The jekyll-hyde character of Marvel Comics has sprung from the page to
the screen in the most recent in an ever-growing line of superhero
movies.  Everyone by this point should know the main story - scientist
Bruce Banner transforms into a giant green monster when he's angered. 
He has almost no control over the change, and when he is the Hulk, he is
pure rage, smashing everything in sight.  Although I am a fan of Marvel,
I've never much liked the Hulk character, so I wasn't looking forward to
this film like I was X-Men or Spider-Man.  But Ang Lee and the writers
were able to add a lot of depth to what I thought of as a shallow
character.  There's a lot of back story in the film, dealing with
Banner's father (Nolte, named "David Banner" as a nod to the character
from the 70s/80s TV show) and things inside Bruce that allowed him to
become the Hulk - not just the gamma rays as it was in the comic.  I
thought this was good, and I enjoyed the beginning of the movie, even
though there was no green guy.  Another reason I wasn't as eagerly
anticipating this film as others was the Hulk himself.  In the ads and
trailers, the Hulk looked incredible, literally.  He was not very
detailed, and the CG stood embarrassingly out.  I've heard they refined
the special effects since the time the trailer was put together, and in
the movie, it shows.  He looks great.  He's still obvious CG (How could
a 15 foot tall green giant not be?), but he is animated well, and he
blends into his surroundings (except maybe in the "jumping" shots). 

So, he looked good, the story was good, and it kept me entertained, but
the movie did have some shortcomings.  The film was too long, as did
Nolte's part in it.  At the end, I really questioned the necessity of
having him "change".  He was too over the top, acting like the crazy guy
at the bus stop, and looking worse than his now infamous mugshot.  But
the other key players - Eric Bana as Bruce, the fetching Jenniffer
Connelly as his love interest Betty Ross, and Sam Elliot as her father,
the grizzled and angry general, were all engaging. 

As for Ang Lee, he did a good job given the material he had to deal
with.  He made the Hulk story credible.  And visually, he had many
different seques, which were creative and quick, keeping the audience's
interest during long scenes.  He also utilized a style recently made
popular by the TV drama, "24", by breaking the screen into different
pictures, similiar to panels on a comic book page.  However, in the long
run, this is all just superfluous.  It's the story that counts, and it
held its own for most of the movie, but just went downhill with the
pointless fight at the end. 
 

Did You Notice?: Cameos by "Hulk" creator, Stan Lee, and "The Incredible
Hulk" himself, Lou Ferrigno.
 
 
 

Quality: 5.5  Visuals: 7.0  Intensity: 6.0
OVERALL RATING: 6.2