The Incredible Hulk ... Again

Everywhere from Marvel.com to MTV was abuzz with excitement this week when the new Incredible Hulk teaser trailer finally reared it's mighty green head. This new, non Ang Lee, non stay-puff green Hulk, boasts the acting chops of Edward Norton in the lead role as Dr. Bruce Banner and a supporting cast that includes William Hurt, Tim Roth and for Hulk's leading lady, the ready to cry Liv Tyler.

So far so good right?

Maybe. 90 percent of the trailer builds on the "wait for it" moment that we finally see the smash master himself. Up until them this movie has the same feel and look of the craptacular mess that was Ang Lee's 2003 version. Meaning it seems like it has the same pacing and sort of doldrums-like foreboding that eventually leads up to big money shot when we see the beast make his first ginormous, muscle ripped appearance. So he shows up and then what? Well for this first film of the new Hulk franchise, we get Abomination (a.k.a Emil Blonsky). Another gigantor beast that came out of a gamma ray dose gone worse then the Hulk. He's big and nasty of course we'll get treated to the monster showdown in Times Square.

We get a taste of that in the last 15 seconds of the trailer as Hulk and Abomination go running toward each other full speed kind of like Neo and Mr. Smith did in the Matrix series (twice) as have other characters in a slew of other films. Cut to the title and we have to wait until June to see where that smackdown ends.

The Hulk was part of that Marvel core that came out in that five year span in the 60s that spawned marvel icons like Spidey, X-men, and The Fantastic Four among others. In his 4-decade history we've seen him beat up Iron Man, be part of the Defenders and come close to leveling the whole planet. In between you get a variety of villains, a power hungry general hell bent on killing him, a separation of beast and man, and a couple of sidekick esque buds like Rick Jones. You see the problem here. While the characters of Bruce Banner and the Hulk offer up a lot of acting worthy emotional angst, how do you translate that into a full length comic-book movie?

For most of the viewing audience who don't know the mythology or even the 80s series with the late Bill Bixby, all they know is this is a big green dude who smashes stuff.
Sure it was exciting to see a better visualization of the Hulk looking more like his comic book counterpart than a pissed off Shrek with hair, but for now I'll reserve judgement on what the new Incredible Hulk movie aims to deliver.