Directed by Louis Leterrier, The Incredible Hulk follows scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) as he desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk. Cut off from his true love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and forced to hide from his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), Banner soon comes face-to-face with a new threat: a supremely powerful enemy known as The Abomination (Tim Roth).
After the grand success of the first Iron Man film, the next installment was a full-on reboot of one of Marvel’s iconic characters, the Hulk. At the time Universal Pictures owned the rights to the character and had previously attempted a big-screen adaptation back in 2003. Unfortunately, the film disappointed many as well as aged terribly, so Universal decided to try again, but this time partnered with Marvel Studios to create the new film and share the character, much like Sony’s deal with Spider-Man. When the new film came out it certainly had a more positive response, but it largely received a mixed reception from everyone, didn’t make as big of an impact at the box office, and was considered rather forgettable compared to the rest of the MCU films.
Looking back at it now, after how far we have come with the MCU, I can completely understand why this remains forgettable even to this day. It feels like a very early 2000s generic action flick that just so happens to feature comic book characters. There are certainly some good elements and great ideas, but it is a mediocre film that could have been so much better and wasn’t that great of a start for the big green hero, despite becoming much better in later installments.
So before Mark Ruffalo ended up making the role his own we had Edward Norton playing as the lead. Now, I love Edward Norton because he’s an incredibly talented actor and he definitely felt perfect for the role of this character. Unfortunately, Edward Norton’s talents never get fully utilized in this film as he and the character he plays are held down by lackluster direction and writing. His performance wasn’t awful by any means, he did a pretty decent job, but he could have been so much more. You can see that he is trying to portray Banner as a man on the run who is trying to find a way to rid himself of his other half, avoid hurting anyone, and avoid being captured to be used as a potential weapon.
There’s a lot of great potential here as the film takes some interesting plot points from the Hulk comics and has a lot of opportunities for great tension. In some ways the potential does get utilized, but only for a few moments, while the rest feels boring and generic.
Even though Norton was clearly trying, he never felt that believable in this portrayal of the character, and that is a big problem. It’s important to make both Bruce Banner and the Hulk interesting, and since Banner was the more front and center side of the character he should have been very compelling but he wasn’t. You didn’t care about him wanting to cure himself nor how he’s going to go back to his love interest Betty Ross. All you really end up caring about is when the Hulk is going to come out and smash shit, which is something that sadly many people got addicted to, like absurd explosions in Michael Bay movies.
That being said there is no denying that when the Hulk does come out it is actually the best part of the entire film. Hulk has always been a truly intimidating force throughout most of the MCU, taking on great foes and taking part in awesome battles, but it was definitely in this film where he truly felt like a terrifying monster. They really sold him being an unstoppable force of nature, something you’d get total goosebumps for every time you saw him in action.
His first transformation where he is portrayed like a horror monster lurking in the shadows was an absolutely genius sequence that really makes an impact and offered us a taste of what the Hulk will give us throughout the film. Every scene involving the Hulk in this film remains memorable for me no matter what, because it always felt like the one thing that was done so right. Also, it is awesome how they got Lou Ferrigno to do the vocal performance of the Hulk as he really gives us some of the best Hulk roars.
Liv Tyler as Betty Ross is truly an awful love interest in this film. Out of all the relationships that have existed in the MCU the ones between Bruce and Betty is so forgettable and so uninteresting that even future MCU installments would barely bring it up. Liv Tyler is such a great actress but she felt extremely wasted in this film and her character could have been a lot more interesting rather than just being the beauty that soothes the savage green beast.
Thunderbolt Ross is given a good performance by William Hurt and actually felt like an interesting character compared to his daughter. Even though he is the cliche army general character with cliche intentions he is not necessarily an evil character and he does have some very personal motivations to hunt down Banner that go beyond just weaponizing his condition. Even though he is an asshole you can definitely understand why he is the way he is and William Hurt does a really good job adding an emotional drive to the character. He has since made several more appearances in other MCU films, and while it is unknown what his future might be there are definitely some opportunities that I feel need to be taken with this character, given what he becomes in comics.
Our second antagonist is Emil Blonsky played by the marvelous Tim Roth. I actually really liked this character, as he initially started out as a hired goon but ends up becoming a more central character, given the ability to become a super soldier to take on the Hulk, but the experiments he undergoes gradually changes him and makes him obsessively desire the power that the Hulk has. His path leads him into becoming the iconic Hulk foe, Abomination. He is essentially a perfect rival for Bruce Banner / Hulk as he is the total opposite of him, embracing the beast and caring little for any human life. For me, this character was very interesting and Tim Roth delivers a great performance as well. I feel they could have done so much more with this character in the film but thankfully he is set to make his return to the MCU in the upcoming She-Hulk series.
The narrative, despite having a lot of promising elements, is very much a generic action film with a lot of boring scenes between characters that aren’t really investing and the film doesn’t really strive to be anything bigger. It felt like it was playing too safe and not taking enough risks with this character and the ideas they set up. Really the most investing aspect of the film is the action.
As I mentioned before everything with the Hulk is the best part and the action is all really fun and thrilling. Sure, some parts are rather lame and feel too much like Jason Bourne but when it’s actually going for the comic book goodness it does deliver on that front.
The final act battle between Hulk and Abomination was definitely one of the best sequences, next to Hulk going up against Ross’s forces in a suburban area. The effects and CGI of this film can range from good to poorly aged. Unlike Iron Man, the effects of this film don’t hold up as well and I used to think they were amazing the first time I saw them. Hulk and Abomination’s designs are good and their big CGI battle is fun, but there are times where the CGI looks painfully rough and unpolished. Of course, some people could say that it is just a product of the time but again, Iron Man came out the same year and its effects hold up much better than this.
The cinematography is decent though and there are definitely a lot of great shots, though most of it can be visually unappealing compared to what we get later. The music isn’t really that special either as this film’s score isn’t really all that memorable and feels like something that belongs in a generic action film. With so many great scores across the MCU this film’s score is easily the worst in the entire series.
The Incredible Hulk has its pros but feels full of cons that really drag down the film, and given what we see later down the line it could have been so much better. And because of this film’s performance at the box office we wouldn’t get another solo Hulk film mainly due to Universal Pictures refusing to do so. Thankfully the character’s story continues and has been taken in a lot of interesting and great directions since then and I feel Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal has definitely become the better version of the character.
This isn’t a completely terrible film but it’s definitely a mediocre one that has some great things in it that never got used to their full potential, making it one of the weakest entries of the MCU. I’m going to give The Incredible Hulk a C.
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