Constant Viewer: The Incredible Hulk

Question: Can Constant Viewer resist writing “It isn’t easy being green” in a review of The Incredible Hulk?

Answer: No, but at least we got it out of the way early.

The Incredible Hulk is a vastly better movie than the incredibly bad Hulk , Hollywood’s attempt a mere five years ago to bring Marvel’s not so Jolly Green Giant (There! Got rid of another one!) to the big screen. Put it this way: no movie in which one of the very few highlights was a cameo by Lou Ferrigno, the man who played the Hulk in the late 1970s television series, is destined for cinematic fame. Ferrigno, by the way, and to the obvious appreciation of the audience, reprises his security guard cameo in this later and far better outing. (And, yes, the ubiquitous Stan Lee gets his walk-on, too.)

In fact, there are any number of mini-homages paid to the television series including a brief television clip of the late Bill Bixby who played Dr. David Bruce Banner, a score that includes, if only momentarily, the haunting solo piano theme from the old series and a nicely revised use of the signature tag line, “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like ....” Admittedly, none of this has anything to do with whether the film is good or not, but it shows CV that considerable thought and care was taken this time around.

As does the rest of the movie. The original ‘roid rage berserker, the Hulk / Banner (Edward Norton) has gone to ground in Brazil, working as a day laborer and searching for an antidote to his gamma ray created split personality. That part of the origin story is simply assumed this time around, and the movie is better for it. (Between radioactive spiders and gamma rays and whatnot, Marvel is either scaring off future scientists by the droves or encouraging them to play fast and loose with their sciency gismos, anyway.) Meanwhile, evil Army Lt. Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbold” Ross (William Hurt) searches the globe for Banner, seeking to weaponize the Hulk. He recruits Lt. Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to capture Banner while his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler), Banner’s pre-Hulk sweetheart, reconnects with the big lug and, as love is wont to do, brings out the best in him just in the nick of time. CV finds fault only with Hurt here, finding his Gen. Ross a less than credible bad guy even by popcorn movie standards.

And a popcorn movie The Incredible Hulk surely is. As with Iron Man’s Iron Monger, the Hulk must have his worthy opponent, so Blonsky drinks the kool-aid, as it were, and turns into the Abomination. (See, kids! Don’t take drugs! At least not drugs the Army gives you!) Combat ensues, oddly enough in front of Harlem’s Apollo Theater. (Perhaps because of the otherwise scarcity of black folks?) Anyway, you know what happens after that and if you don’t CV certainly isn’t going to spoil it for you.

My sons are convinced the groundwork is being laid for an eventual Avengers film, but even in the comic books the Hulk wasn’t exactly much of a team player. At least this weekend he made an excellent excuse not to go see The Happening. As though you needed one.