The Incredible Hulk
Dir: Louis Leterrier
Stars: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt
*** 1 / 2
The first and best sign that director Louis Leterrier understands the job in front of him in the second movie take on Marvel Comics' Hulk is the winking cameo he gives Lou Ferrigno � the big green monster in the �70s TV series � and the late Bill Bixby, glimpsed in a rerun of The Courtship Of Eddie�s Father.
For the audience buying tickets for the film this weekend, Ed Norton will be playing Bruce Banner, the character made famous for them by Bixby back in the �70s -- not by poor Eric Bana from the ill-starred Ang Lee film of 2003 to which this is, ostensibly, a sequel. Like an embarrassing relative or your high school haircut, Lee�s film is something no one wants to discuss, but its shadow hangs over Leterrier�s film.
To his credit, Leterrier has no interest in departing from the comic book film form. The film sets up the scenario quickly � Banner in exile in a favela in Brazil, searching for a cure for his �condition� � and rewards us with a big action set piece and the first appearance of Banner�s hulking alter ego within the first half hour. We get the love interest (Liv Tyler), the bad guys (William Hurt and Tim Roth) and the stock conspiracy theory plot mechanism with a secret military program; everything in its place and a place for everything.
What Ang Lee overlooked � or ignored � was that the comic book film is rarely interested in innovation, especially innovation that deprives it of brute thrills in favour of a more nuanced exploration of character. Like it or not, the successful comic franchise film audience craves the familiar - how else do you explain the roar that issued from the preview crowd during the film�s coda, featuring a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, and borrowing the good karma of a much more successful summer comic franchise to give its audience the �happy ending� they craved?
See Also
