Director Louis Leterrier makes The Hulk rather less than terrifying. This time around, The Hulk is just a big ape who roars a lot and is not harmed by bullets.
But at least Leterrier doesn't press for sympathy as Ang Lee's disappointing version five years ago.
Sentiment at a premium
We know in this one that it's Bruce Banner unwillingly transmogrified and that he is trying his best to make his hulking other self see sense. Sentiment is brought out only at the right moments.
We first see The Hulk as the lonely scientist Dr Banner (Edward Norton), cut off from life and the woman he loves, working in a bottle factory while hunting for a cure for the gamma radiation that has poisoned the cells of his body and his mind.
He's a fugitive from General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt'' Ross (William Hurt), bent on exploiting his power for nefarious purposes, and in love with the general's daughter (Liv Tyler).
But try as he may, he can't avoid turning into the Hulk, and, in the end, has to fight to the death with Thunderbolt's henchman (Tim Roth), persuaded to take spinal injections to become The Abomination — an ugly creature with a protruding spinal cord and scabby fur, and more than a match for The Hulk in his rage and superhuman strength.
These are the bones of a film that looks smart, is well designed, with good special effects and has so much quickfire editing that we are sometimes not sure exactly what is happening or why.
We've learnt by now that this is how Leterrier likes it.
More human Hulk
Even an actor as good as Norton can't quite cut the misunderstood figure but does light up the saggier parts of this Marvel fantasy.
He plays Banner much closer to an ordinary man than the usual preening Hollywood star.
Nobody in the cast manages to leave a mark as Leterrier's high-octane work progresses, suggesting at the end there's a sequel on its way.
There are enough thrills in this movie but the final fight between The Hulk and The Abomination is faintly ridiculous, as is the fact that The Hulk rescues his girl from a fire with scarcely a mark on her.
That the movie would relapse into phantasmagoria was inevitable but a few quiet scenes would've done Leterrier's exuberance a great service.
There's something lacking in this film which can best be called real personality. It suffices — but it stops at that.
