MCU Filmathon: The Incredible Hulk

Not long after the release of Iron Man came the return of the Incredible Hulk also in 2008. After an experiment goes horribly wrong Bruce Bana is left with a monstrous side to him, whenever he gets excited he turns into the Hulk, you know the drill. Similar to the comics this film is about destruction as Bruce is on the run from the man who wants to exploit his ability and use it for the purposes of war!

After watching the film for the first time in years it is easier to see how the role of Bruce Bana is portrayed by Edward Norton, as he is now played by Mark Ruffalo. Edward gave a similar vibe that Mark does and that is we immediately know that his Bruce is scared of his ability but finds it difficult to control and suffers the consequences when it happens. We have become accustomed to Mark as The Hulk we forgot who started in the role. Edward delivers a decent performance as Bruce, nothing less than what was expected but nothing more, which seems to be a theme in the movie where it was all just what was expected and hardly anything stood out. The great moment came in the form of a stand-off between Abomination and The Hulk, a great fight scene yet it kind of has to be when you have two of Marvel's most powerful characters fighting it out!

Liv Tyler as Dr Betty Ross comes across as the typical damsel in distress and barely stretched the

ability of Liv Tyler to play the part, but helps show how much the MCU has developed. It still have these roles but mostly they try to incorporate strong female characters like in the form of Black Widow and Scarlett Witch who have quickly rose above the power of many other heroes in the MCU. Also with Betty calming Bruce when he's in Hulk form was nice as it reminds the audience and Bruce that he is still human. But now that Bruce has replaced Betty with Black Widow we can see how it has developed over time now that Bruce is letting someone else help him in place of Betty!

Louis Letterier did make something right about this film, and that is the likeness to the comic books. Creating characters that are visually recognisable from the comics in a very similar World, much like the Spider Man movies. With Samuel Sterns (a.k.a The Leader), General Ross had some elements that are quite recognisable and as I have mentioned the way Betty calms to The Hulk down and not to

forget the form Abomination takes is very unique but has similar qualities to the Marvel comic ones. Out of all the comics I have read some of The Hulk ones and didn't expect to be making so many likenesses to the film when I watched it again!

A big gripe I have and I'm sure a lot of people have the same opinion is the Hulk's CGI-ness takes away the realism of it. The digital effects are good but sometimes too obvious that it made me shake my head in disbelief. I wanted to believe The Hulk was there but the way he was generated took that away from me. This is an issue I have with other MCU films but I will touch on that when I get to it!

So The Incredible Hulk is out of way, in some ways I'm glad but it was nice to watch the film again. Going back to the beginning means a lot of "Yeah that's no surprise anymore, it already happened!", when you see the end credit scene, but nostalgic in the way it all fits together and you can see the development of the characters. 'The Incredible Hulk' isn't the greatest MCU movie but it's still a part of the Universe and needed to be recognised and I am glad I did watch this one again!

Thank you for reading! :)