Reaction: The Incredible Hulk (spoilers!)

Bad timing got me a solo trip to the theatre this time. It's the number 2 film coming out of Marvel Studios' house (next to Iron Man a few weeks ago). The Incredible Hulk is a sequel despite what its presentation tells you. I call it a sequel because despite visual cues stating otherwise (the absence of the graphical style of the 2003's version, footage implying that the Hulk was the result of a planned experiment rather than an accident, and minor dialog implying that the army was behind the research), for the most part, nothing in this outing directly contradicts the previous film.

But what does this film do that the previous film did not?

For one thing, it's a much more straight forward action-adventure story. Plus where Superman Returns failed (the pervasive opinion being, "lots of super-flights, but not enough super-fights") The Hulk gets an opponent that has the ability to beat the snot out of him.

That would be Emil Blonksy... career soldier who goes through a series of experiments to turn himself into the ultimate fighting machine. Comics fans will recognize him as the man who will become "The Abomination." Except this time, the film producers begin mixing and matching story elements right from the get go.

Firstly, the discussion of the experiments mentions several significant key words: "Super Soldier," "WW2," and "serum." If these terms sound familiar... they should. They're the core ingredient to making a certain star-spangled sentinel of liberty... Captain America.

In fact, aside from that tie-in, the only major change in background for Blonksy was that he's no longer a KGB agent, but has been turned into an Army operative for this film. Not unlike changing the jungles of the Far East into the deserts of the Middle East in Iron Man.

Other tie-ins and possible clues involved: Sam Sterns who goes by "Mr.Blue" in this film is the name of the man who becomes "The Leader," a super-smart criminal genius in the Hulk comics. The beginnings of his grotesque head are shown briefly as Abomination leaves him in as a helpless crumpled heap.

SHIELD is back of course as this movie builds on the unified Marvel Universe established in Iron Man. Nick Fury's name appears on a file header during the opening montage. But one thing that bugged me was how SHIELD was portrayed... As the ultimate in secret services, I found it a little heavy-handed to show that General Ross was using their resources to track Banner. It made it seem like SHIELD was just another branch of the US Army at his disposal (it shouldn't ...the regular military should be at SHIELD's disposal).

The presence of Stark Industries technology, however, makes perfect sense since they're a civilian company mostly likely contracting out to the US military. And yes, that's indeed Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony.

Everybody catch the other cameos? The poor schmoe who sipped the contaminated bottle of soda was Stan Lee, of course. And Lou Ferigno reprises his role as the university campus security guard.

All told, it was a fun movie. Hulk does his thing well: the ground-pound, clapping to put out a fire, jumping great distances... And he looked good doing it. His skin texture was a huge improvement over the 2003 version. The only thing I disliked was that the Hulk seemed to display a finite amount of power, frequently getting beaten down before recovering. In the comics, the rule is, "madder Hulk gets, stronger Hulk gets!" This wasn't a problem in the 2003 version where he noticeably grew as the action progressed. In this film, he pretty much sticks to a 7-foot height throughout. I wouldn't call that a reason to dislike the movie tho. In the end, I had a good time, and that's all that matters!