The Incredible Hulk

by jgr80

The Hulk, in terms of a superhero character, is, by all means, incredible. As a character.

The current manifestations of the Hulk on the big screens, however, are anything but. These movies are clear examples of why screen adapters should not stray from the comic book storylines with this character. Other comic book movies generally keeping the plot of their comic books.

The Hulk's generally accepted powers include: a) Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability; b) a Regenerative healing factor; and c) genius level intellect (in certain incarnations).

One of his powers has never extreme temporary gigantism or extreme acrobatic ability. The special effects in the movies make the character silly.

Exhibit A:

The new Edward Norton movie trailer:


Exhibit B:

The 2003 Eric Bana movie trailer:



The charm of the older character to the imaginations in us all was that it was somewhat believable that some unknown scientific experiment could create a Hulk.

Note that a clear sign of a growing shit-factor in these movies is that Marvel is making two completely different movies based on the same character within 5 years of one another. The first one couldn't have been farther off the mark. The new one doesn't go far enough from the first one.

Exhibit C:


The land of cartoons has no rules. They don't agree with gravity. They don't agree with physics. And even without such rules, there were not ludicrous growth spurts or mile long jumps with the original character. The Hulk is not supposed to be 30 feet tall. He's not supposed to be able to jump across counties.

The new incarnations just don't have the same charm, nor nearly as catchy a theme song.