The Incredible Hulk: Does Edward Norton's Only MCU Movie Hold Up?

current fans of the MCU have come to know Dr Bruce Banner AKA The Hulk as a friendly wisecracking selfie taking and athleisure wearing supporting muscle for the other Avengers I'm wearing shirts now yeah how but before he was making cocktails and children the Hulk was once an extremely complicated and emotionally unpredictable character who you could not trust with a hard taco and while we all really hope to see Mark ruffalo's take on the character eventually get his own headlining outing we must also remember that the MCU does indeed have a solo Hulk film a film about a man who's terrified of his own powers and is forced to live in isolation in order to protect everyone and while it's certainly a departure from the less complex version we have in the MCU today this movie is set in the same continuity and sets up all the context for Hulk's initial involvement in the Avengers this movie was released shortly after Iron Man and fans were intrigued to see what Marvel could do with the character after the failed adaptation released just five years before I think it's gratuitous but whatever now the Hulk may be a household name nowadays but similar to Iron Man this was a character that was not as widely known by non-comic book readers with Robert Downey Jr being the one to kick off the MCU Marvel wanted an established A-list actor with box office draw to take on the mantle of their next Avenger Louis literier cited the Hulk gray comic book title as his key inspiration for the film the comic book was a modern retelling of the character's origin and included more dark material to match today's audiences when Marvel approached Edward Norton he insisted on rewriting the script to suit his own ideas for the character letaria recalled this for an interview about the movie stating quote Edward's script has given Bruce's because we're making a superhero movie it doesn't have to appeal just to 13 year old boys Ed and I both see superheroes as the new Greek gods and had this film gone differently behind the scenes Edward Norton would still be the Hulk to this day and I gotta admit I have mixed feelings about that thought you can't stay at all I want to but it's just not safe for me to be here but with Iron Man being a Smash Hit with critics and fans Marvel was hard at work at fast tracking production on their other properties the Hulk of course has been seen in live action before with the hit 1970s TV series starring Lou Ferrigno and the 2003 live-action adaptation by Ang Lee simply titled Hulk this movie doesn't break any new ground but in many ways this is the closest thing to an MCU solo Hulk Adventure that we're going to get see the film rights to the Hulk are not actually owned by Marvel even though they do have the rights to the character still so we're able to get team up movies like Thor Ragnarok and the Avengers without Disney being able to devote a solo title to the big guy but as always what's important here is how this movie holds up all these years later so let's all take a deep breath and grab our stretchiest pants and let's get into 2008's the Incredible Hulk [Music] The Incredible Hulk Stars Edward Norton as the titular giant green hero it was directed by now you see me and fast X director Louis La Terrier it's the second film ever to enter the MCU and despite having different actors in the role the movie is Canon to the original MCU timeline meaning this is still our current Hulk and the story is very much a part of The Life and Times of this guy this movie doesn't waste time retreading Hulk's origin which we saw in English 2003 take but it does utilize its opening credit sequence to recap how Bruce gets his powers and how he almost kills Betty Ross the love of his life and daughter to General Ross the sequence is similar in tone to Sam raimi's Spider-Man movies which did the same sort of recap of the previous film's events during the opening titles it's worth mentioning that Banner's comic book origin is slightly different the Hulk was debuted in 1962 and his very own comic book series called ready for it the Incredible Hulk created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby the original version of the characters suffered from disassociative personality disorder with the Hulk being Banner's Alter Ego it's a similar situation to the idea of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and this movie does attempt to make a more somber and dark bruised Banner as he resents and fears his alter ego and doesn't see it as something to be used but subdued so Banner is living off the grid after the incident that nearly killed Betty played by Liv Tyler in this movie which definitely adds points he's living in Brazil in a minimal apartment with minimal accommodations and working a job that provides minimal stress he's also taking martial arts lessons and learning to control his rage through intense breathing exercises whoa the goal is for him to stay off the American government's radar long enough to find a cure for his condition now this movie's tone is slightly different than what we've come to expect from Marvel it's not Ultra dark or anything but it certainly takes itself more seriously but I do love some of the smaller details in the movie like Bruce's heart rate monitor and how you can hear it beeping every time his blood pressure goes up it's a really nice touch works as a maintenance guy at a soda bottling Factory in Brazil and when he accidentally lets his blood drop into one of the bottles Stan Lee drinks it and the effects lead to the government tracking down Bruce's hideout in Brazil it's about 20 minutes into the movie where we