Superhero Media: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

My memory isn't perfect, but I'm pretty sure I had no idea that The Incredible Hulk was part of the same continuity as Iron Man when I saw it until Tony Stark walked in to admonish General Ross. I could be wrong about that, as I was studying Film and Television at the time and kept up pretty well with film press, but I did dedicate less of my mental energy to superheroes and more to student politics, so there you go. The Incredible Hulk tends to be forgotten in any discussion of the MCU, as William Hurt's General Ross is the only character to return thus far, but really nothing in the film contradicts any later film to any real degree, even Bruce Banner and how the Hulk actually functions. As I've mentioned before, I'd really like to see Abomination and The Leader make a significant return at some point, but I doubt too many people have felt that the lack of Betty Ross and Doc Sampson have really been such a drag on the series. Seemingly wanting to differentiate itself as much as possible from the previous Hulk, The Incredible Hulk is more action-focused, and even used the fact that the last 30 minutes of the film is almost entirely a big monster fight as part of its marketing campaign. 

The focus on action does detract a little from the rest of the story, with Hulk's origin being glossed-over in the credits and explained in exposition later, and a lot of visual shorthand taken from The Incredible Hulk television programme. Bruce Banner is on the run in Brazil when an accident involving his blood leads Ross to his door and the chase back to America begins. The scenes shot in Brazil are brilliant, especially the foot chase across favelas, and demonstrate why you should think about setting your superhero games somewhere other than the USA every now and again. As well as General Ross, Bruce and Hulk have to content with Emil Blonski, re-imagined here as a British Commando coming to the end of his career but still keen on getting into the fight. I love Tim Roth as Blonski/Abomination, especially before his transformation, he is brilliantly sinister and the scene where he is hopped-up on super soldier serum and goes toe-to-toe with Jade Jaws is one of the best superhero fights ever put to cinema and also how I imagine my Equalisers character, Wildcat, would look and move. 

The big fight at the end of The Incredible Hulk, between Hulk and Abomination is actually a pretty decent watch for a CGI slugfest, with the battle moving around Brooklyn and taking place on different terrain. Also, the battle starts with Banner taking a dive from a helicopter to transform, in a great nod to The Ultimates, and providing a good gag years later in Thor Ragnarok. Ross and Tony Stark trading barbs in the bar at the end is done brilliantly, especially because it was apparently one take and mostly improvised by Hurt and RDJ. I think a lot of MCU fans kind of wrote The Incredible Hulk off after the recasting of Banner for The Avengers, but when Hurt returned as Ross in Captain America Civil War, that kind of opened things up again. As mentioned above, I'd love a return of Blonski and maybe The Leader, not so much a fan of any ideas about Red Hulk though. If you haven't revisited The Incredible Hulk for a while, or just skipped it in your run through the MCU, it is worth the watch, through probably isn't strictly as good a film as Hulk, if you're more into quality than continuity.