The Marvelous Marvel Rewatch (Now Playing: Avengers: Infinity War)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Doc755 said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Watched The Incredible Hulk movie last night, because I doubt I'll be able to see it this weekend.  (Spoilers below.  Don't read if you've never seen the movie.)

Pluses:
Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, and William Hurt all did a great job acting.  I was into all 3 characters.  William Hurt, in particular, just totally embodies General Ross.  I was impressed since that is not the type of role I normally see him do.

My favorite scene in the movie is the beginning where there is a chase in the streets and rooftops of Brazil.  Very cool and exciting scene.

Loved that there was all of this build up about "Mr. Blue" and in the end you gradually find out its a scientist who is not quite right in the head.  That is an interesting twist.

Liked that he wore a heart monitor for the film.  It was a great way to communicate the tension of him potentially turning into the Hulk.



Minuses:
I feel they made several choices in this movie because it was made so recently after the Eric Bana film, and the movie is worse for it.  A big one is that they did a quick montage at the beginning explaining the Hulk's origin.  I think in 2008, I preferred this because, I didn't want to see another Hulk origin.  Now in 2018 I see that the film would have been a lot better with a good fleshed out origin like Iron Man or Captain America.  Because this movie is connected to the MCU, this is the Hulk movie that people are going to watch more from here til the end of time.

The Incredible Hulk movie seems very disconnected to the MCU.  Ed Norton and Mark Ruffalo do Bruce Banner so differently that they feel like two different characters.  We never see Betty Ross, or the Leader or Abomination ever again.  The only character we see again is General Ross and that is not until Civil War 8 years later.  It is very easy to miss this character appeared before unless you are really paying attention.  This movie is the red headed step child of the MCU.

The end battle with Abomination was kind of meh.

Confused about SHIELD's role in this movie.  Seems like SHIELD is working for General Ross.  Then at the end Tony Stark comes in and says they are putting together a super team.  What?  Didn't SHIELD approach Tony Stark?

Why did Betty Ross stop the Hulk from killing Abomination?  It's basically just as dangerous as Godzilla.  How are they going to contain it?  Since I just saw Iron Man, I find it ironic that Stain had to die, but Abomination gets to live.  WTF?



This movie had a lot of parts I liked, but it had several other things pulling it down.

5/10

I’m looking forward to this rewatch. I liked Incredible Hulk when it came out and it has held up on subsequent viewings. I get the origin part. Not really thinking in terms of longevity there. Although a little confused that one of your minuses in the failure of the MCU to follow up on this film. That’s not really THIS film’s fault. I do know there are certain rights issues that has pushed a stand-alone Hulk film to the back burner. I also did not like how Betty just disappeared. I really liked the Betty/Banner romance. Starting with Thor the romance formula quickly becomes “here are my abs and now we’re in love”. The romance in Hulk felt real. I especially detested that Betty was jettisoned for that ill conceived Widow/Hulk romance. But we can discuss that when we get to Ultron.

As for who General Ross was working for, I don’t believe it was SHIELD. I think it was just a group within the US military. Which makes sense as the military developed the super soldier formula before SHIELD even existed. I would also recommend the Marvel One Shot: The Consultant which actually puts the Hulk tag in a new light and gives it a twist

(referring to the bold)  I agree that this is really not this film's fault.  I am criticizing the MCU continuity for Hulk as a whole, but this seems to be the best place to talk about it.  If it's anyone's fault is Kevin Feige's, since he handles continuity between the films.  He really throws this film under the bus.  Maybe Universal hasn't given him a choice?  I don't know.

Now that I've rewatched this movie, I find that, like you, I like the Betty/Banner romance.  However, it doesn't exist at all (even as a memory) in the other MCU films.  Banner has reservations about hooking up with Widow but they never suggest it's because of Betty.  And the Banner/Widow relationship doesn't only exist in Avengers 2, because they make reference to it in both Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok.  The MCU as a whole treats Betty like she never existed, and kind of treats this whole film like it never existed.

Also SHIELD is definitely in this movie, even though Nick Fury and Coulson are not.  I'll let you watch it and see if you can make sense of SHIELD's role.  I couldn't.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 04 January 2018