At a time when the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe was being laid, Robert Downey Jr had just made his first appearance as the fabulous Tony Stark and the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises respectively were going down the pan, Edward Norton and Universal Studios brought us “The Incredible Hulk”. 

 

Often seen as one of the weaker entries in the MCU, this film was created before the formula for the modern superhero film had been set and worked hard to wipe the existence of the questionable Eric Bana led film that had graced screens only a few years prior from the audience’s minds. There are many reasons as to why this film became wildly unpopular; studio disagreements, the later recasting of Edward Norton and the arcs set up in the film being left incomplete to name a few.

 

But, despite this, “The Incredible Hulk” is a fantastic piece of cinema and a truly underrated film. True, it is not a very good superhero film but is a fantastic monster movie. It focuses on Bruce Banner’s (Edward Norton) struggle as he is hunted by the government, trying to keep the Hulk reigned in, whilst trying to find a cure for the monster inside of him and the trauma that he must deal with on a daily basis. It really gives us an insight into the character in a way that we don’t often get in modern superhero movies. This story, mixed with a romance with ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), some fantastic action pieces with General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) and Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) and a science sideplot with Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) creates an awesome origin for an “incredible” character, without all of the cliches that often plague modern

origin stories.

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Edward Norton portrays the character of Bruce Banner with perfection, making him a likeable character with a Jekyll & Hyde struggle for the audience to sympathise with and the film does really well in setting up the Hulk as the villain for Avengers (2012) which was the original plan before Norton dropped out and it was changed to Loki, the Asgardian God of Mischief portrayed by the wonderful Tom Hiddleston who we all know and love. It is a shame that he didn’t return for Avengers (2012) but has a worthy successor in Mark Ruffalo, who has found much success in the role in recent years. This is a film that was prepared to sacrifice the formula being set by the superhero franchises that dominated the 2000s in hopes of becoming a film that could tell a different kind of story and was prepared to face rejection.

 

By no means is it the perfect film, far from it, but in my opinion “The Incredible Hulk” is one of the best films in the MCU because of how different it is and because it’s a breath of fresh air in a world filled with the constant content of the MCU, the infamous Snyder Cut and cookie cutter superhero films which fans flock to see every time a new one is released.