'Incredible Hulk" Review

"The Incredible Hulk," which was just released on Friday, was not a great film. It wasn't even a great superhero film. But, it was a great Hulk Film.

I can forgive Superhero movies for a lot as long as the characters are represented accurately on the big screen. It's why I am not afraid to admit to really liking "Daredevil," why found plenty to enjoy in both "Fantastic Four" movies, and why I will never again watch "X-Men: The Last Stand" or "Batman and Robin."

Well, I am happy to say that here, the Hulk was the star of his own movie. CGI or not, the Hulk actually shows enough of a range of emotion to make up for what would have otherwise been a glaring lack of plot and character development.

I find that pretty funny, too, because one of the bigger knocks on the original "Hulk" movie was the cartoony-CGI appearance of the titular character. Well, here, in this "requel" that was everything the first movie wasn't, the Hulk was anything but unrealistic.

And, since I mentioned the first movie, let me just pause and say, definitively, this movie is the much better of the two. And not just because the Hulk was RIDICULOUSLY BIG in the last movie.

While the first film spent hours upon hours dissecting and monologuing the dichotomy of Bruce Banner and his big green friend, Edward Norton's David "Bruce" Banner here is anything but introspective. He's a reactive character that is simply on the run and looking for a way to remove his condition.

But, the dichotomy -- a truly important part of the Hulk mythos even if the first movie gave it a bad name -- surfaces in the emotion the Hulk shows. He is not a simply raging, rampaging animal here, at times he genuinely looks like a creature that just wants to be left alone. That is, until something comes along that flares the 'ole temper, then it's "Hulk Smash" time. Toward the end, especially, we see a more aware Hulk that looks tired of constantly fighting.

In doing so, the Hulk actually looks like the misunderstood hero that he is, not simply a monster running around the Marvel Universe.

Just like narration in today's comic books has been phased out in favor of letting the art tell the story, Hulk's body language takes the place of Eric Bana's talking here. And, it all works.

But, perhaps I am getting sidetracked. After all, the most important part of a Hulk movie has to be the action, right? Well, the fights here are choreographed as well as you could have hoped for. First, I was enormously impressed with the imagination used in picking a couple of new weapons the military deploys against Hulk (Stark Industries supplied them!), then, I was impressed with the thought that went into creating Hulk's fighting style. He creates some weapons of his own!

The final confrontation with Abomination does not disappoint either. And here is where the differences from the first movie really appealed to me. My biggest problem with the original was not the slow pace and introspection, it was the main villain. I still don't know what the hell Nick Nolte was supposed to be at the end of that movie, so how can I enjoy watching Hulk fight... what was he, a hurricane man? Instead here, we get a more conventional powerhouse counterpart for Hulk to smash and be smashed by.

There have been much better superhero movie villains, for sure, but this was a perfect choice for a villain for Hulk. And, again, that's where this movie shines. It spotlights the great aspects of the Hulk and doesn't get bogged down with trying to make this into an Academy Award nominee. I actually believe that in a movie like this, having very little plot is much better than trying to string together a crappy plot out of thin air, something plenty of superhero movies try to do.

That said, none of these actors are winning awards for their roles here. Liv Tyler's Betty Ross made me feel like Hulk was about to pick her up and climb the Empire State Building. William Hurt's Thunderbolt Ross could not deliver his lines without seeming like he was about to twirl his mustache at the end of each scene. And Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky was a little bit boring for a soldier supreme.

There was nothing much wrong with Norton's Banner... there just wasn't too much for him to do other than run from soldiers and look scared. He gets one point where he could have really shined toward the end of the movie, but I don't know, I really wasn't too convinced. Maybe it's just because it was a predictable part. I don't know.

Hell, the biggest star of the movie was actually Robert Downey, Jr. It's true. When he walked on to the screen, as soon as the man people now recognize as Tony Stark came into focus, people in the theater cheered. Apparently, "Iron Man" was kind of popular. Who knew?

As long as you enter "The Incredible Hulk" knowing you're going to see action take centerstage and be ready to laugh at plenty cheesy and self-aware moments (see Stan Lee's cameo and the famous "You wouldn't like me..." line), you are going to absolutely love this movie.

This isn't a great movie. It's not even the best superhero movie. But for the Hulk, it's a Smash.