Hulk Finally Smash

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Seriously, it's not you. It's me."

Ang Lee's 2003 take on the jolly green giant was an ambitious misfire. It didn't help that the screenplay gave Bruce Banner ridiculously unnecessary daddy issues and that Eric Bana's Dr. Banner and Jennifer Connelly's Betty Ross were more Affleck and Lopez than Tracy and Hepburn. While you had to applaud Lee's high brow gumption, the whole thing played against the gamma-irradiated creature's central appeal as a raging Hyde to Banner's pursued and persecuted Jekyll. Even the Hulk's CGI realization didn't inspire awe.

This new Hulk makes Lee's Hulk look like Gumby in a toupee. He's rendered here as a dirty-green, veiny, stubbled, mop-top of a monster, and several clever filmmaking techniques and story elements keep this CGI incarnation from sticking out like a sore thumb against real backgrounds. Banner's alter ego is either partially shrouded in darkness, enveloped in smoke, obscured by atmospheric disturbances like sonic waves or heat refraction, set against groves of trees and overcast skies, or charging through neon-lit streets at night. It's a smart move because a seven-foot, green guy is always going to look a little off in a normal environment, so why not minimize the effect?

The main feat in this film is that despite its fast-paced bombast, the characters are actually well-developed. Exposition is taken care of in the opening credits, and director Louis Letterier's show-don't-tell technique of characterization works. We don't need a complicated mythology about a scientist who turns into a green behemoth when he gets angry, or scared, or distressed, or gassy. Here the Hulk is a given. He's a nuisance that a humble, unassuming man like Banner could do without and a terror to anyone who wants to control his power but can't, but we know all that. Now let's get on with it.

Scuttlebutt was that Edward Norton, who plays the good Dr. Banner this time around, wanted more of the substance he had infused into Zack Penn's screenplay. What serious actor wouldn't. No one wants to play second fiddle to a character with one line (You can probably guess what it is.), but Marvel had already been down that road and was determined to give the fans of the comic book what they wanted the first time around: less talk, more smash. Suffice it to say, there's a whole lot of smashing going on.

Norton and his supporting cast of Liv Tyler, William Hurt and Tim Roth take on their roles with one-note motivations and no delusions of making Oscar acceptance speeches next year, but let's all sit back and appreciate that for a moment: the joys of a B-monster movie done well and without pretension.