First off, i didn’t revisit the 2003 Ang Lee “Hulk” film with Eric Bana. In fact, I can’t even recall if I have ever seen it. So watching The Incredible Hulk now was complicated by not having that frame of reference in my mind. Not that it is a sequel or anything, though it seems in production they were never quite sure what relationship there was or wasn’t to that previous film.

For example, in TIH, they didn’t see the need to make it another origin story per se, much like how Spider-man entered the MCU already as Spider-man. They just assumed most of the audience saw the earlier film, or were familiar with the old TV show. So the opening credits consisted of a quick flashback style telling of the failed experiment, and was littered with little tidbits of knowledge that you couldn’t distinguish in theater without the ability to pause the screen: memos mentioning Stark Industries, Nick Fury and Shield, etc.

We are immediately introduced to Ed Norton Jr as the already Hulk infused Dr. Bruce Banner. (I decided I am not going to directly compare Norton and Ruffalo until I get to his first performance in Avengers)
We go on to learn that he is a fugitive hiding from the US army/government in Brasil, due to his damage done during the first Hulk outbreak, and General Ross’ desire to weaponize the Hulk.

One thing that wasn’t very clear to me in this movie, maybe because of omitting the origin story due to the “Hulk” film, was that the research they were doing was similar or an attempt to replicate the Super Soldier serum made famous by Captain America. I will address additional thoughts on this later.

I feel like Ed Norton does a believable Bruce Banner. However, it felt to me that the Hulk was a completely different character. It looked nothing like Edward Norton. Maybe that was intentional, to represent the scope of the transformation. It didn’t work for me. I could see a Norton doing a pre-Hulk movie, just strictly Bruce Banner’s research leading up to that fateful day.

Liv Tyler didn’t work in this movie. I love her as Arwen, but she had no chemistry with Norton, no chemistry with her father, General Ross, maybe just a smidge of chemistry with Modern Family dad. Seriously, her and Norton’s scenes were not good. I can see why the chose Jennifer Connelly in the 2003 movie.

William Hurt as General Ross/Father was really good. I wouldn’t change anything there.

I liked the British operative too. Thought he was underused as a human. When he became the Abomination, it was similar to how I felt about the Hulk. No connection to the human actor. At least he could talk, to reinforce his human personality we came to know.

This movie isn’t good. The chemistry issues between the two leads, the awful plans and mistakes made by both sides. The lack of charm, wit, and humor that made Iron Man so successful. I swear the only attempt at humor was the joke that he got too excited to have awkward uncomfortable zero chemistry sex with her.

The battle/fight scenes of the army vs Hulk were awful. “Let’s send in guys with guns, that have no effect on the Hulk, first every time, and have the other weapons hang back, and just bring them in one at a time”.... I fell asleep during that middle encounter at the college. Just awful.

So they have some of that serum already?
The stuff they inject the British guy with. No explanation as to how much they have of it, why they just didn’t use it in the first place, etc. Supposedly it had side effects I guess, but they didn’t really address any of them, except the spine thing. Just a lack of explanation and clarification. Sloppy, very sloppy.

I could go the rest of my life without ever watching this again. I guess it has slightly better reviews than the 2003 film. So I have no real desire to watch that either. With the eventual change of actor, the lack of a true sequel, never seeing any of the other characters again save it be a few encounters with the General, it almost feels like this really isn’t all that a part of the MCU. I mean I don’t think Banner ever mentions Betty again. At least Thor showed a photo of Natalie Portman in Avengers....

As a film, I’d give this a 4.5 out of 10. As a part of the MCU, I’d say it is a film that you could easily skip in a first time watch through, and might be better off for it. It’s one saving grace is the after credit cameo of Tony Stark, establishing the MCU continuity that might not have been obvious at the time.

I’ll discuss the character more when we get to Ruffalo’s foray in Avengers. But that is a wrap on 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.

Next up, Iron Man 2 (2010)