The Incredible Hulk (Three-Disc Special Edition)

I am one of the few people who thought that Ang Lee's Hulk was a brilliant film that transcended traditional super hero films. The 2008 Hulk is 6% higher on Rotten Tomatoes than Lee's effort and made just slightly more money but the general consensus seems to be that it is a significantly better representation of the Hulk. I humbly disagree.

The film starts off well enough with David Banner working at a bottling plant in South America. He spends his spare time training himself to control his heart rate. Apparently The Hulk is unleashed when he reaches the dreaded 200 BPM. Seems like a pretty high threshold but you'd be surprised out how often Banner gets up there. While fixing a machine switch Banner manages to slice his hand and several drops of blood drop onto the production line causing Banner to run down and stop the conveyor belt. He wipes off the blood but fails to notice that one drop made it into a bottle. The viewer gets to watch the bottle sealed and shipped where an unsuspecting Stan Lee pops it open, takes a swig and... what... dies??? I'm not sure. He just drops to the ground. It turns out this entire sequence was useless filler and this is one of my great problems with the film. Why so much filler in a film that clocks in at less than 2 hours.

My next issue is with casting. William Hurt is a great actor and he has the look of Gen. `Thunderbolt' Ross down but Hurt has such a calming voice and relaxed demeanor it just doesn't fit the character. Sam Elliot was perfect. I also miss Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross. Edward Norton does a fine job as David Banner and I always enjoy Tim Roth except that he's British and Emil Blonsky was Russian.

So after his cover is blown in Banner makes his way back to the states setting up perhaps the best scene in the movie when Betty Ross spots Banner for half a second in a diner. It really was well done. Unfortunately it's spoiled when Betty walks out side and the audience sees Banner cowering behind a dumpster. In the next scene Banner is walking down a road and Betty pulls up in a car so the impact of the diner scene is completely spoiled.

At this point the movie gets finds its raison d'Etre, the repeated encounters between Banner and Blonsky. So the Army manages to locate Banner and launches a full scale assault prompting the Hulk to appear. Despite there being at least a dozen or so military vehicles Betty Ross magically knows that one contains her father and blocks its path. Meanwhile Blonsky has had a small dose of the same formula that created The Hulk and dances around dodging the Green Goliaths attacks like a Mexican jumping bean. Long story short, Hulk smashes puny army men. Blonsky stands right in front of the Hulk taunting him with, `Is that all you've got' prompting the Hulk to punt him like a football. Why would Blonsky do something so retarded? Because later we get to see his incredible healing powers, in other words because it's in the script.

More filler including a long sequence that stretches back to the beginning of the film where Banner tries to find a cure. It goes nowhere but sets up the big finale. Banner is captured and to my utter bewilderment is taken away in an army helicopter awake and unshackled. Why would they leave Banner unrestrained with Betty Ross? Seems like it would be a rather tense situation for Banner, he might even get angry and you wouldn't want to see him angry. Elsewhere Blosnky gets a full dose of Gamma radiation and goes into full Abomination, wreaking havoc on a busy city street. Aha, Banner needed to be free so he could fight Blonsky. Now THAT is some lazy scripting.

Hulk try to save puny humans by smashing ugly Abomination while Betty and the General stand there slackjawwed like a couple of country yokels. I mean seriously. Blonsky wants to kill the General and The Hulk has to work hard to protect them because the Ross's are to dumb to flee. As a final insult to the viewing audience The Hulk is about ready to finish off Blonsky when Betty asks him to stop. With his job done the Hulk bounds off into the sunset. At this point I assume the Abomination then wakes up and finishes off the city.

This movie really insulted my intelligence. The scripting is silly. I much preferred the look of the Hulk in the first movie rather than this hyper ripped Hulk. Most of the fight scenes are very dark particularly the excessively long finale versus The Abomination. I like the fact that they kept the Hulk's size consistent and the scene of the Hulk roaring in fury at thunder was classic but I stand in the vast minority who thinks this movie pales in comparison to Ang Lee's version.

