Filed under: Home Video News

Blu-ray Review: The Incredible Hulk

Better than 'Iron Man' and one of the best comic book films ever

I just love this movie. It's big. It's loud. It's a spectacle. It's exactly what it was supposed to be. The Incredible Hulk lives in a world comfortably adjacent to ours, and while it occasionally forgets there are rules and norms that are expected in a human populated society it doesn't matter because this is one of the rare big budget blockbusters that is oh-so-big, yet manages to stay within itself. Thanks to a continuous narrative The Incredible Hulk surpasses Iron Man and is easily the second best comic book film of the year behind The Dark Knight and I would say it is easily one of the best comic book films of all-time.

For the Blu-ray release I knew I had to choose my time to watch it wisely. I still live in an apartment complex and taking into consideration the DTS-HD soundtrack Universal regularly utilizes and the fact that this is one of the loudest movies I had ever watched in a movie theater I knew it would be best to watch it in the middle of the day when folks with normal jobs were at the office, while my office remains my comfortable abode. I chose wisely. The audio on this release surpassed my expectations and being a good neighbor I still found myself turning it down. Visually, the HD transfer matches up and delivers a fantastic looking picture.

Beyond the film, folks looking for special features won't have to look far as this one comes with a full complement of making-of goodies, over 40 minutes of deleted scenes, a fantastic commentary track with director Louis Letterier and star Tim Roth (wish Ed Norton had joined them) and an alternate opening, which was rightly axed, but does hold a hidden goody, which I already detailed here.

Universal's signature U-Control Blu-ray exclusive feature offers up pop-up behind-the-scenes peeks while the film is playing, a very cool comic book comparison feature that pops pictures from the "Hulk" comics that inspired certain scenes and a rather tedious "Thunderbolt Files" feature that I didn't really find much interest in since I felt I was missing out on other stuff while I fooled around with it. Perhaps the "Thunderbolt Files" would best be left to their own screening and not for someone trying to get their fill of features for a review.

Of all the features the commentary is definitely the most entertaining and Roth adds a lot to the story since he wasn't around for all the pre-production and several of the scenes. He asks a ton of good questions and both he and Louis are willing to laugh at a few things in the flick (Norton 360?) and Louis is always quick to point out little "Easter eggs" while the film plays on.

It goes without saying that I think you should buy this release. It is certainly one of the more entertaining films of the year, and one I will watch regularly, at least when I won't worry about waking the neighbors with a giant "Hulk Smash!"

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Post #1
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better than Iron Man? emmm, totally disagree there. Though it's better than the first, I was disappointed with this version too. The action is better, but on the whole the movie was just not memorable for me (enjoyed it less in the 2nd viewing). Even the effects, especially where Hulk fights the army in broad daylight, looked right out of a video game (didnt notice such flaws with Iron Man). Also Iron Man had a much more entertaining actor at the helm (getting defensive here).

I'm a huge comic book/Hulk fan, but unfortunatel didn't like either film.

For me, Iron Man was the best superhero movie after ark Knight…and at third I put Hellboy 2 :)

- adu
( October 21st, 2008 | 11:42 am )
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Post #2
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I would agree with you that it was better then iron man, people may have like iron man for because of what it was, but if you break down the increadible hulk into what makes a movie good and worth watching it beats iron man on most fronts. Better action(iron man didnt have much and the ending fight in iron man i thought was lessoned because his suit did not have full power) Slightly better story, and the way they got right into it was good, hoe they showed you what happened in flash's at the very start instead of accually putting it all in the movie. Overall I'd say the hulk was better then iron man, but im not sure which one I will end up "enjoying" more in the long run.

- JD92
( October 21st, 2008 | 11:55 am )
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Sorry there Brad, but this is one thing I'm going to have to disagree with you on. As this movie is alright , it does not surpass Iron Man in the least bit. Hulk doesnt even end up killing the bad guy , he just lets him lay there passed out. The cast from the Hulk compared to Iron Man : I would say Robert Downy Jr. Does an excellent job being a rich man . Even thought Edward Norton is one of my all time favourite actors , he just doesnt look like he fits the part. As for the Dark Knight , it was good to see once , seeing it again just bores me becasue of how damn long it is and you know wuts going to happen… The Joker doesnt even die at the end so i mean what point was all that to just leaving him there hanging on a wire? Will i get The Hulk movie …. probably for christmas as well as the dark knight and Wanted i cant friggin wait for that movie to come out!!!! :)

- ranman14
( October 21st, 2008 | 4:01 pm )
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I will never get the slurping Iron Man has received since its release. Its good. I liked it. But it isn't even close to being one of the truly great comic book movies as way too many people claim it to be. Downey rules and so does most of the cast. He and Gwenyth had better chemistry than Norton/Tyler. But the movie DIES A SLOW, TERRIBLE DEATH after he leaves Afghanistan the second time. The structure of the movie is flawed, built to bore because it's obvious to everyone early on Bridges is the bad guy. If they maybe showed him being more of a cockface behind the scenes and built up some hate in the audience it would have been more satisfying.

The fight at the end is B-O-R-I-N-G because the sense of rivalry was never successfully established. You don't feel like much is on the line so you don't care. It's the complete opposite with Incredible Hulk. The rivalry in Hulk is built and built and built until it explodes in the end. The entire third act of Iron Man is just so uninspired (and illogical in terms of the rules it set up for itself) it's shocking, especially considering how strong the middle part of the movie is.

I actually agree with Brad here. Incredible Hulk is a much more successful and entertaining movie. Iron Man has a great Downey performance, but Hulk is way more satisfying. I think Iron Man just gets more love because it's new. There's never been an Iron Man movie so it seems fresh. That's my only guess

- andre
( October 22nd, 2008 | 1:07 am )
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