The Incredible Hulk – Film Review

Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk. Cut off from his true love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and forced to hide from his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), Banner soon comes face-to-face with a new threat: a supremely powerful enemy known as The Abomination (Tim Roth).

As I’m sure a lot of you are aware by now, the first time I ever watched a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film was back when the first-ever Iron Man was released on DVD. My brother put it on for me to watch and it was like peering into heaven being as big a comic book fan as I was back then and still am to this day.

So because I loved that first Iron Man movie so much, I obviously was stoked out of my mind to see The Incredible Hulk – in fact, I somewhat remember counting down the days until I got to see this movie. I had been a fan of the Hulk longer than I had been a fan of Tony Stark / Iron Man, too which definitely helped my excitement for this film reign supreme.

I remember going to a nearby theatre with my parents when The Incredible Hulk came out and eight-year-old me loved absolutely every single second of it. Afterward, I had bought the tie-in video game for the Xbox 360 and even the one for the Nintendo DS. In short, when I was eight, the Hulk was pretty much my superhero.

But now that I’m older and I’ve seen a plethora of not just MCU movies but superhero movies in general, it made me wonder “Does The Incredible Hulk still hold up to this day?”. The answer to that question is mostly yes, although the film is without a doubt one of the weakest entries in the entire MCU to date. But that’s okay because this was only the second film in the franchise and they were still figuring things out and seeing what worked and what didn’t.

One of the things that you have to keep in mind when revisiting this movie is that it was really the first time the Hulk had ever been taken super seriously in the entertainment industry. Of course, we had a few pieces of entertainment featuring the Hulk before this, but they weren’t too serious in nature. The Incredible Hulk television series from the 1970s starring Lou Ferrigno was fun and entertaining but it certainly wasn’t a gripping drama or anything like that.

And the 2003 Ang Lee-directed Hulk had the potential for greatness but unfortunately ended up being a corny and sloppy mess of a movie. So when Louis Leterrier‘s The Incredible Hulk was released in 2008 and people saw how seriously they were treating the character of Hulk for once, it was a big surprise. Rewatching the movie in 2021, it still feels mostly fun and entertaining even though the action set pieces have evolved significantly in the MCU these days.

It’s easily one of the more forgettable entries in the franchise though, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone considering how we have such large-scale films now such as Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ragnarok just to name a few. The Incredible Hulk feels like a small-scale, fun little action flick.

Edward Norton is mostly okay in the role of Bruce Banner, though. He doesn’t have a whole bunch of charisma on screen but it’s not like he’s bad or anything either. His performance just felt like it was lacking something special. I’m incredibly glad that they eventually got the hugely talented and charismatic Mark Ruffalo to replace him because he’s a significantly better fit for the role in every sense of the word.

Something that has always bugged me about the MCU does tie back in with this movie, too. Why did they set up Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross to be a major player moving forward only to never use her again? She plays a pivotal role in Bruce Banner’s life and so you’d think the character would return in future installments but she never did.

Perhaps Tyler did not want to reprise her role, but even if that was the case… so what? They could have recast her just like they did with Mark Ruffalo replacing Edward Norton a few years down the road. It just kind of feels like a waste introducing this character only to never use her again. And she’s rarely if ever mentioned in the MCU going forward, either.

The Incredible Hulk is a fairly decent watch that has a couple of relentlessly entertaining moments and serves as a good origin story for the titular superhero. As long as you keep in mind that this is one of the weakest MCU entries, then you should have a bit of fun with this one as well.

Overall Grade: B-

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content

Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Written by: Zak Penn

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Release Date: June 13, 2008

Running Time: 112 minutes