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A battle against his ‘incredible’ self film reviews

Incredible bulk: Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner in the ‘The Incredible Hulk’

The Incredible Hulk (English)

Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler

Director: Louis Leterrier

Halfway into Director Louis Leterrier’s film, the superhero is faced with a peculiar problem. In a rare moment of intimate bliss, the superhero is discovering his comfort level with his partner. However, fate does not allow him the simple joys of life and he has to call it quits. Reason? The gamma radiation in his body that poisoned his cells might just be about to erupt, unleashing the green monster in him. And, it might just be too much for his partner to handle. After all, a little earlier he had brushed bullets aside as if they were thorns in a garden, lifted mega trucks like he were playing beach volleyball. And had successfully evaded an army of men and machines!

It is a rare piece of situational humour that raises Letterier’s film to a level where you begin to appreciate it for its nuances and for the director’s ability to weave in a semblance of a human story in what is essentially a special-effects saga. He relates the story of Dr. Bruce Banner seeking a cure to his gamma radiation, which turns him into a giant green monster when faced with any stress. Throw in a military trailing him, and you have the ingredients for a thriller. Now add another monster, The Abomination! And you have all the fuel for box office conflagration!

Yes, the big monster just got better. He easily dwarfs the earlier avatar in a film that is alternately spell-binding and awe-inspiring. The director does not waste too many minutes in getting to the crux: Hulk has his foe in The Abomination. Even as he yearns for the life of an ordinary man, he has to contend with the evil Abomination, whose villainous streak is so powerful that you find him repulsive.

At the beginning though, there is a flashback for those who missed the first instalment some half-a-decade ago when the hero’s experiment goes horribly wrong.

Now, he finds himself working in a soda bottle company in Brazil, practising anger management, but nothing is working. So much so that he finds himself all but bare-bodied in Guatemala, barefoot in Mexico and with barely a hope in the U.S. All along he is wanted so that the data bank within him can be surgically removed and turned into a weapon of destruction. Ah! A bit far fetched?

Radiation experiments

But Leterrier is only halfway with monsters. Soon we get to see a guerrilla who performs radiation experiments on himself with the aid of a medico.

And instead of a monster wreaking havoc, we have two in a combat.

One tries to stay alive as a human, the other just wants to destroy. It is a neat twist keeping in mind the box office demands. But it all works.

All along, the camera forays into the underbelly of Brazil, the forests of Guatemala, the markets and plazas of Mexico.

All a treat for viewers. Much like the film.

ZIYA US SALAM

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