Hulk (2003) / The Incredible Hulk (2008)

It looks like Marvel has finally done it. They've erased Ang Lee's greatly frowned upon Hulk and started fresh with a sequel/remake directed by Louis Leterrier, famous for Unleashed and The Transporter 2. I guess they figured if they went with a director who's established his career on action flicks, the new Hulk movie will have tons of it, right?

Absolutely right. This movie had tons of good action that really kept my interest. Now, I shouldn't go on comparing this to the last attempt at adapting the angry green giant, but with such a small five-year gap separating the two films, It's kind of hard not to.

I honestly didn't think Ang Lee's Hulk was all that bad. There were some qualities about the film that I thought were very impressive, and it was a pretty decent independent Hulk story. But as an adaptation, it failed. Hulk's story focuses more on Bruce Banner rather than the Hulk himself. Hulk harnessed the more depressing moments of the original story, and as a result the story was also kind of a downer. It didn't really have a resolution to Banner's problems and never really introduced a true villain until the end of the film.

When it comes to making the Hulk look like the actor who played Banner, it had great CGI. The acting of Eric Bana, Jennifer Connely, Nick Nolte and the rest of the cast was superb, but the movie itself just didn't have enough of what fans of the comic book wanted. The Incredible Hulk takes everything Hulk lacked, and improves upon it completely. Not just with action, but story as well.

Edward Norton plays Banner this time around, with Liv Tyler as Betty Brant and William Hurt as her father, Gen. Thaddeus Ross. An odd casting choice, but the biggest surprise to me was Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) as Emil Blonsky, who is basically an army general who desperately wants a piece of the Hulk. With a cast like this, the acting didn't suffer all that much. But since this is a comparison, this has to be the only field where the 2003 Hulk movie surpasses the newer one. I saw more development in the computer animated Hulk character than any of the talent on board. I do believe, however, that this also contributes to this being a better movie. As the plot unfolds, we see the Hulk and Banner working together to forge a sort of understanding with each other. We first see Banner in a somewhat similar environment that Hulk left off at. He's training himself to conquer his anger, to prevent another incident where he'll unleash the Hulk and harm others. Banner is afraid of this side of him, and treats it as an almost incurable disease. Of course, without him "hulking out" we wouldn't have a movie. As he is forced out of his foreign comfort zone, the Hulk emerges and from that point on, both characters learn to exist with each other instead of rejecting themselves. Banner is calm and collected at first, prohibiting himself to keep ties with any people, even the woman he loves, Betty Brant. But after his incident, things flow more naturally for him as he eventually reunites with Betty, and pursues his ultimate goal of curing his "illness" with the help of his online friend, Samuel Sterns aka Mr. Blue. We also see more humanity in the Hulk character, especially through his interaction with Betty. He starts to show more human emotion than he did in the beginning or from the previous film.

There's more romance here than Marvel's last success, Iron Man. Liv Tyler and Edward Norton make a good amount of chemistry together, reminiscent of the last movie. They interact together well and any scene where they cross paths involves a lot of the dreamy, slow-motion type of ambiance.

Blonsky, after getting a taste of the Hulk gene and having a run-in with him, only craves more power. He forces Sterns to inject him with an extremely high dosage of the gene, creating the super villain the predecessor lacked, Abomination. Commence epic street battle finale! This scene had by far, the most brutal action in any superhero flick I've seen thus far. If you're a sucker for heavy violence in cinema like me, The Incredible Hulk has just what the doctor ordered for kids who burned ants for kicks when they were five. The movie concludes with the final result of Hulk's learning process (so far) with a big "Hulk Smash!" And of course, Robert Downey Jr. cameos as Tony Stark, presenting an offer to Gen. Ross over some drinks. It looks like Marvel is serious about the Avengers movie that was only rumored for the past couple years. My only question is, who will direct it?