The Incredible Hulk - The Marvel shared universe’s ‘misfire?’

Thor.  Iron Man.  The Avengers.  It’s pretty impressive how the Marvel Studios can make one memorable hit film after the next.  And then you had the Incredible Hulk.  Somewhere.  Seeing as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America seem to have pushed themselves to the forefront of the Marvel Universe, sometimes it’s easy to forget that there was also a film dedicated to the big green grumpy fella!  Or maybe that’s because there were actually TWO movies, but we won’t really touch on that.

The Incredible Hulk movie was actually a remake of a similar Marvel movie only a few years before.  However, it totally bombed at the Box Office and was therefore quickly forgotten as soon as possible, especially when the Hulk was to be drafted into the same on screen universe as Iron Man and co.  It’s not a bad film, it just has problems.  One of which is the lack of originality.  It’s basically Iron Man (1), only with different characters.  The story is pretty much identical, only with a green star instead of a guy in a metal suit. 

Secondly, and this is more of a downside that’s applicable after the film was made, the Hulk’s human alter-ego played by Edward Norton, decided to leave the franchise.  Therefore, all Hulk-related scenes in everything from the Avengers onwards was taken over by Mark Ruffalo.  I think the studio was hoping that the Hulk would become more of a franchise in its own right, as there are plenty of little plot points in the film which aren’t resolved, clearly so that they can be addressed in later instalments.  I guess only time will tell if these will ever see the light of day, or whether the Avengers will take over and the Hulk will just be a background character in the overall story.

However, that was to come.  Judging the film on its own and it’s not that bad.  It has some pretty impressive action scenes which are fun to watch, but it’s main plus point is Tim Roth.  Yes, he’s the man tasked with bringing down the Hulk at any costs, but I was on his side.  He pretty much saved the film for me.  The Hulk (when big, green and generally smashing things) was fun, however Edward Norton (despite being a great actor) just didn’t really have much to work with.  Therefore it was up to Roth to steal every scene.

I know the Hulk is based on a comic book and the monster itself did (still) look pretty computer-generated, which was a bit disappointing as it looked only slightly better than its forgotten predecessor ‘Hulk.’

The Incredible Hulk doesn’t really feel that bigger part of the overall ‘Marvel shared universe,’ but it is a fun enough little jaunt that is worth a watch just for Tim Roth’s performance.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that