Movie Review: 'The Incredible Hulk'

It's not quite a sequel (it features a completely different cast) and it's not quite a reboot (it picks up where 2003's disappointing Hulk left off, with Bruce Banner wandering the earth), so what exactly is this incarnation of The Incredible Hulk? Absolutely smashing for one.

Opening with a credit sequence rewrite of the big screen Hulk history, this new-and-improved and now Incredible Hulk finds Dr Bruce Banner (Edward "best actor of his generation™" Norton) living in the favelas of Brazil, hiding from both the American authorities and his violent past. Searching for the means to subdue his mean and green angry side, Banner has managed to cage the beast within and stay hidden for months. But that can't last forever.

Tracked down by nemesis General Ross (William Hurt, providing both gravitas and exposition) and super-charged protégé Emil Blonsky (an on-a-run-of-form Tim Roth), Banner is once more made mad and subsequently forced to flee. Seeking out help in the shape of mysterious contact Mr Blue, Banner runs into old flame Betty Ross (a more-effective-than-usual Liv Tyler), who may just hold the key to keeping the beast at bay once and for all.

Continuing the trend of comic book movies not only being taken seriously, but also casting "proper" actors in key roles, The Incredible Hulk is a well-acted, well-written, well-directed, action-tastic, effects-heavy piece of modern myth telling.

Succeeding in all the areas Ang Lee's take failed, director Louis Leterrier and screenwriters Zak Penn and Norton himself have managed to make The Incredible Hulk both an exciting, set-piece filled, action blockbuster and an intellectually-infused, involving piece of storytelling.

Another proponent of the Batman Begins formula of keeping it real, the film takes pains to scientifically explain how and why Banner goes through his change and shows just how painful it is for him to do so (one of the film's stand-out scenes evokes the transformation from man to wolf from An American Werewolf in London ).

Of course, that's not to say it skimps on the action scenes. This is, after all, a summer blockbuster. Slightly CGI, but never to an unsettling effect, the Hulk gets several chances to show off some super "Hulk smash" moves. An expert in handling action scenes after cutting his teeth on underrated Jason Statham kick-ass vehicles The Transporter and Transporter 2 , director Louis Leterrier brings an energetic vitality to each and every one of these scenes from the early restrained Hulk vs soldiers to the city destroying end fight between Hulk and big, bad Abomination (glimpsed ever-so-tantalisingly in the movie's trailer).

Most exciting of all however is the cross pollination of Marvel products that is beginning to occur. In Iron Man there was THAT cameo from Samuel L. Jackson after the end credits as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury and here in The Incredible Hulk there are references to S.H.I.E.L.D. right the way through and a rabble rousing cameo from Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in the closing scene. It's fascinating to see a studio so in control of their product and sowing the seeds for a cohesive cinematic Marvel universe (The Hulk and Iron Man make up part of Marvel team-up The Avengers, for those not in the know).

So bring on the next big screen incarnation of one of your other comic products Marvel, its bow is increasingly anticipated.

Four stars