The
Incredible Hulk kicks off an all-new adventure for the
green machine, an explosive and action-packed epic adventure at that.
Quickly skimming over the origin story and a brief Batman Begins-style
"learning & training" phase in a foreign country, the flick
gets
underway at an incredible pace.
Scientist
Bruce Banner (with Edward
Norton taking over the role originally played by Australia's Eric Bana)
is desperately hunting for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned
his
cells, unleashing the force with him - better known as The Hulk.
The
thing is - there is an entire army wanting to avoid
a cure, with Banner
being the living prototype of a "Super Soldier". Those crazy Americans
and their incessant need to cause death across the world, you gotta
love them don't you!
With
the technology in the hands of the wrong people, the world is soon
confronted with a monstrous new enemy known as The Abomination (played
by Tim Roth), whose destructive strength exceeds The Hulk's.
Since
acquiring back the rights to all of its characters,
Marvel has made
Hollywood their own self-serving publicity machine, making quality,
action packed movies for
the fans.
And there are plenty more coming; Thor, Iron Man 2, Captain America
and The Avengers
are all on their way in an elaborate decade-long Marvel-Universe roll
out.
While "Hulk : Take 2"
offers up quite a few self referential gags (Lou Ferrigno, purple
pants,
Stan Lee,
Stark Industries, "Stanley's Pizza", "Norton Computer Systems") it
more than often takes itself far too seriously and, sadly,
drops the
unique editing styles implemented by Ang Lee - easily that films
strongest element.
Norton tries his best to give something to
the character of Banner but delivers nothing more than a beige
performance - which is hard for me to say, because the guy is usually
awesome in
everything.
Tim Roth, meanwhile, gives as good as he gets - belting out
one of
the better villainous performances thus far in this vastly
over populated
genre.
Despite some slow patches, The Incredible Hulk more than makes up for any of its flaws in
the action
department. And let's face it - that's why most people are forking out
their hard earned!
There are some great battles on offer,
something
which the first film sorely lacked, with TIH clearly using Spider-Man
3
as a reference point. And, most importantly, we finally get to see what
the Hulk is actually capable of (keep an eye out for the green
machine's
ingenious use of a halved police car!).
A fun popcorn flick (which still seems about 37% redundant) which ultimately helps build the
excitement
about the Marvel Universe - the most exciting revelation in the film
coming in the
final scene which involves a welcome familiar face. And, to be honest, it's a performance
which upstages any of Norton's feeble attempts in the 90 minutes
prior.
HULK... DVD.... SMASH! DVD EXTRAS
I still find it very strange that Ang Lee's Hulk is
regarded as a flop, when it actually went onto generate upwards of $245
Million worldwide (to put it in perspective, this latest version cost
about $20 Million more to make - and only made just over $15 Million
more).
Perhaps it was because it was a superhero "think-piece" long before The Dark Knight made it cool to have a superhero story with depth. Either way, let's all get off Ang's back and just accept that both Hulk movies were far from perfect... and that it's unlikely it will see another instalment.
That said, there are whispers that the big green guy will bypass The Hulk : Volume 3 in favour of an apperance in The Avengers movie (if only because Edward Norton has made it quite clear he doesn't want to be part of a "franchise").
Much like the ultra cool Iron Man DVD
extras, there is plenty here to keep comic book and movie fans
entertained. Sure, you have to sit through the ever-so-tedious norms
like Feature Commentaries and Deleted Scenes - but it's well worth
enduring in order to get to the good stuff.
The folk at Marvel
sure know how to put together a decent Featurette. Normally those
things are woefully fluffy and boring as hell, but the in depth
interviews with the Comic Book artists themselves on the evoloution of
the character is captivating.
A must have, especially for those
(like me) who have an obessive compulsive need to make your DVD
collections and shelves complete (in this case Spiderman, Iron Man, Hulk... you get the idea).
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 70%
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