Not Worth the Wait

So, last night I finally got around to watching the Ed Norton re-boot of the Hulk, and, umm, yeah.

What a shitty movie. I appreciate that Marvel wanted to tie the franchise in to their burgeoning universe a little tighter, but that didn't really justify it.

Here's what I liked about it:

Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Samuels / The (future) Leader. But I like Tim Blake Nelson in almost anything.


Yeah, that's the whole list.

Norton wasn't as good as Eric Bana, and Bana was pretty wooden in Ang Lee's version -- but at least you got a sense of some anger bubbling below the surface. At no time did Norton seem like a guy with anger issues.

William Hurt was a terrible General Ross, and vastly inferior to Sam Elliot. Granted, the script made him a two-dimensional idiot, but Hurt brought nothing to the role. At least with Elliot's performance you got a sense of his conflict between duty and his love for his daughter. Here, the only conflict was between Hurt and the dialogue he was being asked to mouth. And Hurt lost.

Liv Tyler was her usual empty dress as Betty.

Tim Roth wasn't terrible as Blonsky, but he didn't have much to do.

The effects were meh.

Downey's obligatory post-credit cameo at the end was pointless.

The faux-Cloverfield sequence after Blonsky becomes the Abomination was painful to watch.

Oh, and hey, let's not forget the end of the climactic battle, where the Hulk knocks the Abomination out, then jumps away and leaves Betty and all the puny humans just standing around in case the Abomination (and his already-established accelerated healing rate) wakes up and crushes them. Brilliant!

Basically, the only aspect of it that was better than Ang Lee's version was that it ended in an actual fight instead of a metaphysical battle of wills that wasn't really appropriate for a Hulk movie.

Now that I've seen it, I've got no objection to Norton, or even the Hulk as a character, being tossed out of the Avengers movie. The Hulk's a loner anyway.