So good. Everything it needed to be. I wished I was the Hulk after seeing this movie!
The cast was great, which was good because I was afraid they might completely ruin the movie, thus hammering the final nail into the Hulk's onscreen legacy's coffin (first poor Lou Ferrigno screwed it up, then someone tols someone else that Ang Lee would be an excellent choice to direct the upcoming Hulk movie, a conversation which most likely took place while one or both dialoguers were inebriated or stoned or both). But Tim Roth, whom I find annoying as of late, is actually a unique approach to a superhero villain here. William Hurt, who I also hate, convinced me to want to smash his face in, which means he was immensely successful in portraying his slimeball character, The General. Liv Tyler, who I absolutely loathe (mainly because her one and only talent seems to be to make herself appear as though she a) has just finished crying, b) is in the process of crying, or c) is about to cry) actually didn't bother me at all here. Ed Norton, who's either a hit or miss for me, played Banner extremely well. When he was on screen, I didn't find myself wishing he would just shut up and change into the Hulk, which was refreshing (since that's about all I could think with Eric Bana's Bruce Banner debacle).
The CG for the Hulk are great. Far better than the first attempt by Ang Lee and his crew. But chances are you've already seen both the hero and the villain in the trailers by now, which I think is a wise strategy, since the movie doesn't have to waste time trying to embroil the viewer in the mysterious, long and drawn-out "reveal" process. We can just get to the part where the Hulk lays down some beatdown, then throws down some smackdown. The lowdown? Hulk SMAAAAASHHH!
10/10. Better than Iron Man, but only by a smidge. Forget the first movie entirely (besides, they basically take you through a crash refresher course on the entire plot of that giant turd in the opening credits, refilming scenes which had Bana in them and of course leaving out any remnant of the Nick Nolte celluloid-counterpart-to-his-mugshot / giant-lightning-monster).
Could you imagine Downey Jr.'s Iron Man and Norton's Hulk sharing the same frame of film? Could you imagine?! I need a clean pair of shorts just from thinking about it over here!
