The Incredible Hulk

Louis Leterrier
2008

I never caught the ill-fated Ang Lee screen debut of Marvel's green meanie but thought I'd get in on the hasty attempt to reboot the potential franchise via an Ondemand lark. This version has Bruce Banner stuck in self imposed exile living a quiet existence in South America while learning to cope with his condition. Unfortunately for him the United States military is hot to unlock the secrets of Banner's blood in order to create super soldiers - enter Tim Roth as an aging Russian-born commando supreme eager to get his hands on some performance enhancing drugs. When Banner (Ed Norton) reunites with former flame Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) it becomes apparent that Norton is a more refined actor than the role requires. His emoting and dramatic gravitas is at odds with his costars' more expected and genre-friendly plasticity. The CG looks great and the action sequences are far more pleasing than Marvel Studios' concurrent release "Iron Man" (2008), though the overall the story is much weaker. I think I might be developing a thing for superhero movies considering the last three that I've seen have all been pretty excellent. I did find Tim Roth's character to be oddly sympathetic during the campus battle scene in which a supercharged but regular-sized Roth single handedly takes on the massive Hulk - the scene innately captures the David Vs. Goliath underdog rooting most audiences have been conditioned for, though I'm sure this wasn't Leterrier's intention.