When Marvel movie adaptations became flavour of the month back at the turn of the century with the likes of X-Men and Spiderman, it was inevitable that some of the other major characters from the Marvel stable would get a big screen workout. One of the most recognisable characters was The Incredible Hulk, in 2003 respected director Ang Lee took on the big green giant and the result was like marmite. His interpretation was not your ordinary blockbuster, instead juggling a bit of action with some Shakespearian elements of characterization. But I guess the bottom line was that whatever way you looked at it, it didn't deliver bang for the buck. That's why it didn't achieve the expected box office results.

So come 2008, we have another stab at the character. This time Ed Norton replaces Eric Bana in the lead role of Bruce Banner, a scientist who becomes victim of his own experiment and when very angry turns into a giant raging green beast. Instead of having a lot of introduction, this film assumes that the majority of people will be familiar with the characters origins and I can say that most people will be. Still they do a nice job of summing it up in the opening credits.

We meet Banner as he already lives his life in hiding, staying off the radar in Brazil, working at a bottling factory and trying to learn of a way to control his anger and rid himself of the monster within. But General Ross and the US Government are still on his tale, seeing him as having potential as a future weapon. When he finds his way back to the US, Banner contacts Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) his previous love interest in order to get her help in curbing the Hulk. But this just beings on the military and soon The Hulk is unleashed, however it's not just the military on attack, solider Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) has undergone similar experimentation exposure to Banner and becomes an adversary of equal strength to The Hulk.

Is this better than the Lee version? Well it's certainly more streamlined and concentrates more on action but it still doesn't hit the heights of other Marvel properties. Part of this I feel is because Hulk isn't really a character you can do a lot with. Really it's a guy who turns into a beast and smashes stuff up - that's it. What really works in the film is the relationship between Banner and Betty Ross, there's a tragic dynamic to the relationship that is both romantic and always destined to failure while The Hulk is around. I also liked the fact that this film concentrated on Banner being a man trying to keep underground and keep himself a loner for the sake of others.

Action wise there are some decent set pieces as Hulk takes on the military and faces off against Abomination at the end. But I preferred some of the action scenes in Lee's film to this has they had a bit more ambition and scale.

The effects in the film are solid, Hulk is as good as you're probably going to get. They seem to stray away from the emotional side of the character; personally I liked the way they got emotion from the Hulk in the first film through the close up facial expressions. This version doesn't really do that.

Ultimately I think The Incredible Hulk is a film that does the best it can with what is a limited character.

- The DVD-
The widescreen presentation is very solid on this dvd with a strong sharp picture throughout. The sound mix is also dynamic, as you'd come to expect from a summer blockbuster with a wide involving soundmix throughout.

- Extras -

There is a two-disc edition of this film but I only had the single disc version. On this platter is an audio commentary with Director Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth. It's quite a relaxed entertaining track with conversation between two people who obviously enjoyed working on the film and together.