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Incredible Hulk, The
Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios


8.0

based on 38 reviews
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based on 161 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content

Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and William Hurt

The Incredible Hulk kicks off an all-new, explosive and action-packed epic of one of the most popular Super Heroes of all time. In the film, scientist Bruce Banner desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: The Hulk. Living in the shadows—cut off form a life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross—Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and brutally exploit his power. As all three grapple with the secrets that led to The Hulk’s creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as the Abomination, whose destructive strength exceeds even The Hulk’s own. (Universal Studios)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Fantasy \| Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Stan Lee (Marvel comic book) Jack Kirby (Marvel comic book) Zak Penn
DIRECTED BY:	Louis Leterrier
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: June 13, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

"Iron Man" has more wit and style, but Hulk is a neat thrill ride with an intelligent script by Zak Penn and smart, well-paced direction by the French director of "The Transporter" series, Louis Leterrier.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Five years after Ang Lee attempted a stylistically and narratively daring reimagining of what a comic-book movie could be (an example that tanked disastrously at the box office), the big green gamma-guy returns to the screen in a purer, more unadulterated, vastly more entertaining form.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Embraces its identity as a sci-fi-summer-action-blockbuster extravaganza. Along the way, it actually comes close to finding the balance that Lee was looking for.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Incredible Hulk is a more traditional superhero movie than its predecessor and should please those who want their not-so-jolly green giant served with helpings of action. This film provides less talk and more smashing.

Premiere Eric Kohn

By handing the directorial reigns to Louis Leterrier, the Parisian filmmaker responsible for the breathless "Transporter" films, Universal reveals its desire to emphasize spectacle over story.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Edward Norton's a more evocative actor than Eric Bana, and he supplies all the emotions required by Leterrier and writer Zak Penn.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Until the last 20 minutes, which stumble around in an attempt to set up a sequel, The Incredible Hulk keeps slamming everything forward, satisfyingly.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The dialogue is minimal but sharp, the pace swift and the action sequences suitably loud and brutal.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Luckily, the new The Incredible Hulk is more like those 80-page special issues that comic-book publishers sold in the early 1960s for a quarter, packed with old, favorite story lines.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Loses something when it depends on its computer-generated creatures to carry the story. The effects are a mile above the previous Hulk film, but there's still a certain awkwardness to some movements, and an odd lack of definition to the massive muscles that makes them seem like gelatinous sacks of meat.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Incredible Hulk is weightless--as disposable as an Xbox game. It's also fairly entertaining: swift, playful without pitching into camp, and acted with high spirits.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

There's enough adrenaline pulsating throughout this bang-up Marvel Comics adaptation to erase 2003's Hulk from memory (Ang who?).

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The result is a classic comic-book hero quest that, while not entirely novel, hews to its own rules and conventions with dignity and artfulness.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A straightforward actioner that delivers the goods with no unnecessary frills or digressions.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Incredible Hulk is just a luridly reductive and violent B movie -- one that clears a bar that hadn't been set very high.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It may be that the Hulk role was not made for sensitive method actors like Norton or Bana. When '70s TV-"Hulk" Lou Ferrigno made his obligatory cameo, a palpable wave of affection swept through the Seattle preview audience.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

The Hulk himself looks more steroidal than superheroic, as if the expressive beast from the first film had been replaced by a WWE star.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

There's a certain pleasure to be had in some of the physical blowouts.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

By the time the Incredible Hulk had completed his hulk-on-hulk showdown with the Incredible Blonsky, I had been using my Timex with the illuminated dial way too often.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Closer in spirit and tone to the comic books that spawned it.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Like its monstrous hero, The Incredible Hulk gets the job done with minimal artistry and a lot of noise.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The final confrontation between the Hulk and Blonsky, now the roaring Abomination, is like the clash of Downey and Bridges in "Iron Man," only not as exciting.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Don't run off before the credits start to roll, though: The Incredible Hulk ends with a jokey cameo by a certain movie star with his own newfound superhero franchise.

USA Today Claudia Puig

This Hulk is more viscerally angry and packs a bigger wallop than Ang Lee's talkier, more introspective version. But it's hardly the best superhero movie around. "Iron Man" was wittier and more fun.

