3 out of 5

Director: Louis Leterrier

More like a 3.5 star affair, Leterrier’s “Incredible Hulk” is an exciting, well-paced actioner that, similar to “Iron Man,” finds a great balance between comic, movie, explosions and character. Unfortunately, it is automatically docked in character for having to heavily rely on CGI for part of its protagonist. For anyone unfamiliar with the comic book tale or TV incarnation or previous movie, the story of the Hulk involves scientist Bruce Banner (Norton) getting messed up by gamma radiation which turns him into a giant monster (a… hulk) when he gets angry. Mixed up in the mess is would-be girlfriend / fellow scientist Betty (Tyler) and her father – with a jones to harness the abilities of the hulk for the military – General Ross (Hurt). The cast works very well, as do the character sketches they choose /were coached to inhabit. While I didn’t loathe the previous Hulk film, it was oddly cast, incredibly uneven in tone, and super wayward with its plotting. Here that is tossed to the side by focusing on the most important aspect of the hulk saga: the wandering nature of Banner, trying to escape himself and his foes, and Norton does this perfectly. It also gives Banner a fun baddie to fight in the form of Tim Roth, a soldier who wants a piece of that gamma power. Anyhow, Leterrier is well-learned in lensing action sequences so that they are powerful and yet followable, and the best scenes are those that slow down and mix it up with the Hulk and humans. Just, as mentioned, when you are required to feel something for the beast, it becomes difficult, because regardless of how good the CGI is (and it is good), it’s still not a human face. So: Hulk leans a bit more toward popcorn than pathos, but it includes enough of the comic and drama to be a solid and re-watchable entry in the genre.