evident that pattern that Stan Lee was going for, and how to appeal to teenage geeky boys who had no chance of getting a girlfriend. The intelligent, somewhat misfit male fawns over a girl that he cannot fulfill his love with due to his hidden super power, brought on by accident, that would put her in danger. Green, Red, whatever, its still the Spiderman motif. Although I like the Spidy property better than the Hulk property, the same does not hold true for the movie. I thought this movie was immeasurably better than Spiderman 1 or 2 (never saw 3). The whole unrequited love thing was so much more subtle and less pukey in Hulk. Yeah, I agree that Liv Tyler is not interesting as an actress, but even so, the scenes were so much better than the ones with Kirsten Dunst.

The boss battle at the end was way cool, but there were segments where the CGI was erratic (reminding me of the cave troll scene in LOTR) and ended up making me want to look away.

I like this movie just as much as the more acclaimed Iron Man, and look forward to a sequel.

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