THE INCREDIBLE HULK Universal Pictures
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed by:Louis Leterrier
Written By: Zak Penn, Edward Norton, from Marvel comic book by Stan Lee
Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt
Screened at: AMC Lincoln Square, NYC, 6/9/08
Opens: June 13, 2008 Who would have guessed that an arty director like Ang Lee, known for “Brokeback Mountain,” “The Ice Storm,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Eat Drink Man Woman” helmed a blockbuster like “The Hulk” in 2003? Money talks, I guess. The choice of Taiwan-born Mr. Lee for that film may have been unfortunate, a critical and popular disappointment which at a long 138 minutes was talky and filled with psychobabble about repressed childhood memories. That problem seems to have been corrected with the choice for director of Louis Leterrier, who, true to his last name has dug in his heels, kicked up the dirt, and sent out a blazing summer movie which the Marvel Comics crowd must have been waiting for. Co-director of “The Transporter,” about a man who works delivering packages but who breaks the rules, and “Transporter 2,” about a mercenary accused of kidnapping the son of a high U.S. official, Leterrier knocks out a movie that’s weak on romance and wit, which for humor relies on two cameo performances and just two or three humorous remarks, but tears up the screen with powerful roars and some stunning scenes of Brazil and New York by cinematographer Peter Menzies. Casting Liz Tyler to replace the original “Hulk”’s Jennifer Connelly, Edward Norton in lieu of Eric Bana in the title role and William Hurt taking over from Sam Elliott as General Ross, “The Incredible Hulk” dumbs down the original by overthrowing the complex dialogue of the 2003 version substituting action that is far too rapid to follow but which should please the targeted audience in their teens and twenties who escape into the air-conditioned multiplex from a June heat wave. Leterrier makes few concessions to those who skipped the Marvel comic, the TV series starring Lou Ferrigno or the Ang Lee movie version, but listen closely to the dialogue and you’ll know that physicist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is determined to find a cure from a botched gamma radiation experiment that turned him into a huge green monster whenever his blood pressure hits 200. As co-written by Zak Penn (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) and by star Edward Norton (who was reportedly disappointed that the movie was cut down to 114 minutes), “The Incredible Hulk” finds fugitive scientist Banner working in a Brazilian bottling plant while he e-mails scientist Professor Samuel Sterns, a cellular biologist who might provide him with a cure. Meanwhile General Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), who happens to be the father of Banner’s ex, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), sets out among the Cariocas with a small regiment to capture the man in the hope of turning the soldiers into formidable hulks. The movie’s best part is the first half hour, before the monster ever appears and the drama rests on human dimensions. Banner shows the bottling supervisor that he’s “too smart” for day labor by fixing the equipment whenever it breaks down, but he doesn’t watch his blood pressure as the U.S. army closes in, sending Banner racing across rooftops, emerging as The Incredible Hulk. As the monster, he will take on military machine guns, bazookas, bombs and a powerful wind machine, crashing choppers out of the sky, throwing tanks this way and that, heaving soldiers against walls and trees. He settles down only occasionally, but when he is about to bed his ex as a human being once again, he stuns the poor woman, coitus-interruptus-like, warning her that he is getting too excited. Ultimately Hulk must battle The Abomination, an even larger foe created from the human body of Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a career army man who unlike Banner actually wants the power to turn into a monster. The ferocious struggle may remind one of the conflict in Chris Weitz’s “The Golden Compass” between two bears, the larger one getting the edge for most of the struggle. Menzies’ camera seems to love the face of Liv Tyler, honing in on her close-up far too many times to capture her signature look of sympathy and concern for the Hulk, a woman who threatens “Never speak to me again as your daughter” when she discovers her father’s motivation to take down her lover. “The Incredible Hulk,” surprisingly, works best on a human level, turning into caricature when the monsters have their way with the mere mortals, but then I’m showing my age. This is, after all, a summer movie that delivers the smashes, crashes, and shootups reminiscent of 1950’s sci-fi movies, with the Hulk’s caring not at all about petrol’s four dollars a gallon since he can readily fly from Brazil to Guatemala to Mexico to Virginia to New York and ultimately British Columbia without suffering the torments of coach. Rated PG-13. 114 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
| 
