Good afternoon, everyone. Here is my next post in my series covering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This one will focus on “The Incredible Hulk”, which was released a month after “Iron Man” (June 13, 2008, to be exact). This movie was directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/Abomination. Let’s get into detail on how the movie went down.
After the Universal and Marvel Studios logos pop up, we see a montage of Bruce Banner undergoing the Gamma Radiation that turns him into the Incredible Hulk. He ends up hurting both Betty and General Ross and eventually leaving for Brazil. That is where we see him 5 months after the incident in Virginia at Culver University. In Brazil, he watches some old TV, including Sesame Street and the old Hulk show from the 1970s while figuring out a way to cure himself from being the Hulk. We also see him do some meditation with an instructor who slaps him a couple of times. We then see Bruce at a bottling facility that he works at. During a talk with his boss, he gets a minor cut and the blood goes down a few levels. His blood gets into one of the bottles of green juice, which would eventually cause someone to get sick from gamma radiation (a Stan Lee cameo, in fact). Bruce gets into a confrontation with someone, but he escapes without becoming the Hulk. We then see him messaging someone named Mr. Blue on a computer and putting together an experiment. This experiment fails as everything turns green while he looks into a microscope. He then ships some of his blood to Mr. Blue as Mr. Green. Meanwhile, in the Everglades in Florida, we see General Ross with his soldiers and some helicopters. We also see Emil Blonsky in this scene as they go and search for Banner. They eventually found where he was but he is nowhere to be seen (they rudely shoot the dog in the process). Bruce is found outside and he does his best to run away from the soldiers. The chase goes on for a few minutes before Bruce stops due to his heart rate increasing. After a short break, he starts running again (all the while avoiding to Hulk out). He hides in the locker room of his work while being targeted not just by the soldiers, but by some enemies of his from Brazil. He then gets surrounded by the Brazilian guys and then Hulks out when his heart rate hits 200 beats per minute. He gets rid of two of the guys and a couple of the soldiers. The soldiers shoot at him with a whole bunch of bullets, but to no avail. A keg of juice then goes towards the soldiers and hits another keg. The Hulk then throws some heavy stuff (including a forklift) at the soldiers and roars away into the night. After that ordeal, we see Ross and Blonsky talk at Bruce’s hiding place about the Hulk. Following the conversation, they head back home to America.
We see Bruce in a rainforest in Guatemala. He runs into a soldier in a car who helps him get to somewhere safe. He is able to find clothes that fit him well in Mexico and eventually makes his way to America. Meanwhile, we see Ross and Blonsky talk again about Banner turning into the Hulk. After this talk, Blonsky agrees to an experiment. We then see Bruce go into the same university where he turned into the Hulk in the first place. While there, he finds Betty Ross before she walks away with another guy. Later, he goes into a pizza parlor and talks with the guy who works there. He disguises himself as a pizza delivery guy to get into the science building to find out some stuff through a computer. Somehow, his searches result in no matches. We then see Betty and her boyfriend at the pizza place. Betty recognizes Bruce, but he hides behind a dumpster out of fear of being rejected. Bruce then walks in the rain before a car stops behind him. Bruce and Betty then reunite outside and hug each other. She drives him to her home to keep him safe and dry. Bruce then tells Betty that he can’t stay at her place before resting up for the next day. Meanwhile, we see Blonsky get ready for the experiment. After the experiment, the movie cuts to Betty and Bruce walking near the university. Bruce is then found by the military and he warns Betty to stay far away. Bruce is surrounded by soldiers, but he gets away from them for a moment. He hides in yeh library while soldiers are still searching for him. Betty tries to tell her dad to stop but is not successful. Bruce has no choice but to Hulk out when smoke bombs are shot near him (and when he sees Betty get tackled by a soldier). The Hulk then roars and survives a whole bunch of bullets (and flips a vehicle over). He then damages a few more vehicles before Blonsky shoots at him. Some big sonar cannons pop up from the bushes and the soldiers shoot them at him. He survives them and then destroys the vehicles carrying them. Blonsky is then severely injured after the Hulk kicks him. He then covers Betty from the gunfire and explosions that result from a helicopter. The Hulk then turns back to Bruce (eventually) after roaring into the sky and being calmed down by Betty. We get to see a little calm moment with the two together before we cut to General Ross and Blonksy at the hospital.
