Right, some thoughts on the Hulk, though most of what can be said about the movie has already been said.
I appreciate that they don't do the standard, super fleshed out origin story, where I feel it's really not needed, and instead get pretty much straight to the good stuff. They do a great job at the start of the movie, building up tension to the first Hulk reveal. That whole chase/action sequence, as well as the one in the middle of the movie are really well executed, even if the CGI hasn't exactly aged well. When I first saw it years back, I didn't really feel it was particularly poor or anything, but watching it again now, it's really quite poor. Still, as I said, the execution of those scenes was great imo. Really the whole first hour or so of this movie is a good ride. After that we start to run into a lot of problems, which I think we're all pretty much in agreement on, so I won't rehash them.
Really though, one thing that stood out maybe the most to me, rewatching this, is how much I prefer Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner over Norton's. Or perhaps - to be more fair to Norton - I should say Marvel/Disney's Bruce Banner to Universal Studio's. The guy is supposed to be this genius level scientist....the smartest guy in pretty much any room he walks into. Yet, this movie doesn't really show that at all. He becomes the Hulk working on a project he doesn't even understand the nature of, and then proceeds to spend the entire movie hoping that "Mr. Blue," with the utmost minimal of info at first, and then with very brief access to his blood (and eventually even briefer access to the experiment data, which Banner himself should be able to do something with) will magically make all his problems go away. This guy is promising to cure him, before he even really knows a damn thing, and Banner just buys into this for reasons of plot convenience. It doesn't make the first half of the movie less enjoyable to watch, but in the overall scheme of things, and understanding who Banner is, it just feels very off.
Also, their portrayal of the Hulk outside of action scenes, and his raw power, is very inconsistent. At the start of the movie, you are actually given the impression that he's at least moderately intelligent, with him telling the soldiers chasing him to just "leave me alone." You get the sense that there's still a person in there. Then after the second big action scene, suddenly he's howling at a thunderstorm, acting like a big green gorilla in a Tarzan movie or something, and he grunts and snarls like an animal as well. I mean which is it...? Is the Hulk an animal, or a person? This movie kinda tries to have it both ways, and that just doesn't work.
Ultimately, I think I'd give this movie about a 4/10, which - just as with Iron Man - is a point lower than I thought I would give it. The movie has solid pacing, various levels of good acting (with what they're given), 2 nice action scenes (if you can overlook dated CGI), and you don't have to sit through the by the book origin story where it takes like an hour or something just to put the thing you really came to see on screen. A poor plot, bad characterization, inconsistent tone, and horrible third act (which also feels ridiculously long) weigh it down to overall "meh" status though. Watching it once or twice, more so if you haven't seen the Avengers movies yet, you'll probably have a good enough time with it. Past that, it's not worth revisiting really.
