Alternate Takes 01.28.12: The Incredible Hulk

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 01.28.2012

Marvel Films tried to erase the memory of Ang Lee's Hulk with a reboot starring Edward Norton in 2008! 411's Shawn S. Lealos continues his look at the films leading up to this May's The Avengers with The Incredible Hulk!



Welcome to Week 189 of Alternate Takes, my name is Shawn S. Lealos and you have entered my world.

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I didn't really see anything wrong with the Ang Lee Hulk movie. It is a cerebral film about Bruce Banner and his inner demon. Lee went on to win an Oscar later for Brokeback Mountain, and while he is more of an art house director and an acquired taste, he made a true comic book movie, using actual panels to tell the story. But it was about Banner first and foremost and not The Hulk. The movie is about a man anguished with the inner turmoil of a second personality he cannot control. It is a great story, but it was not what people wanted to see.

People wanted to see Hulk smash things.

How does Marvel fix this perceived failure? First, they hire the guy who directed The Transporter to take over as the director for this version. Then they recast every character in the movie, so there is no trace left of the previous effort to convince audiences it is nothing like Lee's movie. Finally, they pump up the fighting action and lessen the story of the man behind the monster. It's a simple plan - ignore the story and have a lot of scenes of a monster destroying tanks. They created something so different that the audiences who hated the last movie have something they can enjoy - brainless popcorn fare and nonstop action.

The results of this endeavor are as far removed from the last movie as you would expect. And the movie kicks all kinds of butt.

I am a fan of the Ang Lee movie, as I feel it is a rare intelligent comic film that expects the viewers to use their brains instead of turning them off like most summer flicks. This movie takes the more travelled road and presents an experience where we can sit back with a big dumb smile on our face, check our brains at the door, and watch the carnage as it unfolds on the screen. It is a good companion piece to the Lee film, because between the two, you get both Banner's story and the action expected from a movie starring the Hulk.

The opening credits give a quick rundown of how Banner became the Hulk and then explains that Gen. Ross wants Banner back to dissect him to figure out what makes The Hulk work. He wants to use this knowledge to create a new super weapon. This is also where the director starts to pepper in Easter Eggs and homage. The chair, the target on Banner's forehead and his eyes as he changes are all directly lifted from the Bill Bixby television series.



Replacing Eric Bana is Edward Norton and that is a nice step improvement. Although Bana is a fine actor in his own right, Norton is just on another level from the mere mortals that surround him in Hollywood. Gen. Ross is recast as William Hurt, although I would take him or Sam Elliott in the role. It's a no-lose situation when choosing between these men.

The only real downgrade in acting talent comes in the casting of Liv Tyler as Betty Ross. While The Dark Knight received kudos for replacing the amateurish acting of Katie Holmes with the star talent of Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Incredible Hulk goes in the other direction by replacing the wonderful Jennifer Connelly with Tyler. However, Tyler is the only downgrade in talent. The always fantastic Tim Roth rounds out the main cast as Emil Blonsky, a soldier under Ross' command chosen to face the Hulk.

The action this time around is ridiculous. The film opens with Banner in Chile, where he is communicating online with another scientist trying to help him find a cure for his gamma poisoning. He has gone months without an incident and has undergone training to control his anger. However, he will not be allowed to live in peace as Ross eventually finds him and sends in a team to capture and arrest Banner. Banner becomes the Hulk and the movie kicks into high gear.

Highlights include an all out battle between Hulk and Ross' military forces, where they bring out all the firepower you could ever imagine and still can't stop the behemoth. The crazy battles and fight scenes that viewers of the previous movie wanted are delivered in this movie as the Hulk would go face to face with Blonsky's Abomination. The fight was very similar to the one between Iron Man and The Iron Monger in the first Iron Man film, as The Abomination was much larger and stronger than The Hulk. However, this fight trumps the Iron Man final battle and it is a great end to a fun, rollercoaster ride of a movie.



The CGI was a step up from the Ang Lee film. The Hulk seemed more realistically rendered this time around, and less like the video game character that the last movie presented. The Abomination was also well done, almost a phlegm-colored prehistoric creature. The battle scenes were shot in the haphazard, dizzying style that seems to be the fashion these days, although I find the quick camera movements make it hard to follow the action. The fight between The Hulk and The Abomination in the streets of New York City was incredible. I have to give kudos to the animation team, who stepped up and delivered in a big way this time around.

For geeks, there were so many cool things to pick up on. Mentions of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and Doc Sampson are peppered through the film. Variations of music from the classic television show even plays at various points. There is the normal Stan Lee cameo, as well as a character named Stanley. Lou Ferrigno has the same cameo as the Ang Lee film, as a security guard, but in a really nice touch he also voices The Hulk. Yeah, you read that right, The Hulk speaks and it is his best known catch phrase. Finally, there is the cameo at the end of the movie, similar to the one that came after the credits of Iron Man.

