A decent enough comic adaption, though certainly not up to par with Marvel’s first self produced film, the recently released Iron Man. And after the much publicized feud between Edward Norton and the studio over the length of the cut, I honestly thought this cut dragged at times (of course the sub par score could have had something to do with this), but it will be interesting to see the extra 70 minutes that Leterrier has promised to put on the blue ray (though I do not have a blue ray player as of yet). And I am not sure about the changes to the comic book, like the origin of the Abomination, but it worked for the movie, and of Tim Roth was great as he always is. The strangest part to me was the seeming weakening of the Hulk, as this Hulk seemed to only be able to leap small amounts, not even building height, while the hulk in the comic was able to jump huge distances of hundreds of miles. Still the effects were pretty good, even if they did look digital, and this 9 foot tall hulk was certainly better than the one in the Ang Lee failure from 6 years ago. Worth seeing, at least on video, and a decent second film for Marvel. And the film is lot more violent than expected, sure it is PG-13 so it doesn’t have blood, but a lot of people die. Lets hope their next films are a little better though, more on par with Iron Man. Keep a look out for the 2 excellent cameos (damn I love that they since they are self produced they can cross characters from their other franchises).

We get the slightly changed origin of the Hulk under the opening credits, with something happening in a lab experiment to Doctor Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) where through a gamma radiation burst he is transformed to the raging beast the Hulk (voiced by the great Lou Ferrigno who played the Hulk in the 80′s TV show), and hurts his lover Doctor Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and her father, the sponsor of the project General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt). And in current times Banner is now hiding in Brazil, working at a soda bottling plant, as he converses online with a gamma scientist, and tries to find a cure for his gamma poisoning, while learning techniques to control his rage. An accident where he is cut in the factory sends a bit of his gamma blood into a bottle, and a man in the US (Stan “The Man” Lee) is gamma poisoned by it, so General Ross puts together a team to go look for banner. The team is led by a Russian raised in the England named Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who is on transfer from SAS to the Marines. The team goes in, and Banner runs, but when some bullies from the factory come after him, he gets Angry, and turns into the Hulk, taking out the bullies, and the army team, except Blonsky. Banner wakes up in Guatamalla, and heads for the US to talk to Mr. Blue who he has been conversing with online about a possible cure, but he needs to find his initial data on his exposure to make the calculations.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Banner first goes to find the data, and stays with an old man who owns a restaurant, then goes and uses the pizza deliver outfit to sneak into the lab of Betty Ross (the security guard is a cameo by Lou Ferrigno, too cool), but he does not find the data. Back at the restaurant Banner is going to leave, but then Betty Ross shows up with her new boyfriend, and sees Bruce, and though he runs, she goes after him, and brings him back to her house, giving him the data on a flash drive. She then goes to walk him to the train station, but the military shows up led by her father, and Blonsky.

Blonsky has since been upgraded by General Ross with a super soldier serum to make him faster and stronger.

The soldiers chases Banner, and he swallows the flash drive, and then turns to the Hulk. He is being beaten, but when he sees Betty scream he gets mad, and takes out the army, and smashes Blonsky into a tree. Betty comes up to him to calm him, but an attack helicopter comes and attacks, and the Hulk destroys it, but Betty is hurt though he does what he can to protect her, before running off with her.

We learn that Betty’s boyfriend Dr.. Samson (Ty Burrell playing a character who in the comics eventually got gamma powers himself) called Ross, who takes all of her notes, and then goes to hunt his daughter and the Hulk.

Betty calms the Hulk out the wilderness, and when he become Banners goes with him to a hotel where the try to make love but can’t because Banner gets too excited, and then go on the run to try and find Mr. Blue and a possible cure. Ross is looking for Banner though, and they come across a sent e-mail with the data, which is sent to Doctor Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson a character who would later become the Leader in the comics, and a major change from what he was as his brother was the scientist).

General Ross gets ready to go and get them, and takes Blonsky who has amazingly recovered, and who gets more Super Soldier serum.

Banner and Betty get to Sterns, who has something to try to cure him, and they turn him into the Hulk, and manage to transform him back, not knowing if it is a permanent cure or not. Sterns then shows them a bunch of blood he duplicated from Banner, as he wants to experiment more on gamma radiation, but Banner wants it all destroyed, but then gets hit by a tranquilizer bullet as Ross has arrived.

They take Banner out, but Blonsky talks to Sterns and gets him to use Banner’s blood to transform him, making him into the beast known as the abomination, and Sterns also gets some of Banners blood into his blood stream, and we see his head start to grow.

As Ross’s helicopter leaves with Banner and Betty, the Abomination starts ripping through his men, and they must turn back, and Banner convinces him to use the Hulk against him. Banner jumps from the helicopter not knowing if he will transform, and smashes into the ground, but emerges as the Hulk, but the abomination is stronger, and takes down Ross’s helicopter, and is going to kill Ross and Betty, but this enrages the Hulk, and he manages to take down the Abomination, almost killing him, until Betty stops him. Ross then lets the Hulk run away, as he did help him.

Bruce is then seen in a cabin in Canada away from anyone about to mail back Betty’s necklace from her dead mom which they had to sell to get cash to run.

And the film ends with General Ross drinking alone in a bar, when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shows up to tell him about a team they are setting up.

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I think I liked the cameos the best, but the film was enjoyable enough, with the opening third feeling almost like the recent Bourne film, and the action being pretty good (even with the camera work being a bit too shaky for my taste).