Marvel has managed the near impossible… two competent movie adaptations from its comics empire in the same year. I’ve grown to expect them to produce one good movie out of every five but they seem to have broken the cycle.

How you may ask? Simple. Marvel Productions, the business aspect of Marvel that handles its film projects, has ceased licensing its properties and are now developing the films in house. I was skeptical when I first learned of this but after Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk there is no doubting the wisdom of such a decision. What this translates into is some major quality control for Marvel’s intellectual properties. Hitting home runs with these two movies, especially with a B-list character like Iron Man, proves that the superhero genre really can be properly executed where they have been badly bungled in the past.

The Incredible Hulk picks up with Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) hiding out in Brazil and working at a bottling plant while studying martial arts in an attempt to control his anger. He has limited contact with the outside world except for encrypted online chats with the mysterious Mr. Blue who is trying to help Bruce find a cure for his not-so-jolly green giant.

General “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt), who has continued hunting Banner for years, finds a clue and sends in a tactical team for retrieval. The ensuing chase ends when Banner hulks out and dismantles the team. The overzealous team leader (Tim Roth) volunteers himself for experimentation and eventually overdoses on the enhancement serum becoming the monstrous Abomination.

Faced with the choice of staying Bruce Banner or giving himself over to becoming the Hulk in an attempt to stop the out-of-control behemoth, he takes the only path he can, which leads to a clash of green-tinted titans.

This newer vision of Hulk is leaps and bounds ahead of Ang Lee’s version of the beast. Hulk is no longer grotesquely neon green but a more muted color that is inoffensive to view. The animators get a big, fat A+ for their treatment of his facial expressions. You could read Hulk’s thoughts just by his face which went through phases of fear, anger, exhaustion, exasperation, kindness and concern. Also, the fight sequences are smart and inventive and leave you wanting more after each encounter.

Norton was a bit flat but I credit that more to Banner’s suppression of his emotions to keep the monster inside at bay than to a lack of acting. Liv Tyler was great as Betty Ross and brought a warmth to the character that was painfully absent in the Jennifer Connelly take in the previous movie.

The film also balances the various aspects from the TV series with the comic books incredibly well. The lonely, withdrawn Bruce Banner is a good contrast to the impossibly huge, green wrecking machine he becomes when he cannot control his emotions.

While I think Iron Man is a slightly better film than The Incredible Hulk, the man in armor only got a couple of hoots and claps in the theater where the emerald-skinned giant was a smash ending with a loud applause as the credits rolled.

This is definitely a movie theater experience. Don’t miss it!

Verdict | Watch It