Lauren RabainoBruce Banner and his angry, giant, green alter ego are back after a five-year hiatus in the reincarnation of a Marvel comic book legend, “The Incredible Hulk.”
Banner, the quiet and reserved former Department of Defense scientist who suffered from severe gamma poisoning after a failed experiment is played brilliantly by Edward Norton.
The Hulk franchise was in desperate need of a remodeling after the 2003 Eric Bana-acted, Ang Lee-directed action flick was deemed an enormous flop.
Where Asian action legend Lee failed, relatively unknown director Louis Leterrier seems to have succeeded. While Lee’s film plodded along and did not even introduce the Hulk until a third of the way into the film, Leterrier’s audience sees him early in the film.
Leterrier film brings a faster pace, beginning after Banner’s gamma poisoning incident, only touching on it briefly in a montage during the opening credits.
The film follows Banner as he tries to elude capture by the United States military who want to experiment on him to determine how they can use his condition for their interests. Banner meanwhile is trying to discover a cure for the condition so he can return to a normal life.
“The Incredible Hulk” costars Liv Tyler as Banner’s love interest, Betty Ross and Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, the Hulk’s nemesis, known as the abomination.
Roth plays the role of Blonsky as an action junkie who craves the challenge of fighting against Banner to a tee.
The Hulk franchise is the second to reinvent itself on film in recent years following rival DC comic icon Batman. Christian Bale reprised the role of Bruce Wayne in the 2005 film “Batman Begins,” and will continue the new franchise with “The Dark Knight” in July. He will be opposed by Heath Ledger, in his final role, as the Joker. “The Dark Knight” is widely expected to be the top-grossing movie of the summer season.
This year has been dominated by comic book films, starting with “Iron Man,” which has grossed an estimated $556 million to date. The Incredible Hulk has grossed more than $166 million worldwide in less than two weeks of release.
Will Smith’s “Hancock” will be released July 2 in a film that has a very comic feel to it. Smith plays the title character, a troubled superhero who is the only one of his kind.
All of these films are chasing the standard set by “Spiderman” in 2002. Tobey Maguire starred as Peter Parker in the film that owns all major comic book grossing records. “Spider-Man” took in over $821 million worldwide. An upcoming project planned for the future may put those marks in jeopardy.
A mega collaboration has been tentatively planned for 2011 with the superhero group known as The Avengers. Zak Penn, who wrote “The Incredible Hulk” screenplay as well as two of the “X-Men” series has been tabbed to write the screenplay which is tentatively scheduled to include Edward Norton as the Hulk, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.