Road to Endgame: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Directed by Louis Leterrier (Marvel Studios)
Release date: June 13th, 2008
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth
Box office worldwide: $263,427,551

The Incredible Hulk: If you are the forgotten child in your family then you’re probably The Incredible Hulk. Marvel Studios rarely references any of the events from the Hulk movie in future movies. It’s probably for good reason because Hulk is one of the lesser films in the MCU. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, because I’m a Marvel slave and will pretty much like anything they produce. It’s just not nearly as good as other MCU movies.

The Incredible Hulk never feels like a superhero movie. The story is about Bruce Banner trying to cope with becoming the Hulk and trying to get rid of it. I think it’s a great story, but I also wanted to see more of Hulk smashing the shit out of everything in site.

Even though it’s one of my least favorite MCU films, it’s definitely the best Hulk film (out of two). The first one was Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003 and it sucked ass. Hulk looks like he was colored with an off-brand green highlighter, the story sucks and Hulk fights a bunch of dumbass Hulk dogs. I really, really despise that movie, so compared to that piece of trash, the MCU’s version of Hulk is the best flim of all time.

This was the only movie that Edward Norton portrayed Bruce Banner/Hulk because Marvel Studios needed an actor who was a team player and someone who could work in a team without being a creative dictator. Which is fine with me! Norton sucks compared to Mark Ruffalo.

Anyhow, here are my positives and negatives for The Incredible Hulk.

Positives

• It doesn’t add a lot of substance to the movie, but there are a TON of cool teases to other Marvel characters and movies.
  • Stark Enterprises blueprints are shown for weapons to combat Hulk.
  • Banner turns himself into The Hulk when he was trying to replicate the serum Captain America was made from.
  • Sam Sterns, AKA Mr. Blue, is teased to turning into The Leader (one of Hulk’s more popular villains in the comics).
  • Lou Ferrigno pops up in a cameo as a bodyguard (Ferrigno played Hulk on TV.)
• Hulk’s battle with the military at Culver University is a pretty fun showdown. Not the best battle we’ve seen but good nonetheless and a fun first taste of Hulk’s power.
• The final battle between Hulk & Abomination is really good! The two monsters beat the hell out of each other.
  • We also get to see Hulk using a cop car as boxing gloves! The inner nerd in me freaked out… holy shit that was cool!

• I really enjoy Thunderbolt Ross as one of the film’s villains. He is a diabolical, selfish, asshole, and I love it! He helps Banner & Betty Ross create the Hulk and he completely throws Banner under the table by making him a fugitive because he’s trying to save his own career. He even throws his own daughter under the bus. YOU BEAUTIFUL, ANGRY BASTARD!
• Though it never feels like a Hulk or superhero movie, it does a good job setting a sad tone of what Banner is going through. Banner’s stressed trying to find a cure and he hasn’t been happy or relaxed for months now. The movie does a good job portraying that.
• MY FAVORITE PART OF THE ENTIRE MOVIE: Banner and Betty Ross are about to have sex for the first time in months and Banner can’t get too excited because he’ll turn into the Hulk. BRUHHHHHHH. He can deal with getting infected with gamma poisoning. He can deal with turning into an enormous green rage monster, BUT HE’S A HUMAN DAMNIT! And the poor sap can barely make out for the rest of his life! That’s the real travesty.

Negatives

• Okay, there’s nothing wrong with the movie being a Bruce Banner story more than a Hulk story. That’s fine! What I can’t look past is that they cast Edward Norton as Hulk. He is so effing boring.
  • I know Bruce Banner is supposed to be a nerd, but Norton is a dweeb… which is much worse! He is stoic, quiet, uninteresting and utterly dry and he makes the movie more boring than it ever should have been. He is in the bottom two for interesting characters in the entire MCU.
  • Liv Tyler doesn’t help either. Tyler plays Betty Ross, and I like Liv Tyler as an actress, but combined with Norton they do very little to make it an intriguing film. The scenes when it’s dialogue heavy with Tyler and Norton are boring AF.
• As much as I enjoy Thunderbolt Ross as a villain, I’m not big on Abomination/Emil Blonsky. We only get to see Abomination for, like, five minutes at the end of the movie (it is a fun five minutes, however).
• Blonsky goes from a battle tested war veteran to a greedy villain that wants to turn into a monster after getting a taste of it… I guess. They do a poor job to show Blonsky changing. It just sort of happens and doesn’t give me a reason to care about this guy.

• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.

Overall Grade: C

Overall, I enjoy the movie enough. It’s better than people give it credit for but still has flaws. The best parts of the film are cameos, easter eggs and Hulk using a cop car as a pair of boxing gloves. It’s more of a Bruce Banner story than it is a Hulk movie and Norton is a boring ass Banner. The story itself is a good one doused in a sad tone to reflect Banner coping with being Hulk… but Norton is sooooooooo boring. Have I told you I don’t like Edward Norton?

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. The Incredible Hulk (Definitely behind Iron Man. It’s going to end in the bottom tier of my rankings too… damn you Edward Norton. )