THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008) ****
After the puny 2003 psycho-babbling Ang Lee Hulk movie, Marvel bought back the rights to their beloved Hulk character and did things their way. They rebooted the franchise with a better cast, more sophisticated effects and a lot more action and monster mashing. The result?
Nothing short of incredible.
Seriously, remember how good Iron Man was? Well The Incredible Hulk is just as good. Scratch that. It’s slightly better, if only because Iron Man is in this flick too. Sure, you got to wait till the very end, but when Tony Stark waltzes in and says, “We’re putting a team together”, well, it’s enough to make any fanboy make meringue in his pants.
This new Incredible Hulk follows the rhythm of the iconic 70’s television show, just kicks things up several notches (it’s basically The Fugitive on Jolly Green Giant steroids). Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is hiding out in
I can’t think of a summer movie as perfectly paced as this one. Just when you’ve had enough of Banner searching for a cure, in comes Thunderbolt Ross with his tanks and Hummers. Bruce hulks out and causes millions in property damage and escapes. Bruce heads to some college in
Oh and speaking of that fight scene between Abomination and Hulk. It just so happens to be the best superhero fight scene since The Son of Jor-El took on the trio of Kryptonian baddies at the end of Superman 2. I’m not kidding.
Hulk himself also happens to be the single greatest CGI creation ever. Fuck those dinosaurs in
In short, this was not the Hulk movie I was expecting from the director of Transporter 2.
Sure I LOVED that movie, but I’ll be the first to admit that it was just mindless action junk. Like that movie, this one is filled with tons of action, but here, director Louis Leterrier expertly balances the CGI rampaging action scenes with warmth and humor (this flick features the best superhero sex scene of all time) and is filled with lot of in-jokes for fans. (The original Hulk, Lou Ferrigno has a cameo and also voiced the Hulk for this movie.) By honoring the history of the Hulk (even to some extent, the Ang Lee film since it picks up with Banner in Brazil) Leterrier also creates something wholly original and crafts a truly wonderful and exhilarating comic book movie, one of the best ever made. He also peppers enough hints of things to come (The fucking LEADER, baby!) to have you ready for Incredible Hulk Deux ASAP.
The Incredible Hulk is quite simply INCREDIBLE. As far as Marvel Movies go, it’s second only to Spider-Man 1 and about on par with
With two perfect comic book movies under their belt and a litany of other inter-connected ones to come (Ant-Man, Captain America, Thor and the granddaddy of them all The Avengers are all in the works), Marvel looks to be well on their way to bringing every comic book movie fan’s dream of superheroes mingling in each other’s universe to fruition.
All I’m going to say is that The Dark Knight will be hard-pressed to follow the astounding one-two punch of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.
The Incredible Hulk goes straight to Number 2 on The Video Vacuum Top Ten, right behind Rambo and just a smidge ahead of