The Incredible Hulk. The title itself is great. Just to start things off. Edward Nortan stars in this sci-fi film about how a man always has something inside him. Something that has a bad temper. Something thats INCREDIBLE. I won't give away much as some of you don't want to hear any major spoilers. I will go by each disc and break down the major things contained on it.

DISC 1
-The film The Incredible Hulk. As with all dvds it has language, subtitles, and all of that stuff.
DISC 2
-This is the ultimate disc!!! On this disc are 17 deleted scenes! That alone is fantastic. Then is has the making of the Incredible Hulk, how they filmed some of the battle scenes from the movie, an alternate opening to the movie, and oh soooo much more I cannot remember because I have a friend borrowing it right now!
DISC 3
-The digital copy to the film. Even as we speak I have the movie right o my mac computer! And also on a video iPod! Digital copys are becoming very popular. And they are also very handy as if you have someone borrowing the movie (as in my case) you can watch it on your computer! The digital copy is a must. And the quality is very nice too, I might add.

Now lets move on to the effects. I cannot explain how amazing the special effects are in this movie. The hulk himself looks more realistic than ever before. I have never seen the 2003 version, but I can imagine this version is A LOT better! The movie has almost no "bad scenes" in it. When the back of the dvd says "brief suggestive content" they aren't kidding about "brief". The suggestive content lasts for about 15 seconds and then the movie continues. It does have a PG-13 rating for a reason, though. If you buy this movie, be prepared for violence. There is really not much blood as such. Its just how many people are killed that makes the violence level go up. So don't be fooled by that. Overall, this movie is great and I definitely recommend this to you!!!

I have to say I enjoyed this Hulk movie up until the last fight sequence - which seemed to drag on and on and made me hit the fast forward button through sections of it without feeling I lost anything by it. I had to smile at the homage references to the Hulk TV series. The opening section of the movie in the Brazilian slums was a nice touch - it was certainly a different setting for a movie like this.

For me in many ways it was the final scenes of this movie that were the most interesting, and if you enjoyed Iron Man you should pick up this movie for that alone. I've given this review three stars because of the over-extended fight sequence at the end of it (shades of Spider Man 3!) and the cgi which disappointed me a little as they seem to have relied on it to make up for the lack of character relationships (one of the highlights of the TV series), but if there is a sequel to this movie I'll watch it on DVD if nothing else.

Kudos to Marvel and their continuing movie franchise. The 2008 movie blows away the 2005 movie in every regard - acting, plot, believable unbelievable action etc. Norton is a great choice to pick up baton from Bixby. I enjoyed the cameo apperance of Lou Ferrigno. The filming of the scenes in South America was great. Now, if I could make a request, I'd love to see The Mighty Thor properly done. Hopefully it's on the creative board somewhere already.

Bravo and good show to Liv Tyler. Her performance as Betty Ross is her best acting to date. She almost steals the show from everyone else involved on the screen. She works extremely well with Edward Norton, who also makes an excellent Bruce Banner. The struggle of fighting against the government's plan to use genetic manipulation as a war weapon always makes for a good action flick, and The Hulk does not drop the ball on that history.

The storyline keeps moving along, and the rich landscape scenes make this movie play out like an artistic wonderland filled with covert operations and outright war in the streets. The CGI was able to make The Hulk come off the pages of the comic books and appear on screen. That said, I still had a problem with the cartoon-look at different times in the movie. I also found it a little strange that in the final fight scene of the movie there just happened to be a giant chain to for The Hulk and Abomination to choke each other with. I mean what are the odds that such a huge chain would just fall into the battle in the middle of the city.

I do believe Sam Elliot would have been a better choice than William Hurt in the role as General Ross. I like William Hurt, but in this role, he just seemed a little too stiff. Elliot would have provided that "is that dude crazy" element.

Christina Cabot is always a pleasure to see on any movie screen. This woman's career has just begun! Look for her to have way bigger roles in the near future.

So, to finish off this review: If you liked The Incredible Hulk comic books, then you will like the CGI work in this film. If you have to have perfect CGI in order to get through a script on film, well The Hulk is not the movie for you.

See ya next review!