The Incredible Hulk: Movie Review (2008)

Now, this is how you go green.

Unlike “Hulk,” Ang Lee’s disappointing 2003 film based on Stan Lee’s 1962 Marvel comic book series and, in turn, the 1978-1982 television show that starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, Louis Leterrier’s new version gets it right.

Much like “Iron Man” before it (only without the wit, which it lacks), this movie moves, particularly in its slick opening moments, which are a wonder of brevity. That hardly was the case with the previous film. Lee’s mistake was that he gave audiences an interminable first hour that was so dull, they needed their own nanomeds gamma-rayed just to get through it.

This isn’t the case with Leterrier’s version, which instead compresses into a few neatly packaged minutes everything fans already know about how scientist Bruce Banner became The Hulk. For those who don’t know the story, not to worry. The distilling of those events is so well done, few will be lost.

From Zak Penn’s script, “The Incredible Hulk” stars Edward Norton as Banner, who begins the movie already zapped with enough juice to turn him into the towering Hulk whenever he becomes angry or, in one potentially disastrous scene, sexually aroused by his girlfriend and fellow scientist, Betty (Liv Tyler).

Since each situation could lead to ruin if Bruce lost control of himself, he works hard to keep his calm. When that’s impossible, as it sometimes is, he turns into the towering, muscular beast of the title, a creature who is so nearly infallible--bullets, missiles and bombs can’t stop him--it takes something of a similar ilk to fell him.

That would be Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a greasy special-ops fighter who agrees to be similarly zapped by Betty’s father, the evil Gen. Ross (William Hurt), so he can roid out and become The Abomination, a humanoid lizard giant with a bony spine, a roar that could jumpstart the Earth’s core, and one mother of a left hook.

The climactic fight he and Bruce share in Harlem is a highlight, with the special effects rising to the occasion as each monster literally destroys city streets in an effort to destroy the other. And there are other standouts, such as an extended rooftop chase in Rio, where Banner was in hiding before Ross and company tracked him down. And another scene on a Virginia college campus in which Hulk takes on the full weight of the military, with Betty brushing close to an unfortunate end.

Whereas Lee’s film sunk deeply into Banner’s childhood traumas and adult paranoias, it lacked the sense to fully let go and just be the great superhero movie it should have been. Leterrier strikes a better balance. Key to his film’s success is that he allows you to feel Banner’s isolation (Norton’s very good performance goes a long way in helping to that end) without sacrificing the main reason audiences want to see the film--for its action and the very real bond shared between Banner and Betty.

In a broad nod at “King Kong,” there’s a scene in “The Incredible Hulk” in which Betty and the Hulk bond high above the ground, just within a cave nestled within a stone fortress. There’s love between them, confusion and war around them, the Hulk is the target and Leterrier is there to ignite the screen with action.

He rarely disappoints.

Grade: B+