The second tentpole film of the Marvel giant for this summer is entertaining...but empty. A remake. Already. No, it's a 'reboot.' Whatever, how about this: "we're running out of superhero movies (Ant-Man, are you serious?) so we're going to remake movies that are only 5 years old and make tons of money in the process."
Just thought I'd get that little gripe out of the way first. Now on with the review.
The Incredible Hulk is the epitome of the summer blockbuster: lots of effects, little brains (see Transformers). The 2003 Ang Lee version, Hulk, was flawed by the fact that it was just too artsy, too long, too focused on character development and not enough of the green protagonist himself. While it was still a decent enough picture, it was critically panned by many for just being too dramatic and too intelligible for the target audience. It's kind of like that really smart kid who gets picked on by the "cool" kids.
2008's The Incredible Hulk has the right idea of moving away from that and into a more action-oriented, fast-paced film, but goes too far to the point where what you're watching is nothing short of mindless action sequences slopped together with some heavy metal playing in the background. It tries so hard to not be 2003's Hulk that it forgets to have any brains at all.
The entire origin story is done and over in about a minute, the characters are not well developed and stereotypical, and the dialogue is so by-the-numbers that you can predict exactly what characters will say: (eg, Bruce Banner: "There's only one thing that can fight that thing, and it's in me.") Oh. Wow. Didn't see that coming.
Much was said about the casting, a lot of good things, before the movie was released. The truth is that very few of the cast members actually work in their respective roles. Don't get me wrong about Edward Norton, I like him and I like every movie he's ever made, but he's just so damn boring as the Hulk. I thought he was great in The Italian Job, as with everything else he's done, but this is easily his worst role. His heavy lisp and geeky appearance just doesn't make him mysterious enough to be Hulk, and add that with the fact that the big green guy looks nothing like him in the face at all. In fact, Eric Bana in 2003's version was much better suited for the role. He was more mysterious, more compassionate, and still managed to look like the dork we know as Bruce Banner.
I'm not trying to rip on Edward Norton, but Eric Bana is a much, much better Green guy. As far as the other roles go, it's tough to really get a feel. Can Liv Tyler pull off Betty Ross? We don't really know, because there's not enough development to judge. William Hurt as the general? Meh. In fact the only role/performance that really stands out is Tim Roth. He may be the most underrated actor in Hollywood. His creepy looks yet badassness make him one of the best badguys out there, and I honestly thought he was scarier as Emil Blonksy than as the Hulk-wannabe Abomination. Roth, even though he's been in critical failures, has never done a poor job, and single-handedly made Planet of the Apes. I'm glad to finally see him in a semi-lead role.
I know it feels like I've ripped The Incredible Hulk for the past few paragraphs, so I'm going to focus on its single saving grace that prevents it from being a bad movie: it's somewhat fun to watch, even if it doesn't suck you in. That's mainly due to the effects-laden sequences and the breathtaking (albeit predictable) finale. Like I said, the action scenes are fun to watch, but the over-reliance on computer generated imagery just isn't very convincing, and sitting at the preview screening I got the feeling I was watching a videogame rather than a feature film.
For all it's flaws, 2008's The Incredible Hulk is not horrible. Is it worth seeing? That's up to you. Take it or leave it, maybe rent it, something. But the fact is that this very very very dumbed down version of Ang Lee's Hulk tries so hard to improve upon its predecessor's failures that it creates its very own.
Score: 5/10
