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It will entertain those looking for crash, bangs and wallops but not much else. It is the newest in generic superhero films but with The Dark Knight coming over the horizon ushering a new dawn of the superhero genre, one must ask: what is the point?
Incredible Hulk is, in essence, the Jekyll and Hyde story. Edward Norton plays the sombre, pitiful Dr Bruce Banner: a man who, when his heart rate gets too high, becomes the beast that is lurking within him. Hulk is the manifestation of Banner’s hatred. This is where the film quintessentially fails.
Norton is playing a thankless task. He is a fantastic actor and offers the only credible performance in this film; but as this film has dispensed with the exposition and back stories, it has been diluted and over-simplified. Once he changes into the Hulk all sympathy and attachment to Banner is lost to this one-dimensional, looks-a-bit-too-much-like-Shrek character.
The Hulk does not have any physicality for us to engage with. Hulk never even looks that angry and so we see nothing of Banner’s anguish; all we get is this totally un-incredible behemoth wreck stuff. There is no emotional resonance for the audience as it is assumed we are already aware of the back story. Where Spiderman, X-Men and Batman Begins succeeded in the reconciliation between the drama of existential division with the action, Incredible Hulk does not. The audience will like the action or the sentiment, (or, of course, neither). Very few will be satisfied with both.
The action and visual effects are not awful, just not 'incredible'. The best scene in the film ironically uses no special effects. When Banner is being chased through the Rochina favelas, the Brazilian slum town he was hiding in, we experience real tension. This is because we actually see a real man clambering on real rooftops using Paul Greengrass’ (Bourne films director) revolutionary chase-scene techniques. The Rochina favelas themselves are an overwhelming sight and beautifully captured.
Whereas Ang Lee’s film purposely tried to disengage itself from the 1970s TV show and comic strips, Laterrier has to his credit accepted the limits of the material he has with this story. The title alone proves this connection but a cameo of Lou Ferrigno who played Hulk in the TV show will also please hardcore fans.
What this film is left with is: action sequences which are, although impressively done and staged, nothing we have not seen before. Stilted acting performances (Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt are all extremely bland and disappointing), and a clumsy path to an unsatisfactory conclusion. A lacklustre attempt to restore faith in a lumbering franchise.
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