Universal PicturesReview in a Hurry: Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is on the run from the government just because he occasionally turns into a giant, green, insane monster. His ex-girlfriend Betty (Liv Tyler) wants to find a cure, while her dad, Gen. Ross (William Hurt), just wants to find him. The movie's a lot like the Hulk himself: big, dumb and violent—but in a good way.
The Bigger Picture: Comic geeks will love this do over of Ang Lee's critically panned 2003 effort, Hulk, which had way too many daddy issues and not enough smashing.
Action-flick director Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2) goes back to the template that worked for the '70s TV show, which featured the good Dr. Banner in hiding, trying to contain the raging fury within him.
Of course, the fun parts are when Banner loses it, and the movie is basically just downtime between the moments when somebody pisses him off and when the CGI takes over. The Hulk's main irritant is Emil Blonsky (a woefully miscast Tim Roth), a soldier who wants to be just as big and tough and green as his target. It's not spoiling anything to tell you he succeeds.
The Hulk turns out to be, if not exactly a hero, then the lesser of two evils. A smackdown of epic proportions ensues in New York City. Hulk smash? Let's put it like this: He uses police cars as boxing gloves. Yeah. Hulk smash.
The 180—a Second Opinion: For a movie about primal human emotions, this thing seems strangely empty of feeling. The plot hustles along, but if stuff wasn't exploding, nobody would care what happened to these characters.