Bruce and Betty both get to a motel to relax for a bit. Bruce somehow has a moment of anxiety from a showerhead in the motel room. Betty then gives him a few things, including purple pants (which is a little Easter Egg for comic book lovers). We see Bruce and Betty make love to each other before Bruce quickly backs out of it due to his heart rate going up to nearly 200. Meanwhile, we see Blonsky all healed up due to the experiment even though he was pretty much disfigured from the Hulk hitting him. Bruce then warns Betty to not use anything that could track their whereabouts, including phones and credit cards. Bruce then sends an email with the data to Mr. Blue (who is revealed to be Samuel Sterns). Betty and Bruce then drive to New York to meet Dr. Sterns. During this drive, they get out of their car due to a traffic jam and get to New York via boat. After they get to New York City, they survive a crazy taxi ride that almost gets Bruce angry. The failed taxi ride causes them to walk to their destination. They finally meet Dr. Sterns and he tells them that he made an antidote for Bruce’s condition. We then cut to Blonsky looking at a mirror and slowly transforming into Abomination before he gets into the helicopter. The experiment on Bruce by Sterns turns him into the Hulk and they quickly get the antidote to his body. As a result, he turns back to Bruce. Later, we see that the military found out where they were at. The soldiers, including Blonsky, make the trek up to find them. Bruce is then shot by the soldiers and knocked out by Blonsky. Sterns then has a gun pointed at him and lifted into the air by Blonsky before doing an experiment on him, which ended up turning him into Abomination.
Abomination then goes on a rampage around the city, which causes the helicopter containing Bruce and Betty to turn around towards the city. Police shoot at Abomination to no success at all. More cars are destroyed as people run for their lives. Abomination says “Give me a real fight” before slamming a taxi onto another vehicle. Bruce then goes down to the ground to fight Abomination as Hulk after kissing Betty. Bruce falls all the way down before turning to Hulk. He then roars for Abomination’s attention before they fight. What follows is a fight that is full of chaos and more damage to the city. A helicopter containing General and Betty Ross gets involved, but are nearly killed by Abomination. Thanks to the Hulk’s efforts, the people in the helicopter survive. Hulk is put into a chokehold and gets stabbed in the chest before he gets out of it and putting out the fire by clapping his hands. Hulk then struggles for a few minutes before getting the best of Abomination. He is stopped by Betty before getting the chance to choke Abomination to death. After a big loud roar, he gets to have a peaceful moment with Betty before he leaves the city and the country. The last we see of Banner is him writing a letter to Betty in British Columbia and meditating. We then see General Ross “reload” on drinks at a bar before Tony Stark appears to talk to him about the “Avengers Initiative” before the credits roll.
“The Incredible Hulk” is a "meh" movie. Not great, but not awful either. Edward Norton played Bruce well in his only time playing the character (he would later be replaced by Mark Ruffalo). Liv Tyler played decently as Betty Ross. William Hurt played well as General Ross in this movie. Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson were okay in their roles as well. The CGI on Abomination looked weird to me. Hulk was a bit better, but still not the best 15 years later. I didn’t really feel a lot of emotion in this movie at all, other than the moments with Hulk/Bruce and Betty. The dialogue in this film was science-heavy and mostly serious. The fight scenes were chaotic and explosion-heavy, but not very memorable for me.
Honestly, it is a mostly boring movie. I didn’t hate it at all. I just found it to not be interesting enough to warrant a rewatch. If you’re curious about this movie, then go for it on Blu-Ray or on Disney+. Otherwise, it’s ok to skip this one. Next up in this series of MCU posts is “Iron Man 2”. I’ll be getting that one out soon. In the meantime, have a good day and stay safe out there.
(There is no video from How it Should Have Ended on this movie, but I found a LEGO recap on YouTube by a user named Edbound. Here it is.)
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