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 from 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. To stop it, one scientist must make an agonizing final choice: accept a peaceful life as Bruce Banner or find heroism in the creature he holds inside--The Incredible Hulk.

I seem to be in a very small minority that actually enjoyed the 2003 release of the Hulk. Sure the movie was cheesy and a little over the top but it was still quite enjoyable. But after seeing there reimaging in the Incredible Hulk I can now kind of understand where all the venom came from the original movie as this one shows us how good the movie could have been. The Incredible Hulk is a vast improvement over the original Hulk and sadly it only took them five years to make it that much better. Where the original got bogged down in story and plot and a smoldering drama the new Hulk kicks you right into the action and never really lets go. Sure there is plenty of drama as well but it doesn't slow down the story as much as the original film did. The Incredible Hulk is just that Incredible.

I have commented on this before that the reason the sequels to most comic book movies are so much better in their second installment is because they don't have to bother so much with the origins of their characters and their plots. The story is already established, the plot is already set up and they can just throw you into the action which makes for a better movie overall. Now while the Incredible Hulk is pretty much starting over they don't really worry about that much about the origins and instead throw you right into the action. Later on they do go back and tell the origins a little bit but by not focusing so much on how Bruce Banner became the Hulk but rather in its aftermath the movie ends up being so much more enjoyable and solid.

The film harkens back a lot to the television series of the late 1970's as more of a run and chase kind of film and less like a plot of human tragedy like the original Hulk movie became. Gone is the unsatisfying story with Bruce Banners father and in its place is Bruce looking for a cure to his transformations. Add in all the cameos to make the fanboys happy (I saw many a cheer and chuckle when cameo's by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno showed up as bit parts) and you get the kind of movie that most people were expecting when they went to Hulk in 2003.

I still don't think they have entirely perfected what the Hulk himself should look like but they did a much more fantastic job with his imaging this time around. Instead of looking so cartoony and CGI based like he did five years ago this time around he looks much more real and frightening. I just wasn't a fan that much of the veining and musically look they gave him at times but still the Hulk was leaps and bounds better in terms of reality and feeling like a real creature.

I was a little leery of Edward Norton as Bruce Banner as I just didn't know if he was entirely right for the part and as I thought Eric Bana did a good job last time (what was wrong with the movie was not his fault). But he puts in a stellar performance and does an incredible job. He doesn't seem as realistic as a scientist as Bana did (that may because they didn't focus as much on that side of the story this time around) but he is tailor made for the action sequences. I wasn't really that much of a fan of Liv Tyler as Betty but she did have a lot of chemistry with Norton which makes up for a lot of things I didn't like her portrayal of the doomed girlfriend. I think most people will enjoy the Hulk this time around and for those who enjoyed the original like myself will find this version vastly improved as well.

Grade: A-