Hulk Smash! Believe it or not, I have only seen this film twice as I’ve always excluded it from my Marvel Cinematic Universe binge. Part of the early Phase One of Marvel films, The Incredible Hulk (2008) is an interesting story driven by controlling the beast inside our titular “hero” Bruce Banner. Despite its great choice of actors and well-timed release with the other 2008 Marvel film Iron Man, the green giant underwhelmed at box office and in many of my peers’ views. In addition to seeing how the film holds up on its own, I want to especially consider why The Incredible Hulk got left behind in the shadow of our Iron and Patriotic friends. If you are new to the Marvel movies, it is important to know that actor Ed Norton plays Hulk/Bruce Banner in this movie, but was replaced by Mark Ruffalo for the later Marvel titles. Reasons unimportant, this shift in portrayal definitely could be one of the factors this movie doesn’t come to mind when I think Marvel Cinematic Universe. The jolly green giant has its share of high moments and thrilling chases in particular, but as I dive in you might agree it was not a smash. (boo)
The Movie:
The 2008 thriller begins with one of the cheesiest flashbacks possible to showcase some critical events in Hulk’s history; note that this movie is not a sequel, rather it wants to frame itself far ahead of how Banner became infected. With footage of gamma rays crossed with Bruce Banner’s memories, we are served the backstory that Bruce Banner was experimented on by the government and now turns into the violent creature we know and love. I seriously wish the film started right after this narrative device, because what follows is heart-warming and far more fascinating. Dr. Banner retreats from the U.S. government to the favelas of Brazil to lay low and solve his “disease”. His life is simple, playing with a dog, watching Sesame Street in Portuguese, and Norton’s performance shines as a very intelligent and self-aware Banner. I am also seriously impressed with the Brazilian setting for this opening segment. With all the roughhousing between factory workers and the crowded canvas in which he lives, you can constantly see Banner’s patience being tested. There’s a great scene where Banner has to debate turning into the Hulk and unleashing his anger or letting some factory worker harass an innocent coworker in front of him. This is the incredibly empathizing character that Hulk/Bruce Banner can be, and yet they forget this after the introduction. If the movie was consistently showing him grow to control the power, rather than just having him run or get shot at the whole movie, we would probably be in lines right now for Hulk 3: It Ain’t Easy Being Green.
Betty, the love interest portrayed by Liv Tyler, works to cure Banner of this gamma radiation that causes the Hulk “incidents”. She does this through chatrooms and long-distance blood-testing which does allow for some suspense throughout the film. More importantly it does give her more dimension, not just as the googly eyed support but as a seriously important character to saving Banner; and she happens to love him. Something I find lacking in Thor and many similar super-hero films before is how the supporting characters matter or drive the hero to his objective if at all. Betty is definitely critical to the main plot point of Banner getting better with her finding doctors, cures, and harboring him, but it definitely feels played out that she happens to be the daughter of the General chasing him as well. It’s nothing new that a father disapproves of her daughter’s boyfriend. General Thunderbolt Ross (our militarist antagonist that radiated Banner) is as cut-and-paste as possible, a cliche and predictable villain who is after Banner before he hurts someone around him. The only time this predictable relationship is changed, of course, is when Ross realizes Banner is the only thing strong enough to fight off a new threat — Abomination (Tim Roth’s character, a soldier turned even Hulkier than Hulk).
Villain?
Tim Roth’s super-soldier SWAT member Emil Blonsky has close to no back-story and no motivation to attack anyone. To capture Banner, he decides to inject himself in the bones with essentially Hulk serum (becoming the Abomination villain). I do get that the movie is based on a comic-book but compared to more believable drives for villainy (Thor’s Loki for example wanted a throne and familial acceptance) it falls so short. Blonsky turns into a grey Orcish beast that has more muscles in his neck than most people have in their body. One big criticism of the film’s final battle between Abomination and Hulk is simply the special effects. In a year before Avatar came out and the same year as the monumental thrill-ride Iron Man you would think that Hulk would be closer rendered to Norton’s features and less distant from the actual cinematic. Particularly since the fight moves quickly and often features close-ups of the two gargantuans’ sweaty faces, it’s disappointing that most of what we see is blurred and digital. It hits me harder when the real villain of the movie could very well have been the “beast inside” or the nature of human anger, but instead they opted for a SWAT agent fighting Hulk, as an even greyer Hulk.
The Verdict
I definitely am glad to have watched this often left-out superhero movie again after seeing Hulk in The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). While I don’t see much use in comparing Mark Ruffalo (currently portraying Hulk) and Ed Norton from this film, I think the current rendition of Hulk brings about more humor and likability to Bruce Banner’s scientific emotion-controlling facets. I want to like every character in Marvel’s barrel of colorful heroes, heroines, and yet this movie loses its chance towards the end. Just as I finish the film, watching Tony Stark make his traditional cameo appearance in regards to The Avengers movie(a small device used by all Marvel films to tie characters into the shared filmverse), I come to realize there isn’t a lot of take-away for The Incredible Hulk both in setup or some sort of moral message. They actually close off with a snarky grin from Banner, implying he can control the Hulk now, but as future films show this is definitely not the case every time. In fact the fact he cannot control Hulk is a big plot point in The Avengers. Regardless of the predictable and somewhat stale ending, The Incredible Hulk (2008) does get left too far in the shadows compared to the other Marvel films in this anthology. The character has potential to be brought back on his own, in a possibly-humorous, carefully-written, and better looking sequel. For now The Incredible Hulk (2008): A smash no, but it certainly could have been a hit.
