Marvel Studios has released their second film of 2008, and while not as highly anticipated as Iron Man, there is a lot of buzz surround The Incredible Hulk.

Marvel has decided to reboot the Hulk franchise, ignoring Ang Lee’s Hulk movie which was not well received at all.  This time around, Louis Leterrier (The Transporter 1 and 2) is at the helm, and there is much more action as a result.

This film is very much an homage to the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno TV series from the 1980s.  Many images in the film are straight out of the show, as well as the Hulk’s origin.  Even the theme music makes an appearance.  But there are also a lot of comic book references as well, including the Mr. Green/Mr. Blue exchange from Bruce Jones’ “Return of the Monster” storyline, and cameos by some familiar comic characters.

Banner is in hiding after his first Hulk-out, where he nearly killed his girlfriend, Betty, and her father, General Thunderbolt Ross.  But he’s slipped up, and now the General is closing in, which gives the movie a Fugitive-type feel.  To help hunt Banner down, General Ross assembles a team of specialists, including Emil Blonksy, a life-long soldier who loves a challenge.  After Blonsky sees the Hulk first hand, he wants to do whatever it takes to bring him down, including being injected with the Super Soldier Serum (hinting at the upcoming Captain America film).  This gives him enhanced strength and speed, but it’s not enough for Blonsky.  So he’s infused with some of Banner’s blood and becomes the Abomination, and monster bigger and badder than the Hulk.  This sets up the film’s final confrontation between the two monsters.

All of the roles from the first film have been recast, with Edward Norton playing Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, and William Hurt as General Thunderbolt Ross.  Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) plays the Emil Blonsky/The Abomination.  Marvel has done it again with the casting, and everyone plays their roles perfectly.  Norton really shines as Banner, and it’s great that he gets a chance to strut his stuff in an action/comic book movie.

The Hulk looks like he’s supposed to this time - Nine feet tall, green and mean.  The film makers were able to capture more emotion in this Hulk which should make him more acceptable as a CGI character.  The CGI Hulk didn’t bother me at all, but the Abomination was a bit much.  He really looks nothing like his comic book counterpart, and more like a mini-Godzilla crossed with something out of a horror movie.

The best parts of the film are when Banner is on the run.  That’s not to say that the Hulk scenes were bad - most of them weren’t - but one of the things that made the Hulk TV show work well was the Fugitive aspect of it, and it works well here, too.

The weakest part of the movie is the big Hulk/Abomination battle.  Maybe it was the CGI, maybe it was that seeing two monsters beat the tar out of each other can only go so far, but it just didn’t work for me.  The final scene of the movie also seemed forced and out of place.  I think that it would have worked better a little earlier than where it showed up.  Despite that, it’s a great scene for the fans.

Since I’m a movie score nut, I’ve got to deduct points again for the music in the film.  Much like Iron Man, the music has no themes for any of the characters, nothing that you walk away from the film humming, (except a few bars from the Hulk TV show).  It would be nice to see a recognizable name composing music for future Marvel films, because so far, they’ve been pretty lame.

Overall, The Incredible Hulk is far superior to the Ang Lee Hulk movie.  It’s faster paced, more engaging, and just plain fun.  Fans of the TV show will like it, fans of the comic books will like it, and even casual fans should enjoy it.

I’m giving the Incredible Hulk a B rating.

Thanks for reading.

Marc Bowker
Sideshow Movie Collectibles

I don’t know what is creepier than masks. They freak me out, especially the ones that are supposed to look happy. So I was pretty excited to see The Strangers, and be freaked out by some people wearing creepy masks (and I’m being serious…I really was excited). The previews for this movie had me stoked, it looked like just the kind of movie to make me jump and spill my popcorn. I ended up not spilling my popcorn, but I did jump and scream!

The Strangers starts off kind of slow as the audience is introduced to the main characters James (Scott Speedman, Felicity) and Kristen (Liv Tyler, The Lord of the Rings). Something has happened between them that have caused them to reconsider their relationship. They decide to continue with their plans for the night and stay at a secluded house that James’ family owns. Already the tension is thick as we flashback to earlier that night to find out exactly what happened between the couple. Although things are awkward between them, it’s obvious that they still love each other. Around 4:00am the next morning a knock is heard at their door. It seems to be someone who has the wrong house so the couple ignores the odd feelings they get and continue with their night. Soon enough things get down right scary as the couple begins being attacked and stalked by two girls in creepy happy masks and one man in a bag with a smile drawn on it.

I thought this movie did well with making the audience feel the tension of the entire night. Director and writer Bryan Bertino gets some help here from the wonderful soundtrack that really sets the mood. Not only is the music right, but so are all the creepy noises like the pounding on the door. At first it sounds like a normal knock, but soon turns ominous as the sound deepens and reverberates. Like Kristen, the audience doesn’t know where the sounds are coming from either and that makes it easy to believe how scared she really is. I haven’t seen a movie in awhile that has made such great use of their sound effects.

I thought that Tyler was wonderful in her role. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a thriller, and it was a nice change for her. She has a great scream for these kinds of movies, and very expressive eyes that really helped convey her fear. I look forward to seeing her do move scary movies in the future. Speedman didn’t work as well for me. I liked him at first, but his character was just so dumb that I couldn’t get over it. It seemed that as soon as his character seemed to give up, that Speedman did too. Although the strangers faces are never revealed to the audience I thought they had nice performances. It’s got to be hard to act when your face is not seen. They definitely were scary though!

I saw this movie the other night with my boyfriend. He didn’t like it as much as me, and pointed out that it had a similar plot to the movie Vacancy with Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale that we also saw together. Although I see his point, I think that The Strangers was a better made movie. It might have had a smaller budget, but it used its money to the fullest to make an actually scary movie. Vacancy was just overly predictable, and the ending was ridiculous. The ending of The Strangers was much better, but still a little laughable in the last few seconds (when you see it, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

There were really only two things that bothered me about this movie. The continuity was off in very obvious ways. At the beginning of the movie Kristen is wearing a nice dress, she changes into more relaxing clothes, but then at the end of the movie is seen wearing her dress again with no explanation. I sometimes notice little things in movies that are wrong, but they don’t bother me. This one did. There either needed to be an explanation, or someone needs a talking to. The other thing that bothered me was that the beginning of the movie a narrator talks about how this is all based on true events, but at the end you get the normal spiel about how it’s not based on real events. That just seemed unnecessary. It didn’t need to be based on true events to make it scarier, the story was scary enough as it was.

For a good thrill I’d recommend The Strangers and give it a B. It’s a nice change from most of the “scary” movies that have been popular lately that are more just about showing as much nudity as they do gore (think Hostel).