THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Universal Studios had a hard time joining the superhero party, that is until 2008 with their only successor of the genre, The Incredible Hulk.
PLOT
Based on an iconic Marvel Comics character by Stan Lee, the second film of the MCU follows scientist Bruce Banner on the run from the government as an experiment he was involved with made him a monster. He spends most of the film finding an antidote to get rid of the beast inside him to avoid Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross from taking his blood and making a weapon of this accident. He gets made in Brazil after his blood got exposed in a bottle of a drinking factory he worked for. He is chased down by Ross’ crew and turns into titular beast to flee. He goes all the way to Wisconsin to reach his girlfriend, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Ross, Thaddeus’ daughter. Ross catches up to him only after getting called by Leonard Samson (Ty Burrell), who was dating Betty during Bruce’s absence. Bruce turns into the Hulk again and wipes out Thaddeus’s crew, fleeing with Betty. The couple go to New York to find Bruce’s pen pal ‘Mr. Blue’ aka Samuel Sterns, who claims he has an antidote to the Hulk. It seems to succeed as he quickly turns back from Hulk to Banner after the injection. After Sterns announced he synthesized his blood for its medical potential, Bruce thinks it should be destroyed, out of fear that it could be dangerous to use. Just as that conversation happens, he is captured by Thaddeus. Emil Blonksy, his top soldier, demands Sterns to give him a dose of Bruce’s blood to become a Hulk. But due to his exposure to a ‘super soldier’ serum, he becomes an abomination and attacks the city of Harlem. Bruce is able to bring back the Hulk to fight his polar opposite, due to the realization that he can become the beast once angry. After he jumps off the helicopter he was captive in and crash lands on the city, the clash begins between both Titans. He tries to put him down, but his new enemy appears to be stronger. Thaddeus chooses to intervene by orders his fellow soldier on the helicopter to shoot the rogue beast. Blonsky responds by lunging towards the chopper once reaching a rooftop. Hulk tries to pull him down, but this leads to everyone crashing towards a ruined rooftop. As Thaddeus and Betty attempt to get out of the damaged aircraft, both monsters continue to fight. Hulk is able to overpower Abomination by slamming him to a wall, when he notices Betty in danger. He claps his hands so hard that it stops the helicopter from catching fire. Blonksy does get up and gets the upper hand by smacking Hulk twice with a concrete pillar on a chain. He attempts do the same with the Rosses, but Hulk slams the ground so hard that it creates a big crack that leads to his enemy getting his foot. He than tries to strangle him with the chain, but Betty tells him to stop before he could draw his last breath. After achieving victory, the film ends with Bruce continuing to be on the run only this time he tries to figure out to control the Hulk inside him.
THOUGHTS
When seeing this film back in 2008, All I said was ‘Whoa’ because that described how much fun I had. Louis Leterrier provides a creative superhero film which action holds up, and will definitely be considered the better film of the iconic green superhero, unlike Ang Lee's 2003 adaptation. Due to his status with action films like The Transporter, each scene paid off. The visuals of the hulk don't hold up like Iron Man has but they are far from terrible. Every time the titular behemoth destroys everything in his path, you’re blown away on how he can do it with ease. This is the case because he gets stronger based on how angry he is. With that kind of power, you can really live up to the name ‘incredible’. As a fan of this character, it felt so satisfying hearing him about ‘HULK SMASH’ for the first time onscreen. Even though this movie’s pretty awesome, it has flaws of its own. The first has to be the opening. If Bruce was gonna prevent his being spread, he would’ve kept looking after one spot. If he’d done that, he would still be hiding and Stan Lee would’ve not gotten poisoned. What threw me off a lot here is the origin. Thaddeus explained that he told Bruce to be working on a project revolving around ‘radiation resistance’, when it was really a new super soldier serum. My problem here is that it’s sounds unlikely for someone to give you what you want if you’re telling them something different. And since he tested this project on himself, he could’ve died, so Ross is an idiot not telling Bruce the truth, making him responsible for Hulk’s existence. I also thought it was weird that the college sophomore that recorded the Hulk encounter outside the university, yet there was no actual footage of the Hulk, we only see the military. Was the news editing it to avoid scaring everyone at home? I mean if a creature like Hulk exists, that should be shown on the news and not secretive. Hell, Godzilla is everywhere on the news in his movies because the media knows you can’t hide that knowledge. The last thing that confuses the hell out of me every time is that we focus on a woman and what appears to be her daughter who see the Hulk roar in victory. Who the hell are they?For the police, it makes sense because they would want to take down a dangerous monster. But these two are bystanders and they do not drive the plot at all. This is as the pointless as the family in 2017’s Justice League. Ignore all of this, and this movie’s still fun to watch. As I return to the goods, this movie holds up in my eyes due to a unique ensemble. Before being re-casted for later MCU films, Edward Norton gave an interesting vision of Bruce Banner that is not charismatic, but unique as he goes through an interesting development going from avoiding to confronting what is inside him by using it for good. From what we’ve seen afterwards, we appreciate how he does his best. I really enjoyed Liv Tyler as Betty. She stood out for embraces her never ending love for Bruce, wherever he is around the world. She accepts that she can’t be with him everywhere she’d always be at risk. The difference between herself and her dad is that she can be hardheaded, but not as obsessive. Speaking of which, William Hurt also delivers a good performance as Thaddeus Ross. You respect his view on wanting to defend the USA by advancing the military. But the dislike goes to how ruthless he is to get what he wants. It gets harder when he displays hypocrisy: He loves his daughter but doesn’t consider leaving Bruce alone. That comes from blaming him for accidentally attacking then when he first turned. He does accept that the Super Solider program cannot work out again after what happened to Blonsky. Because of this, this would inspire him to be more decisive for the rest of the career, for better or worse. Tim Roth is hellaciously menacing as Blonsky. This is the perfect example of being mad with power. In his experience as a soldier, he enjoys being on the battlefield as a self proclaimed fighter. Since his age is catching up to him, he knew he couldn’t do it forever. So becoming a hulk of his own was his solution because with that kind of power, he could fight forever. Since he can’t revert to his human self after defeat, it is surprising that he still got what he wanted. It is a shame that we still don't have sequels to this film as I am interested to the arcs of Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel Sterns. Since his brain got exposed to Bruce’s blood, he presumably becomes The Leader like the comics presented. Since Abomination did have an appearance in Shang Chi, I won’t doubt that this character would return as well in the future. The best thing to respect this film for is that besides Avengers: Endgame, this is the only film of the MCU to not have after credits. Looking back, the ending of Ross meeting Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) could've been considered for that kind of scene. Overall, The Incredible Hulk is a creative film that should not be overlooked. If you are beginning to view the MCU for the first time, please do not skip this film.
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