The Incredible Hulk (2008) Mini-Review — The Analytic Critic
Despite numerous successes over the years, Marvel and Disney have made quite a few duds as well. But out of every single film they’ve crafted, none has ever matched the atrocious ‘abomination’ that was The Incredible Hulk. Why? Let’s take a look.
WRITING:
The Incredible Hulk is literally the introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a bad one at that. It skips Hulk’s important origin story, focussing less on Bruce Banner’s gamma radiation research and more on his attempt to escape the military. This story has been done to death — a VIP on the run — and is surprisingly not even slightly competent here.
Instead, we get a dull love story in which Banner stalks his one-dimensional ex-girlfriend. Now that’s what I want to see from a movie about the Hulk: Banner crying over Betty and doing his best to prevent the Hulk from ever transforming again.
It doesn’t help that when Banner finally does transform, the action sequences in which he must react to are generic and utterly boring. With poorly written characters and action setpieces, The Incredible Hulk fails on every level of its storytelling. There’s even one point where Hulk claps his hands and stops a gasoline fire from reaching Betty. What? That doesn’t work in any universe; it’s just plain dumb.
CAST:
The cast is marginally better than the writing , though that’s not saying much.
Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner. I admittedly have a bias against this awful actor — his only strong performance was in American History X — but anyone can see how weak Norton’s acting is here. It’s lifeless and unbelievable as Norton clearly cares less for the material. Then again, can you blame him? The script was that bad…
Then you have Liv Tyler as Betty Ross. I feel like Tyler put little effort into this role because she normally is able to offer a lot of range and conviction (e.g., The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Here, however, her acting falls flat.
Same with William Hurt as General Ross. There’s just little to grasp onto here, though it’s likely because the General is never that prevalent in the story — his soldiers take the spotlight instead.
Which just leaves Tim Roth as the Abomination. Great, Hulk fights another Hulk. How original… Anyway, Tim is the only actor who seems to take an active interest in the material. There’s a certain conviction he brings to the screen in most of his performances, and this role is no different. That said, he can’t make up for how generic his poorly written character ultimately winds up being.
PRODUCTION:
I’d be lying if I said the production elements of The Incredible Hulk are cohesive and flawless. The cinematography is oversimplified, for one. The director chooses safe shots over dynamic ones, leaving much to be desired within the action sequences. It honestly feels amateurish.
Another major issue is the lighting. Scenes are always too dark to see what’s supposed to be happening, an issue particularly apparent within the first hour. This is further amplified by the dark and cool colour correction as well as the video editing. The Incredible Hulk is sloppily put together.
The audio is balanaced horribly, the soft dialogue frequently in competition with the cacophonous sound effects. That said, the CGI is actually not bad for the time. At the very least, it’s competent and immersive. At least something in the movie is…
SUMMARY:
Overall, I thoroughly disliked The Incredible Hulk. It’s a terrible film that sets out to destroy anything good about the source material, which itself is far from perfect.
In fact, I would even say that this movie is the worst Marvel film ever made, and that’s including Punisher: War Zone and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (is it a coincidence that these awful comic book films were all released roughly around the same time?). At least those movies have a bit of charm!
The Incredible Hulk gets a 2 out of 10.