Edward Norton ended up unhappy with the final cut of the movie, voiced his displeasure and Marvel replaced him in the Avengers team-up movie. I assume the reason is because the movie ended up being about a big green monster and not the man behind the mask. Banner gets little character development, a very small amount of dialogue, and is there only as a backdrop to the main story. This is a less cerebral film than the Ang Lee version, but that is what they were aiming for. It's not as good as Iron Man, but for a summer blockbuster about a giant green monster, it is about as good as you could ever expect. With this movie, Marvel went two-for-two in the start of their new big screen franchise.

This, of course, set up for The Avengers. This film introduced the Super Soldier Serum, which is what created Captain America during World War II. With Captain America coming in 2011, Marvel continued to tie its movies together making it a great time to be a comic book fan.



Cheers: The action in this movie was amazing. The Incredible Hulk delivered the action and mayhem that fans of the character wanted from the Ang Lee movie. The final fight was also a million times better than the strange mess that ended Lee's film. For anyone would wanted to see Hulk Smash, this movie paid off in spades.

Jeers: The plot was as brainless as you might expect from a movie by Louis Leterrier. The Banner stuff was minimal and this was more about destruction and mayhem than anything resembling a smart plot. Out of all the Marvel movies leading into the Avengers movie, this one had the worst story.

Reviews: "Ang Lee's thoughtful, Freudian Hulk in 2003 was nowhere near as bad as its rep. And Louis Letterier's proudly pea-brained The Incredible Hulk is nowhere near incredible. In fact, in its rush to deliver a constant rush of action it forgets to think at all. But the latest spin on the Marvel comic-book hero delivers the popcorn goods." – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone Magazine (2.5-out-of-4)

Pivotal Scene: It is hard to pick out a pivotal scene in this movie since it was all about the action. I'd say the scene at the end, with Banner, Betty and Ross on the plane and the realization that they needed to trust in The Hulk to stop The Abomination was the part of the story that changed all the characters.

Comic Book Grade: B+ - The movie does a really good job of delivering the comic book to the big screen. The big complaint about the first movie is that it was too cerebral, which is not what people want to see from a comic book movie about The Hulk. They want to see The Hulk smash things and this movie delivers that in spades.

Best Lines:

Bruce Banner to a Latino thug – "Don't make me hungry. You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry."

Betty Ross: – The subway is probably quickest.
Bruce Banner: – Me in a metal tube, deep underground with hundreds of people in the most aggressive city in the world?
Betty Ross: – Right. Let's get a cab.

Emil Blonsky – I've had missions go wrong, and seen good people go down, all because someone didn't tell them what they were walking into. I moved on because that's the job, and that's what we do. But this... this is a whole new level of weird, and I don't think I want to step away from it. Sir, if you're going to take another crack at him, I want in. And with respect, sir, you'll need a team that's prepared and ready to fight, because if that thing shows up again... you're going to have a lot of professional tough guys pissing in their pants, sir.

Betty Ross – What is it like? When it happens, what do you experience?
Bruce Banner – Remember those experiments we volunteered for at Harvard? Those induced hallucination? It's a lot like that, just a thousand times amplified. It's like someone poured a litre of acid into my brain.

Hey, isn't that…: When Banner showed up at Betty's research center to try to retrieve his medical information, there was a computer tech in the room that he bribed with pizza. That computer tech was played by Martin Starr, who also played geek styled characters in Adventureland, Superbad and Knocked Up.

Casting Call: Edward Norton came in to replace Eric Bana as part of the entire process of trying to make everyone forget about Ang Lee's effort. Most of the changes were great, although I felt like Liz Tyler was a step down from Jennifer Connelly. However, Norton won't be back for The Avengers due to a disagreement with the volatile actor. Instead, Mark Ruffalo will take over the role in the Marvel blockbuster this summer.

Easter Eggs: There are a ton of Easter Eggs in The Incredible Hulk. I'll start off with the classic TV show. At the beginning of the movie, when Banner is working on his yoga, he is watching television and the show that is on is The Courtship of Eddie's Father, starring Bill Bixby, the man who played Banner in the TV show. Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk in that show, is a security guard here and also voices the Hulk when the monster speaks. Finally, the student who videos the Hulk fighting the military on his cell phone is named Jack McGee, the same as the reporter who used to hound the Hulk on the TV show. The movie also uses the theme song from the TV show on numerous occasions.

Moving on to the comic, Samuel Sterns is the name of the researcher who helps Banner. In the comics, Stern becomes the evil genius, The Leader, and you see the start of the transformation here when the gamma blood seeps into his skull. Leonard Sampson, the love interest of Betty, is a psychiatrist and shares the exact same name as Doc Sampson, a psychiatrist who ends up with gamma in his blood (and green hair) as well.

