The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Release date: June 13, 2008

The previous Hulk film of 2003 was reasonably well received by critics, but was poorly received by audiences. As you can see from my review of the film, I wasn’t a fan. Hulk broke box office records for the largest drop in gross from a film’s first week of release to its second thanks to toxic word of mouth. As you can imagine, a sequel wasn’t a particularly attractive prospect, so the big red reboot button was pressed, and Hulk was brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Bruce Banner is a fugitive being pursued by the US military accused of stealing military secrets after an experiment causes him to transform into big green rage monster when he gets angry. Bruce is hiding in South America, which is coincidentally the same place he went to wait for the poor reception of the previous Hulk film to die down. Bruce is working in a drinks bottling factory, but is tracked down when he cuts himself and his blood contaminates one of the drink bottles, causing Stan Lee to fall ill when he drinks it. The military goes to capture him, led by sadistic soldier Emil Blonsky, but Bruce is able to give them the slip. Blonsky takes out his frustration on Bruce’s pet dog, which should make it clear that Blonsky is the bad guy, just in case anyone had any doubt over him.

Bruce has also been searching for a cure with the help of his online pen pal, Mr Blue. Surprisingly, Mr Blue is a willing helper and doesn’t consider that Mr Pink, Mr Orange and the rest of the gang would appreciate the Hulk’s strength during the bank robbery. Unfortunately, the cure in X Men 3 didn’t work, so Mr Blue needs Bruce to give him data on the experiment that created the Hulk. Bruce goes to his old workplace only to find that all data on him and the experiment has been deleted, but fortunately his colleague and love interest Betty Ross kept a backup. Unfortunately, the army shows up again and this time, Blonsky has been injected with the Super Soldier Serum, which gives him super speed and strength. Hulk smashes a lot of very expensive military vehicles, before Blonsky tries to goad the Hulk by protesting that “This is blasphemy. This is madness!” Be careful what you wish for, as Hulk smashes Blonsky by punting him into the nearest tree with a cry of “THIS. IS. SPARTA!” Bruce and Betty escape together and they learn that they can’t have sex because Bruce would transform into Hulk mid-coitus, which would either crush Betty or rip her apart with Hulk’s mighty limb, which would be a bit of a downer. In this situation, Hulk is love, Hulk is death.

Bruce and Betty go to New York to meet Mr Blue, who introduces himself as Dr Samuel Sterns. Sterns finds out that the current cure only works to stop one transformation, but on the plus side, he has mass-produced Bruce’s blood and plans to use it to eliminate disease. Bruce argues that this is too dangerous and the blood must be destroyed when the army arrive and capture Bruce and Betty. Blonsky arrives and forces Sterns to give him the blood so that he can transform himself. Sterns does just that and is rewarded when the transformed Abomination tosses him into a wall. Bruce is let out of captivity by the military to stop Abomination after he goes on a rampage. Hulk wins because he retains his smarts while transformed, while Abomination does not. In celebration, he roars his mighty roar before taking the opportunity to run away again. Now, Bruce is being pursued by Tony Stark, who wants to recruit him for the Avengers.

Meanwhile, Sterns starts to transform himself after some of Bruce’s blood gets into a cut on his head. Since the Leader, as his supervillain alter ego is known, has yet to return in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we can assume that he decided to avoid tangling with Hulk and instead went to Springfield, where he founded the Blisstonian cult. Fortunately for us, that didn’t pan out.

The main problem with the previous Hulk film was that it took itself far too seriously, and ended up being po-faced and dull as a consequence of that. Fortunately, The Incredible Hulk has learned from its predecessor’s mistakes. This film is faster paced, and more happens during its running time. Since the Hulk’s origin was still relatively fresh in the public consciousness with the previous film being only 5 years old at the time, the decision to quickly cover the origin story in the opening credits, allowing the film to go straight into the new story is a stroke of genius which allows the film to avoid wasting half an hour rehashing what the audience already knows. Another bonus is that this film is 45 minutes shorter than the previous one, which means it doesn’t drag nearly as much. The film also isn’t afraid of injecting the odd bit of humour from time to time, with the highlight in this regard being Betty freaking out over the taxi driver’s dangerous driving.

Improvements have also been made to the two most important areas. First, there are more action sequences this time, and there’s no need to wait over an hour for them. The action scenes are also more exciting this time, because Hulk isn’t way out of the military’s league any more. They get some nice technology that actually manages to damage Hulk, like the soundwave vehicles provided by Stark Industries. The scenes are also more creative in how Hulk uses the environment, with Hulk doing things like breaking a car in half and using the halves as boxing gloves, like in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on PS2. With regards to putting up a fight, Blonsky is a better opponent for Hulk than his dad was, and their fight is more even. The fight between Hulk and his dad fluctuated between one getting curbstomped and the other getting curbstomped, depending on what form Hulk’s dad was in at the time.

The quieter, more introspective scenes from Hulk are still present, but they aren’t the focus this time. They are also better integrated into the film and tie into what actually happens, as opposed to being dreams, illusions or subconscious metaphors. This means that the viewer can better care about them this time instead of reaching for the remote to press fast forward. The most effective of these scenes would be when Bruce suffers PTSD in the shower from looking at the shower head as the water gushes out, seeing it as a helicopter gun turret from the previous day, and collapsing into the foetal position. We get a better idea of how the Hulk has done a number on Bruce’s emotional wellbeing because in this case, less is more.

Given its relative obscurity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as it being mostly ignored outside this film, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from The Incredible Hulk, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. While it definitely leans more towards the Hulk Smash side of the equation, there are moments of levity to be found in amidst the destruction. The Incredible Hulk gives audiences what they wanted and expected from the previous film, and despite what intellectual film scholars may tell you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that in my view. Goodbye for now.

Stan Lee Spotter: As was mentioned previously, Stan Lee appears as the man who gets ill from drinking from the bottle tainted with Bruce Banner’s blood. Lou Ferrigno, who played Hulk in the 70s TV series, appears as a security guard Bruce bribes with a pizza. He also voices Hulk for this film.

Next Time: Welcome Back, Frank