The Incredible Hulk
Incredible, not as in “amazing”.
+: the occasional good action sequence.
-: cliché dialogue, bad plot, wonky tone
The Incredible Hulk came out on June 13th, 2008, a mere six weeks after Iron Man, which would have still been going strong in theatres across the US. Despite, in 2017, ramping up to a three-a-year schedule, this is the shortest gap between films so far, and probably the shortest we’ll get in some time. And sure, it’s unlikely that Iron Man’s box office totals were cannibalised too much, but the gap also meant no post-production corrective steering if anything went wrong.
Of course, things went a little bit wrong, at least commercially: $263m from a $150m budget makes this the only non-success for Marvel Studios in at least its first fifteen entries — and, indeed, larger films these days outgross its entire domestic run in the first three days. But, whilst some films are baffling flops, otherwise excellent films marketed badly, with too high a budget for their niche appeal, or unfortunately dashed against a much more successful competitor that same weekend, this isn’t true for The Incredible Hulk: it’s just not that great as a film.
The basic problems are flat storytelling and a mismatch of tone, the latter of which is obvious almost immediately. The Incredible Hulk wants to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s answer to Batman Begins, but Louis Letterier is no Christopher Nolan, and the lighting, editing, camerawork and (when it arrives) dialogue tells us we’re really in pre-Nolan Daredevil (2003) or Fantastic Four (2005) territory. The makers wanted to avoid the failings of Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003), but it’s not as dissimilar to its predecessor as it’d like.
The film doesn’t seem to switch tone at any point, whether it’s for a chase sequence, a comedy moment or a dialogue scene. Everyone’s overwrought, to the point where Liv Tyler constantly appears to be on the verge of crying in every single scene. Meanwhile, a score wafts through most of the running time as if recorded before shooting. The settings rarely have true specificity either — there is the striking image of soldiers running through university library stacks, but otherwise these are locations you could imagine in many, many previous films.
As for the storytelling, it’s similarly unyielding and lacking dynamics. I noted how, in Iron Man, there’s a refreshing lack of Refusal of the Call, the storytelling trope whose overuse has sank many modern blockbusters. This film, on the other hand, is all refusal. Banner doesn’t want to be the Hulk, but unlike Iron Man, where we get to see the joy of physics and engineering (or at least, a wacky comic-book conception of them), biology doesn’t get the same treatment here. All the while, Thunderbolt Ross throws bullets and missiles at the problem, in ways we know to be futile, for the entire film (even in the climax, he seems to think gunship fire will stop the Abomination, despite having no evidence). In the end (spoilers), it turns out the Hulk is an intrinsic part of Bruce Banner, as we all could have guessed anyway. The film takes an hour and three-quarters to reach the conclusion we all assumed it would.
Whenever a discussion about ranking MCU films arises, anywhere, I often see people mention either Iron Man 2, or Thor: The Dark World in the bottom spot. And, sure, these are nobody’s favourites, and feel like time-passers. The Incredible Hulk, though, doesn’t sell it’s time-passing as entertainment, but as revelation. The aforementioned later films are fuckabouts through spring woodlands; this is grim trudge through a slimy swamp which leaves the viewer green, hideous and angry.
High Points: the Culver University sequence is pretty cool, and there’s a good reason they reused it.
Low Points: most of the quiet scenes are dull — the more dialogue, the less effective.
Curios: Liv Tyler appears in this film, and then never again. Ever. Did she die? Move abroad? Go back to dating Batman after he stopped that asteroid?
Flagrant Product Placement: a brief bit for Norton Antivirus, although it’s flashed up like a billboard and switched off again. Coca-Cola gets a bunch of obvious vending machines.
Connections to Elsewhere: mostly to Stark Industries, and Tony Stark himself. There’s also an allusion to the Super Serum, with the obvious implication that Captain America exists. SHIELD appears, albeit only as a shadowy SIGINT organisation.
Stan Lee cameo: drinks Guarani juice laced with Bruce Banner’s blood, says “wow” and collapses. Better than the previous one, but weirdly played for drama and comes off a bit flat. (6/10)
End Credits: none. Post-credit scenes were not yet de rigueur in the MCU, which probably shows how half-formed things were at this early stage. (0/10)
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Next: Iron Man 2 (2010)