get our first Hulk transformation come on and I really like this action scene as a whole and while I also enjoy that they tease us with small glimpses of the Hulk before we see him it goes on for way too long they have like six teasers in a row before showing the first hero shot and for me it could have been trimmed down a little bit Bruce needs to escape and head back to the United States to meet with Mr Blue an anonymous scientist that is aware of Bruce's radiation poisoning and claims to be able to cure him maybe in order to get the information they need Bruce needs the help of his once lover Betty Ross Bruce accidentally runs into Betty with her new man and the couple are reunited shortly after Betty was one of Bruce's colleagues who helped him with the radiation experiment and she since continued her work and moved on to find love with the dad from Modern Family who by the way is just so much fun to watch in the scenes that he's in it's a point of Professional Pride with me that I can always tell when somebody's lying and you are Bruce seeks out the help of an old friend who owns a pizzeria to help him gain access to some of the lab work that he needs also Martin Starr is in this scene right here and he's also a teacher in Spider-Man's homecoming Trilogy so does that mean he's like the same dude now you would expect that Bruce and Betty's relationship is way more complicated because of the fact that Betty's father is the one hunting Bruce but the movie doesn't want to waste its time on an interesting character Dynamic so they just say that Betty hasn't spoken to her father in years and that's that I'm a little bit disappointed in the approach to this relationship I think that when you have an interesting angle like the villain being related to a supporting hero character there should be some recourse to that and there should be some gray area to experiment with but alas nothing comes from it the movie does have a few fun Easter eggs and homages that nowadays would seem standard but at the time were really fun we see things like Lou Ferrigno making a cameo a joke about the purple pants and even a reference to the most iconic line Bruce Banner has ever said Betty and Bruce meet with Mr Blue played by Tim Blake Nelson who I'm always happy to see in a movie and blue attempts to cure Bruce but unfortunately is unsuccessful and meanwhile General Ross is already hard at work on giving Emil Blonsky a dose of radiation serum to make him sort of like a super soldier but Blonsky of course is gonna need more power if he's gonna go up against the Hulk so he threatens Mr Blue to give him a bigger dose and we get to witness our first look at everybody's favorite Shang Chi Cameo the Abomination my biggest problem with this movie is a similar problem that I have with many of Marvel's movies both pre and post MCU and that is the plot this movie's story is extremely generic and has become somewhat of a templated story for Marvel to use a corrupt government or Corporation wants to take the hero's power and of course they want to misuse it so they resort to creating a bad guy with the same Powers as the good guy to make them fight each other there's just no flavor and even though I like the design of the Hulk and I think the cast is almost completely ideal I still like Mark Ruffalo more as Banner than Norton sorry the movie just doesn't offer you anything that you can't get from any other superhero movie to run through the MCU Trope checklist here's what we're dealing with hot main character with Larger than Life abilities check corrupt government or corporate organization who wants to exploit the hero check will they won't they romance with a good looking co-worker check evil antagonist with the same power set as the good guy check and check and some kind of computer data or serum to Loosely motivate location changes check oh yeah and of course mandatory shirtless hotness check I can't get too excited once we get into the movie's final battle the only thing we want to see is the Hulk smashing into while the Abomination goes fully berserk and in that this movie delivers the final Conflict includes my favorite Hulk transformation yet as Bruce throws himself out of a helicopter and hopes to transform before he hits the ground which he does and it's awesome in the end the Hulk wins and goes back off the grid to continue searching for a cure or at least learning to control his rage and the power inside of him I know it's awesome but also is it I mean basically the movie ends exactly where it began Bruce is on the run and no closer to returning home in my review of Iron Man I called this movie forgettable and it is and I'm not saying I don't like it but I am saying that the movie doesn't matter nothing that happens really affects anything in the greater MCU which would be fine if anything really happened at all I would have loved to see a Hulk movie that committed to The Duality of Bruce and the Hulk a movie that dared to be bold and experiment with the strange and dark journey of a man who is despite being a hero completely unwell a movie that could be the whole new level of weird the Incredible Hulk is a relatively successful and generally inoffensive superhero movie that looks pretty good and has solid acting performances it's not as punk rock as Iron Man and it doesn't have the heart of Guardians of the Galaxy but it does work as a fun functional story in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe and for me that's good enough foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: JoBlo Originals

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Id: KeqRYfNt6vI

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023