The Incredible Hulk review: How does it impact Infinity War?
By Barlow Adams
What didn’t work?
One of the true accomplishments of the first Avengers movie is the remarkably human way they manage to portray the Hulk. Perhaps it’s Ruffalo’s emotional vulnerability or the improved CGI, but while the Hulk of Avengers is monstrous, he never loses his humanity. Even in the midst of his greatest rages, he seems unalterably mortal.
For all of the emotional posturing of The Incredible Hulk, neither Norton nor his frightening counterpart manage to pull this off. Instead of making them accessible, marking them as human, their pain leaves them distant, removed. The Hulk/Banner of this movie is a perpetual wanderer, alone even in a crowd. As such, it can be hard for the viewer to truly connect, to feel like they are watching a real, human story, and not a CG slugfest.
Furthermore, the plot itself is a tad thin, offering little in the way of innovation. Banner is once again pursued by the government while he seeks a cure for his condition. Other more foolish or greedy characters see his powers not as a curse but as a weapon. The cure, as always, doesn’t work, and a suddenly weaponized Hulk is the only thing standing between the world and certain annihilation.
Live Feed
Winter is Coming
It’s not a bad story, it’s just that we’ve heard it before. It’s an improvement on Hulk, Ang Lee’s messy psychologically-fueled stomper, but much of it feels like a retread, and the writers seem well aware of this, threading in cameo after cameo and stashing clever nods to the television show like David Banner’s ill-fated fall from a helicopter. All of which leaves The Incredible Hulk feeling like more of an homage than a forward-thinking introduction to a new cinematic Marvel hero.
Not all of the acting performances are first-rate either. The normally stellar Tim Roth seems muddled and unsure of his character as the fight-obsessed Emil Blonksy, and Tim Blake Nelson’s pre-Leader Samuel Sterns is more of a plot device than anything else, serving as little more than a living MacGuffin.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of The Incredible Hulk, however, is just how little changes in it from a story perspective. The movie starts with Banner on the run and separated from his lady love, and it ends with Banner on the run and separated from his lady love, even if he has moved to a colder climate and gained some measure of control over his transformation. Overall, it’s nothing that couldn’t be explained by a few lines of dialogue, which is precisely what they do in The Avengers.