The Incredible Hulk

Jun 13 2008 by Babette Decker, The Journal

IF at first you don’t succeed, try again.

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s ambitious 2003 film adaptation of the not-so-jolly green giant struggled to marry a thoughtful screenplay with larger-than-life set pieces, and a central character who looked more like Shrek’s disheveled cousin than an unbridled force of rage.

The film had its moments, but the emotional power of scientist Bruce Banner’s struggle to tame the beast within was often forced to make way for a blitzkrieg of computer-generated mayhem.

Five years on, director Louis Leterrier and screenwriters Zak Penn and Edward Norton are having another crack at the iconic Marvel Comics character in The Incredible Hulk, but are they doomed to repeat the same mistakes?

The eponymous behemoth still looks a bit like a computer game character, even with all the technological advances since the 2003 film, but is generally an improvement on the Ang Lee monster.

And just in case one digitally created monstrosity wasn’t bad enough, the revamp introduces another in the form of Hulk’s arch-foe Abomination, which sets the scene for an effects-heavy showdown in New York City.

Leterrier condenses Banner’s back-story – the exposure to gamma radiation and subsequent physical transformation – into the opening credits then begins promisingly in Brazil where the scientist (Edward Norton) is hiding from General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt) and the military.

Definitely worth a look if giant green monsters in purple pants are your kind of thing.