The Incredible Hulk vs The Bourne Identity

In my circle of friends, it’s a head-scratcher why the response to Ang Lee’s Hulk was so negative. We all thought the effects were cool, the Hulk was badass and realistic, and the chemistry between Eric Bana and Jennifer Connolly as sparky as anything they’re likely to have in one of their more dramatic movies.

But everyone else on Earth found it slow, clumsy and preachy. They were mad that the Hulk took so long to appear, and that there wasn’t a formidable villain for him to throw down with in the film’s climax. Fair enough. So now we’ve got The Incredible Hulk, with a new director, a new cast, a new look for the Hulk, most of the previous film’s story intact, but also unmentioned. It’s sequel…ish, but also reboot-astic.

The time, our director is Louis Leterrier, who directed The Transporter 2 and Unleashed. I’m actually surprised Leterrier isn’t the sort of director to get the job in the first place. His forte is definitely action, and The Incredible Hulk is an action movie first and foremost. In one scene, Hulk takes on a military attack, in which the soldiers stagger their level of force by degrees of brutality, like a video game. Once Hulk defeats guns, for example, he gets cannons (including one awesome set of cannons that shoots soundwaves so strong they ripple everything around them like gale-force winds). Since the military is familiar with Hulk (much of the plot involves them trying to capture Hulk to use his blood to create super soldiers), I’m not sure why they don’t just start out with the big guns right away. No one will have any complaints about the battles in The Incredible Hulk. This Hulk is aggressive, taking the offensive in some fights. He rips cars in half and uses them as weapons. He stomps and claps and roars like Godzilla. If you wanted your Hulk badass and tearing shit up, see this one ASAP.

So, the action’s good. How’s the story? Well, once the origin was told (it’s reviewed this time, cheesily, during the opening credits), there’s not much story left. This time, Bruce Banner is played by Edward Norton, who is great here, and would have been great in Ang Lee’s version as well (in which Eric Bana was great too, I’m just saying.). Norton’s Banner doesn’t want to be Hulk, doesn’t want to cooperate with the military, and is desperately searching for a cure for what he considers his disease. When we catch up with him, he’s working in a soda factory in Brazil . The scenes in Brazil are riveting, like something out of the Paul Greengrass Jason Bourne movies. I’m pretty sure they were filmed on location. The crowded streets and stacked buildings add to the claustrophobia and paranoia that make it so difficult for Banner to keep his rage in check. Of course, he’s not there for much longer, because the military has caught up. This time, General Ross is played by William Hurt, who mugs, grimaces and squints his way through every line, doing his best to make sure we don’t notice that Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott aren’t in this one. Liv Tyler is on board as this version’s Betty Ross, Banner’s true love and sidekick. Tyler is lovely, and isn’t given much to do but be glassy eyed and tiptoe out to the Hulk after each battle. She does both well, and remains one of my favorite people to look at on the big screen. Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson add nice character touches to the proceedings, as a power-drunk soldier with designs on becoming his own version of the Hulk, and a researcher who gets very excited by the idea of gamma radiation, respectively. Both are fun, and I admit, would have livened up the Ang Lee Hulk a little.

So, now that we’ve all gotten a Hulk we can live with (I still prefer the Ang Lee version, by a slim margin), we can move on to the third movie, and perhaps even one featuring the Avengers. Until then, assuming you’ve already seen Iron Man, there’s a perfectly great trilogy out there that serves not only as what I feel is the template for making such films, but also a lesson in what can happen if you switch directors mid-stream: The Bourne Identity.

The first Bourne movie was directed by Doug Liman, who did a fine job. I’ve gone on and on here about the subsequent two Bourne movies, which were directed brilliantly by Paul Greengrass, but Liman set the tone here, and frontloaded the series with some great concepts and set pieces. Maybe The Bourne Identity is a bit more cut and dried than its sequels, and maybe there’s some stuff we’ve seen before, but you get the idea the film is building towards something great. It is.

Jason Bourne is essentially Bruce Banner. He’s paranoid and in hiding, and in possession of a mysterious set of abilities that only present themselves when he’s threatened. Like Bruce Banner, Jason Bourne is played by a great actor, instead of an obvious action star. And in Matt Damon, we not only got one of our great action stars, we got the hero in a film that laid the groundwork not only for the rest of this series, but I believe also for the reboot of the James Bond series as well. Jason’s internal struggle is as riveting as his fight scenes, and he’s got some great moments with Chris Cooper, Joan Allen and Franke Potente, whose character plays a key role in the sequel, which rocks so hard I wanna watch it again right now, and then again tomorrow and the day after.

In other words, I get it. I get why you felt you needed another Hulk movie, and I understand why Hollywood felt a need to give you one from a slightly different perspective. Is it The Bourne Supremacy? Well no. But then again, few second films are. But is it a fine jumping-off point for another movie? Yeah, I suppose it is.

The Incredible Hulk: B

The Bourne Identity: B+