Reviewed by: Greg Mueller

Greg's Score:
4.00

Plot/Story

2

Characters

4

Acting

4

Cinematography

7

Production Design

5

Soundtrack

5

Execution

3

Emotional Impact

2


Review:

The Incredible Hulk is the second volume in the MCU and it was already trying to break away from the "Super Hero Movie" formula. Surprisingly, The Incredible Hulk isn't an origins story. In fact, they just throw us right in the middle of this mess and hope that we either can piece together what is going on or just don't care and enjoy some explosions. Banner has already been the Hulk for an undetermined amount of time and we are lead to assume that he did some bad Hulk stuff. How long and what did he do? No clue. For all we know, he's only wanted for tax evasion or maybe Hulk has a penchant for soliciting prostitutes. All we know is that Banner is in hiding and he wants a cure for his Gamma radiation issue. From there, it's a standard Super Hero film cliche. The only difference is that we see a three minute montage that is supposed to fill in everyone's background instead of actual story telling. Even if we put aside the crappy story, there are still plenty of issues. I know that Edward Norton and Liv Tyler can act, but I don't think they were too into this film. They are so bland and the story is often very slow, so Incredible Hulk is boring most of the time. Tim Roth was good, but they have him do some parkcore stuff and it looks so wrong watching an older guy free-running. The CGI is okay. We are pretty spoiled today with how good Marvel can do CGI, but 2008 Hulk isn't that great. It's at its worst when we actually see Edward Norton turn into Hulk. When Mark Ruffalo 'Hulks out", The Hulk looks like Ruffalo. Norton doesn't turn into a big green version of Norton; he turns into jacked-up green David Dastmalchian. No one would ever connect 2008 Hulk with Norton. I can't even remember anything about the score and the movie just ended fifteen minutes ago. The Incredible Hulk seems to be often forgotten in the MCU. It came out about a month after Iron Man and the average person wasn't really thinking about the ramifications of a shared universe. It certainly doesn't help that Incredible Hulk doesn't even feel like an MCU movie. I hate Iron Man and I can't stand Robert Downey Jr., but I can recognize the first Iron Man movie as an MCU movie. The Incredible Hulk isn't as colorful, it sure as Hell isn't any fun, and it feels like it's intended to be a self-contained movie. There is a scene before the credits that would obviously be a post-credits scene now that provides some context, but it doesn't make sense, knowing where we end up going. I'm sure part of the reason I don't like this movie is that I'm watching it for the first time, after having seen over ten years of the MCU, but I hated Ant-Man and I wasn't a fan of Black Panther or Thor 2 but at least Ant-Man and Black Panther felt like some one was having fun making them and Thor 2 at least felt like people gave a shit. The Incredible Hulk feels like everyone was doing this film as a punishment. I reluctantly watched the first Iron Man for the first time a few months ago and even though I didn't like it (I only watched it to have seen all the MCU movies), I learned things about the MCU that I didn't know before. I feel like a have a more complete picture now. Having just watched Hulk, I feel like I wasted almost two hours. One character (other than the Hulk) pops up later, but his appearance here is so underdeveloped and we really have no idea what they are doing anyway, so it doesn't really matter. When we see Hulk again, he's Mark Ruffalo and he feels like an entirely different character (partially because Ruffalo seems to enjoy being Hulk). The only reason to watch this film is to be able to say you watched it. Watching the first Avengers movie is a much better experience and you learn more about the MCU's version of the Hulk than you do watching his actual solo film. I think this is now the worst MCU movie in my opinion. Really, probably the worst Super Hero movie I've seen. There is nothing fun or memorable and I almost fell asleep a few times. I actually fell asleep for about fifteen minutes in the beginning of Batman V. Superman, but that movie at least had some exciting scenes.

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