And of course, at the end Tony Stark approaches General Ross with an offer. For those who are not sure what happened when Stark and Ross met up, here is the follow up short film, The Consultant.










Great movie by all means, I think the final battle was somehow dissapointing also, but overall it does a good job introducing a complex character. About the supervillain when the movie was anounced I was afraid they would choose a classic villain like the mandarin because the average audience would find it hard to digest somehow. In my opinion it is perhaps the best superhero movie to date. - Posted By: n00b (Guest)

I agree. By making the villain more personal, it made the story flow better. It is similar to Batman Begins where they made the bad guy the person who trained Bruce Wayne. If they had jumped straight to Bane, I doubt it would have resonated as well with the fans. I also liked Justin Hammer in the second movie more than Whiplash, even though they did screw up his age. But I'll discuss that next week.


I think the thing that pissed me off about the final battle was comparing it to how Stane died in the comics. In the comics he is bitter, beaten, revealed. Iron Man is about to take him in, and he's sitting on the ground with his helmet (beaten) off. He lifts his own hand to his head and kills himself. I think there was so much room for an emotional moment, with a ultra-confident CEO being revealed as a villain. - Posted By: Guest#1247 (Guest)

I agree. This was nothing more than a superhero and super villain beating each other up until one died. I mentioned how the problem came because it was not the main story and there was not time to do it right. I think if Stane had lived but ended up exposed and humiliated, it might have been a better finish. Tim Burton messed everything up when he killed The Joker at the end of his first movie. I hate the bad guy dying at the end.


Downey owned all. Almost a perfect comic movie. - Posted By: Guest#3670 (Guest)

Easily the best Marvel movie made so far. - Posted By: Ryan Haseldine (Guest)

Pretty decent review...but when thinking about this movie, I think it is important to also give it credit for something that you glossed over. Before this movie Robert Downey Jr had faded away, it was this movie that gave his career a kickstart, and led to him becoming "one of the most popular actors working today," not the other way around. Goes to show what a great job they did, and I'm happy that thus far Downey has managed to keep away from falling back to the old habits that knocked his career out, especially in light of the fact that Charlie Sheen can't seem to do the same. - Posted By: Devin (Guest)

I completely agree that this was Downey's movie and he killed in it. As for Devin, I guess for me I saw Downey's comeback as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but that is not a famous movie, so for most people there was Zodiac and Charlie Bartlett, where he was a supporting character, and then Iron Man as the big comeback as a star.


Whoa, the average non comic reader didn't know who Captain America is? Sorry but I find that kinda hard to believe. - Posted By: Guest#0328 (Guest)

Myself, nor most of my friends had really heard much about Captain America, he is a superhero that you may have heard of, but dont know anything about his character. Hell, when I first heard about Iron Man, I thought it was the same character as the Iron Giant. Lol. - Posted By: Sparky (Guest)

I let Sparky answer the question for me but here is something else. For those unfamiliar with comics (like girls), a lot of people I know had no idea who Captain America was. My wife knew about Iron Man thanks to his ‘90s cartoon but had no clue anything about Captain America. In order to be knowledgeable in the mainstream, a geek property has to have some kind of crossover appeal. It has to be a cartoon, a movie or some other sort of the mainstream pop culture lexicon.

In the ‘90s, Captain America cameos in the 1994 Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons, he appeared in the a movie in 1990 that pretty much no one has seen and two Ultimate Avengers animated movies. Other than that, you have a reference in the 1969 film Easy Rider. What has there been to tell mainstream America, who does not read comics, who Captain America is?







Upcoming Releases

February 17, 2012 - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

February 28, 2012 - Justice League: Doom



April 13, 2012 - Bullet to the Head - Bullet to the Head is an upcoming 2012 action film, directed by Walter Hill based upon Alexis Nolent's French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete. The film will star Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang. Christian Slater, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Kevin King Templeton are producing the film.

May 4, 2012 - The Avengers



May 25, 2012 - Men in Black III

July 03, 2012 - The Amazing Spider-Man



July 20, 2012 - The Dark Knight Rises



September 21, 2012 - Dredd - Dredd is directed by Pete Travis with a script by Alex Garland. The cast currently consists of Karl Urban as Judge Dredd and Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson. Dredd is due to be released on September 21, 2012 in 3-D.

May 3, 2013 - Iron Man 3

June 14, 2013 - Superman: Man of Steel

June 28, 2013 - R.I.P.D. - R.I.P.D. is an upcoming action-comedy crime film set to be directed by Robert Schwentke, based on the comic book Rest In Peace Department by Peter M. Lenkov. The film will star Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as Nick Walker and Bo, respectively.

July 26, 2013 - Thor 2

May 2, 2014 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

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