Posted by Leah Singerman
Avengers week continues and we’re back with The Incredible Hulk, one of the first in the series. We get that the beginning of anything can be pretty rough (hey, Jurassic Park didn’t even make it to a beginning, am I right?), but Hulky really screwed up, because this movie isn’t like the beginning of anything. The Incredible Hulk has sequel written all over it, and here’s why.
The title sequence of this movie is great. We see the whole backstory, which is a really cool idea. You also get your Avengers Easter eggs (holla to my boys Tony Stark and Nick Fury). The whole thing is great for somebody who already knows Hulk’s history, because it gives us some throwbacks and sets the stage for something new to happen. But your average Joe moviegoer doesn’t necessarily know the Hulk backstory. The opening sequence gets the message across, but it really does skip a whole lot of great drama. And this is an issue for a few reasons.
First of all, Hulk has an awesome story. Everyone has a beginning, and since this movie is supposed to be a standalone, it should tell us more about the Hulk’s. Yeah, the whole military tries to make a superperson and scientist tries it out on himself and everything goes wrong storyline is nothing new (Cap and Green Goblin come to mind). But that’s because it’s a cool, engaging story. It shouldn’t be ignored.
And because they skipped the story, I hate to sound harsh here, but we just don’t care. If we were going to be sympathetic to somebody, that somebody would totally be Edward Norton, but it’s hard to care about him because we don’t know where he came from and why any of this is important. If we legit start at the beginning of this movie, all we know about him is that he misses some girl and that he’s trying to control his anger. That’s not too riveting.
Plus, it ruins things for when he gets back with Betty again. His moments with her are probably what make us care about his character the most, but still, the relationship could have been way better if we knew more about their history. And for goodness sakes, why in the heck was she with Phil from Modern Family? How did that happen, and while I’m getting super riled up, how is it that she totally just leaves him for Bruce again without saying a single thing? Anyway, the point is that we miss out on so much depth because we don’t get to see what makes Bruce and Betty so good together in the first place.
And the final reason why this movie is a sequel is because of the way they deal with the Hulk as an actual problem. This movie is about a Bruce who knows exactly what he’s dealing with, and all he has to do is decide how he’s going to react. Which is fine, but again, the audience would probably be way more interested in where his issue came from and how he discovers it. This would also make us believe more in the fact that he had to leave Betty, because in this movie neither of them hesitated to get back together, when we assume he was running away to keep her safe. Gaaaahhhh.
Okay, we sort of just hardcore hated on The Incredible Hulk, and we feel kind of bad. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great story and an entertaining movie. It’s just that it really could have used a Part One (and Hulk (2003) doesn’t count). Regardless, it does its job setting up Bruce for his role in the Avengers, and of course we love the scene with RDJ at the end. Have we mentioned lately how freakin’ genius Marvel is?
Do you agree that The Incredible Hulk was more of a sequel? Where do you see this character going after Avengers 2? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @DweebCast.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC, its affiliates, or its employees.