Empire Simon Crook

A franchise rebooted with efficiency, energy and sporadic invention, although Hulk 2.0 hardly smashes it out of the park.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Cheers to lower expectations, then, because The Incredible Hulk is The Pretty Good Hulk. All things considered, of course.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The result is solid and efficient, if unadventurous, illustrating both the lure and the limitations of comic book extravaganzas.

The New Yorker David Denby

It's nothing we haven't seen done better before (by Paul Greengrass in the recent "Bourne Ultimatum," for instance), but it's good enough as kinetic entertainment.

Film Threat Zack Haddad

In the end, don't go see this if you are looking for an intellectual film. If you're into seeing some fun, mindless action in a faithful Marvel comic adaptation for a couple hours, then go see the Hulk smash some stuff.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Do we really need another Hulk movie? I was one of the few critics who actually liked Ang Lee's 2003 "Hulk," but it didn't exactly ring the cash registers or clamor for a continuation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Playing characters familiar to the fans, we have William Hurt as a blustering general, Tim Blake Nelson as a kooky scientist and Tim Roth as an evil soldier who morphs into a monster. All of them seem to be directing themselves.

Slate Dana Stevens

Why remake a crappy movie five years later if it's only going to be marginally less crappy?

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A middling superhero movie! I wish I could say that was incredible.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Once again, though, the film is defined by the strengths and weaknesses of the source material. While Bruce is working on anger management, you may find yourself working on boredom management, and matching his rate of success.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The Incredible Hulk suggests only that we've bottomed out on special effects: They're not necessarily getting better -- they're just getting bigger. Technically, Leterrier's Hulk is as realistic-looking as a rampaging green giant could be. But that doesn't make him credible.

Time Richard Schickel

One has to admit that enormous moviemaking skill goes into the creation of pictures like The Incredible Hulk. The sheer craft directors such as Leterrier lavish on them is awesome to me. I can't imagine how they orchestrate -- or even remember -- all the little pieces of film they require to build their big set pieces. That thought, however, is nearly always followed by this question: Why do they bother?

Newsweek David Ansen

For me, there's a problem with The Hulk, always has been, though it hasn't seemed to bother the tale's legions of fans. When the sensitive, physically unprepossessing Banner/Norton turns into the gargantuan, muscle-bound, growling Hulk, there's a total disconnect.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Roth and Hurt glower semi-engagingly, and while Norton's scrawniness works, he seems intellectually disengaged, despite his helping to craft Zak Penn's script.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 161 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Clark W gave it a9:
Every bit as good as Iron Man. Considering how bad the first movie was, I went in with zero expectations. I didn't have to worry though, it was fantastic. Edward Norton does for the Hulk what Robert Downey Jr. did for Iron Man, he is just spectacular. The supporting cast, led by Liv Tyler and Tim Roth, make the movie a classic. Don't be scared away by the first movie, this is one of the best superhero movies ever.

Jon B gave it a6:
The movie would have been much better had the previews not shown every important part of the movie.

Samuel J gave it a7:
It was OK. It has a typical story, average acting, and had enough action to keep me awake. It isn't the greatest movie ever but it doesn't suck. I would recommend it, but don't get too excited. And I am amazed that the CGI is worse than the previous hulk movie, which came out 5 years ago.

Will C gave it an8:
Great to see this back to the Stan Lee story line. I liked Eric Bana as Bruce Banner but the whole "Hulk" father / son thing was like HUH??! This movie did deliver good plot and story but with "Iron Man" it had a bar to beat that even the green machine could not leap over. If it had released prior to "Iron Man" it would of faired greater returns than it did. Still good a good flick.

kurt c. gave it a9:
Very good storyline with lots of action.I just wish Hulk will say "Hulk smash!" some more.

hamburglar gave it a10:
Great movie. Loved the way hulk looks. Nice connection to the leader and i like the fact that hulk actually gets to fight an actual villain. Great Connection to Iron Man too.

Suits You gave it an8:
It's getting there. If some one could take the best bits of the first and second film then mash them together... perfect. I like ed norton as Banner, but the thing I think HULK makers need to be concerned about is not what we want (effects driven action film) but something emotionally powerful where we really, really feel Banner's pain so that when it does cut to CGI, we carry that feeling through. At the moment there's still too much disconnection between actor and CGI.

Incredible Hulk, The Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios

Incredible Hulk, The
Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios