My Favorite Movies

I loved this movie. It's truly one of the year's best films.

Once again, Marvel Studios shows Hollywood how to bring a comic book character to the big screen.

The Incredible Hulk is visual page turner, filled with all the glorious violence and angst you'd expect from our favorite green-eyed monster. Unlike its predecessor directed by Ang Lee, Louis Leterrier's (The Transporter 2) version is truer to Stan Lee's character.

The story centers on Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) and his efforts to exorcise the beast within while running from the military who would rather use him as a weapon. Banner's life kicks into gear as he tries to elude Thunderbolt Ross (John Hurt) and Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to seek a cure from an anonymous colleague. Eventually he winds up back home and close to his true love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) who helps he on his journey.

Blonsky tires of being the Hulk's personal punching bag and elects to have his own upgrade. The results is the hideous looking creature - the Abomination, which looks like the hybrid alien in Alien Ressurection with a gym membership. Eventually, the Hulk must fight in an all out brawl to protect the ones he loves.

Norton's performance is amazing. He brings the timid and awkward Dr. Banner to life and you can't help but empathize with his plight. The cast is rounded out by equally impressive performances by Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), John Hurt (Thunderbolt Ross) and Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky).

Tim Blake Nelson portrays Banner's scientist and morally ambiguous protege Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. Mr. Blue. Stern seeks to harvest the power of Banner's gamma mutated blood cells. He accidentally gets a dose of his own medicine, literally which sets him up perfectly as his alter ego and Hulk nemesis, the Leader.

Here's another Hulk reference for you, Betty Ross' love interest in the beginning of the film is none other than Dr. Sampson, played by Ty Burrell (Back to You, National Treasure: Book of Secrets). How he will transform into the green-haired crime fighter Doc Sampson is anyone's guess.

If you're not too picky, you can overlook the formulaic plot line and typical one liners which bring a dash of humor into the otherwise dark story line. This movie has some great Hulk action sequences peppered throughout the predictable good versus evil plot.

The Hulk's character animation was on steroids with his uber-musculature and better texture mapping on skin and clothing. This time around, he definitely doesn't look like a video game reject.

Fans of the 70's TV show, will be delighted with this film. The movie pays homage to all the characters of the series including Bill Bixby who played David "Bruce" Banner in the show, reporter Jack McGee and even the lonely piano solo that ended every episode. Lou Ferrigno makes a cameo appearance and lends his voice to the Hulk character in the film.

Overall, you get a wonderfully dark story, great acting and enough action to have you begging for a sequel. And if that's not enough, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) makes a cameo appearance to setup the much anticipated Avengers team up.

You'll be angry at yourself if you don't go see this one - and we don't want you to get angry. Go see this film.