The Incredible Hulk (2008)

In several days earlier, I mentioned I will be giving the review about The Incredible Hulk that premieres about one or two weeks before today. The movie itself is a sequel to Hulk in 2003, and I’d say that’s quite a time making a sequel. The story still revolves around Bruce Banner and how he is trying to cure himself from his ability to change into Hulk.

The movie starts with Bruce Banner, still in his exile somewhere in Brazil trying to adapt with his situation. He looks rather tired (compared to Bruce in the previous version), and probably because of the physiological effect having a monster inside him. He now works as a technician in a bottled drinks company. He is still actively trying to control his anger, and he manages to suppress the “incident” for almost a couple of months. And suddenly, when he is trying to repair a switch, he got a cut in his hand. A drop of blood falls down into those bottles and he had to stop the machine. After he wipes off the blood, then he continues working. However, unknown to him, there is still one bottle with his blood.

Meanwhile in the US, General Ross is still actively trying to pursue and catch Hulk, as he is classified as “property of US Army” because he is a product from the revived superhuman research back in the World War II. After receiving report about a man who accidentally drink the bottle that was contaminated by gamma radiation, the army goes to capture Bruce. But this time, General Ross hires a special member, Emil Blonsky to successfully capture Bruce.

Bruce, in the other hand, is still communicating with a person nicknamed Mr. Blue that is trying to help cure him. After feeling that he is being chased down, he ran away and after being pushed to the limit, then he transforms into Hulk again, and Blonsky let him go. Blonsky then is trying to know the truth from General Ross and finally he know the truth. Meanwhile, Bruce runs away back to US to be able to meet with Mr. Blue and discussing about the cure. However, at the same time, the US Army is also coming back to US to review about the mission, as well as injecting Blonsky with gamma serum to be able to reach a superhuman state. What would happen when Bruce finally meets Blonsky? Will he be cured of his gamma radiation? Will he succeed controlling his anger? All of these questions are answered in the movie. So I suggest you watch the movie, if you’re interested.

What’s interesting with this sequel, The Incredible Hulk, is that it doesn’t even start from where the previous movie left. In other words, you don’t have to watch the first movie to be able to understand and enjoy the movie. In fact, it gives more logical explanation in the Hulk incident rather than the previous one. It also gives a slight hint about another Marvel comics heroes, such as Iron Man, and Captain America. It’s basically different than the previous Hulk. If you watch it, then you’ll see that Hulk’s mind is really a combatant’s mind, for example, he often uses two flat objects (such as car doors) as shields or weapons.

Another thing to note is that the animation and realization of Hulk is made as real as possible. He is now smaller than the previous one (but still having an enormous power, of course), hinting that he is indeed human in mutation. Another interesting fact is that, Bruce had a scar (well, at least it looks like a scar) in his face and that fact is also transferred into the skin of Hulk.

If you always watch the movie regarding Marvel comics heroes, then you’ll get an easter egg at the end of the movie. Tony Stark will come and states that they have already coming back, hinting to the Avengers. This confirms the proposal of Nick Fury back in the end of the Iron Man movie. However, this time the easter egg is before the rolling credits, not after it, so you couldn’t miss it (yeah, I remembered missing Iron Man’s easter egg).

Anyway, I’d say I give 7 out of 10 for the movie. One of the major drawback of the movie, is that the story is not deep enough, and it seems everything is going very smooth as planned (well, it’s always planned, but…) and there are almost no elements of surprise. It does give the feeling that you watched some kind of typical hero movies, with little or less development in the character itself. But anyway, like I have said before, if you really enjoy Marvel comics, then you have to see the movie, because you’ll be blessed with several hints about another Marvel character.

That’s it for today’s review about The Incredible Hulk. The next movie in my list is The Dark Knight, a sequel to Batman Begins. However, the movie is released in July, so until it is released, see you next post..!

jovee~