Title: The Incredible Hulk
Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Zak Penn
Starring: Edward Norton, William Hurt, Tim Roth, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson
Rating: PG-13

When it was first announced in 2005 that Marvel Studios would start producing their own films I was skeptical how they would turn out. I was expecting some direct-to-DVD drivel that would probably make money but ultimately end up being irrelevant in the face of films like "Spider-Man" and "X-Men." As the creative teams were put together for their first two films, "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk," I paid more and more attention. It seemed that Marvel wasn't going for the quick buck. They were going after the big prize. With "Iron Man" we saw their efforts pay off in not only an incredible action film but also what felt like a first step into a cohesive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel's follow-up, "The Incredible Hulk," has more inertia to overcome since Ang Lee's 2003 film "Hulk" failed to connect with audiences but in the end Marvel produced another winner.

"The Incredible Hulk" takes its cues from the Bill Bixby TV series of the late 70s, both in the story and the music, portraying Bruce Banner as a fugitive. In the film Banner is constantly searching for a cure while also studying methods of controlling his anger and doing his best to avoid detection and capture. Director Louis Leterrier ("Danny the Dog," "Transporter 2") wisely sidesteps the superhero-origin trap of first entry movies - I consider this a "first entry" since it isn't a sequel to "Hulk" but a reboot of the franchise - by playing out the high points of Banner's gamma ray accident under the opening credits. It's as if Leterrier is saying, "We all know how he becomes the Hulk so let's just review it and get to the action."

It isn't long before an accident at the bottling plant in Brazil where Banner works alerts General Ross (William Hurt) to Banner's location and the chase is on. This is going to sound like a criticism, and I don't mean it to be, but that's really all there is to the story of this film. The army chases Banner and he turns into the Hulk. Rinse. Repeat. And you know what? It works great. Of course there's the love story and Tim Roth's subplot about an aging soldier taking on the hunt for the greatest prey but it's really just a piece of the "army chases Banner" formula. What I want out of a film called "The Incredible Hulk" is, oddly enough, the Hulk and the destruction that he wreaks on everything around him. This film delivers that. Ang Lee's "Hulk" had a couple good action scenes but they pale in comparison to the battles and chases of Leterrier's film.

Super-soldier Emil Blonsky squares off with the Hulk.

When the first trailers for "The Incredible Hulk" were released there was much booing and hissing at the quality of the CGI but the finished effects in the film border on impressive. I enjoy when people criticize CGI or say it looks cartoony and "not real." I wonder what they are comparing it to that is real. After all I thought Leterrier's Hulk looked just like the gamma-irradiated semi-giant that lives in my neighbor's back yard. The goal of the effects is to create a character that can interact with the live action actors and environments without looking like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." And they succeeded. In that sense the Hulk looks real enough.

Much like "Iron Man" the lead actor carries a lot of the weight of the film. The character of Bruce Banner is not as charismatic as Tony Stark so Edward Norton focuses on the tragedy of the character and his fear that his own inability to control his anger could lead to the death of an innocent person. He plays the character similar to what you'd see in a werewolf movie. Mixed with that is his fear as a scientist that he's created a weapon of unspeakable power that the military could use to their own ends. His fear of the military is manifest as one of the film's antagonists, General Ross, played by William Hurt. Ross sees Banner as nothing more than the means to this extraordinary weapon and a possible threat to the well-being of his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler). Rather than going big with the role Hurt keeps Ross down to earth and almost subdued yet still shows his resolve and determination to capture Banner.

Trailer for "The Incredible Hulk."

Filling the role of "muscle" in the dual-villain dichotomy is Emil Blonsky played by Tim Roth. Blonsky is a soldier on the waning end of his usefulness and subjects himself to a super-soldier serum which gives him some better-than-human abilities. Blonsky covets the Hulk's power and after getting pulped by the Hulk he decides he must become a hulk of his own; "godlike" as he calls it. This sets the stage for the big brawl between the Hulk and the Abomination that will flat blow you away. Not since the animated TV show "Justice League Unlimited" have I seen comic book action like this. Hulk fighting the Army is all fine and good but in order to shine he really needs to fight someone who can take damage as well as dish it out. The final throw-down is fantastic and it's exactly what I wanted from a Hulk movie.

In comparison to "Iron Man" "The Incredible Hulk" suffers a little but that's more a fault of the character than the filmmaking. This story is leaner and the action is bigger and more explosive. "The Incredible Hulk" connects itself to "Iron Man" and the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe once again reinforcing the idea that Marvel has very big plans for their future in films. It's not a complex film but it's great fun and shows the Hulk in a very different light than Ang Lee's version. And it finally answers the question about how he keeps his pants on. It's easy. He just buys them big.

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