The Incredible Hulk

Which Hulk was better - Ang Lee's or Louis Leterrier's? I think everyone was dreading a repeat of the Ang Lee disaster from a few years ago. I was hopeful coming into this version. Iron Man exceeded my expectations, as high as they already were. I figured if Marvel could knock Iron Man out of the ballpark, the Hulk stood a pretty good chance. I was right.

Instead of doing an origin story the movie starts in on Bruce Banner trying to cure himself of his gamma radiation. This is a throwback to the Hulk TV series from the 70s. They did throw in some origin stuff, which necessarily ignored the Ang Lee version. This movie showed Bruce trying to work on his anger management, including training in martial arts. This allowed for one of the few action scenes Bruce Banner was in, rather than the Hulk.

The acting took a little getting used to, as I had to forget about the previous characters. There was a hint of the annoying Star Wars prequel dialog during a scene in Betty Ross's house. This did not last long, and the movie recovered from there.

The action sequences were pretty cool, and we got to see some more of the Hulk's moves, including the sonic clap. The battle with Abomination was fun to watch, even if it didn't last long. These action scenes were far better than the mutated dogs or whatever Bruce's dad became in the Ang Lee version.

The Hulk is not my favorite character from the Marvel universe, but I like him enough to be interested in how the movie treated him. I was very happy with this version. The cameo by Tony Stark in the end was cool, as it introduced the coming Avengers movie. Considering how much I liked Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers movie is going to be great.

Decent acting, great directing and writing, and some pretty cool explosions give this summer movie a 3.5 out of 5. I recommend you see this movie if you like action films, regardless of your like or dislike of comic book movies.

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