Director Louis Leterrier's new version of Marvel Comics 'Big Green Grouch' shares a strange parallel with The Incredible Hulk, the comic book. The first version of the comic was canceled after six issues. The first big screen version bombed. In the comics the Hulk made a comeback like Rockey Balboa. He fought as a guest star and guest villain, then as a backup feature. When the second print version of The Incredible Hulk reached the stands it was a hit. And the second theatrical film finally does the character justice.

The script by Zak Penn begins with a montage of how Bruce Banner experimented on himself and unleashed the rage driven creature and the five years since that happened. Blended together are the elements of the early comics and the well remembered TV show. Seems Gen. Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) oversaw that college laboratory. He and his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler) where injured in the first incident. Now Ross is obsessed with capturing Bruce Banner and exploiting the raw power he holds. (To me this is the film's weakest point. Through no fault of Hurt's Ross seems almost as over the top as the Colonel who tried to catch The A-Team.)

Banner, meantime, devotes his life to learning to control his anger and to find a cure. Edward Norton gives a fine performance. From a few camera angles he looks so much like Bill Bixby its scary. (By the way, Bill, Stan Lee, and Big Lou Ferrigno do put in brief appearances.)

From a Brazilian slum, to a briefly quiet Virginia college campus, to the big showdown in front of Harlem's Apollo Theater, the Hulk shows why Stan Lee and Jack Kirby decided to call him INCREDIBLE.

Review By:
Erwin K. Roberts