Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is a scientist who had an experiment go wrong and he became exposed to high levels of gamma radiation. Now whenever he gets angry he becomes the HULK. Banner is on the run from the US Military, who are trying to bring him in so to create more HULK-like soldiers, while he’s searching for a cure. Gen. Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt) heads the military effort to catch Banner, and has brought in the rough and tough Russian soldier Emil Blonsky(Tim Roth) to give Banner’s temper a good fight.

This is definitely Hollywood’s apology for Ang Lee’s “Hulk”(2003), and I am one to accept it. I loved that they made it feel a lot like the old TV series. They made you know that Bruce Banner wasn’t someone out for revenge, he’s a scientist who is on the run and trying to cure himself. He doesn’t want to change, he is always trying to avoid confrontation and not trying to get noticed. I couldn’t help but enjoy the feelings of nostalgia when early in the movie when I heard that sad song that they used in basically every episode of the old hulk series. The one they would play anytime Bruce Banner would be walking on the road alone at the end of the TV show. That song consoled me and made me feel like the movie is already worth it.

Edward Norton, one of my favourite actors for the past decade, has made this role his own. Never at one point in the movie was I feeling like it was him rehashing a previous performance; whether it be Worm from “Rounders” or Eisenhiem from “The Illusionist”. I loved early in the movie when he basically mocks the Ang Lee “Hulk” movie (or at least that’s how I interpreted it) at the beginning of the first confrontation between the military and Banner, and he ran into the factory and was trying to tell some locals not to get him angry, but he didn’t exactly say that, it was hilarious. Tim Roth on the other hand gave me a very generic feel in this movie, but I guess with the character I’m not sure what more I really want. As an action villain what more can you do other than deliver a few plot carrying lines and look angry and dark which Roth did. I’ve seen him play a bank robber in “Resevoir Dogs”, a hotel clerk in “Four Rooms” and a traumatized father in “Funny Games”. However, I’ve never really seen him as an action guy. Tim Roth plays Emil Blonsky who eventually becomes our villain The Abomination in the movie and he fills the part sufficiently.

The CG is something we have to talk about I guess. Especially with news going out on the net shortly after the first trailer was released for this film it was reported that the special effects for the movie (and the trailer) were not 100% done yet. I must say that the CG for me was good and average. Meaning that in one scene the CG would look brilliant and you could count the ripples of muscles on the Hulk’s underarm but other times it just didn’t seem right to me. However, it didn’t take one bit away from the movie in my eyes, since this flick focused so much on the story and on the Bruce Banner aspects rather than the Hulk.

The best thing about this movie in my mind is the suspense that the director created when introducing the Hulk. It reminded me a lot of the first time we see Batman in Batman Begins and Nolan decides that instead of just handing it to us, he makes us go through the frightening experience of the perspective of the bad guys not knowing what it is. Just imagine being one of the soldiers attempting to capture Banner, and seeing something happen to him, but not exactly (now he transforms) and then in the shadows something shifts and suddenly the ground is shaking, and huge machinery is being thrown around. This is what the director did and I love him for it. He made us have to be patient to see what this dangerous man is when he gets “hungry.. wait that’s not right”.

Overall this movie is highly enjoyable and definitely a true representation of the comic in my mind. For sure ten times better than the one we got five years ago.

IMDB says 7.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 66%

I say 8.0/10