INCREDIBLE HULK

THE INCREDIBLE HULK: With superhero movies riding a wave of unprecedented popularity, Universal decided to have another go at adapting one of Marvel’s first comic creations, despite the fact that director Ang Lee’s version limped out of theaters in 2003. Execs came up with a new recipe: director Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2) was brought in to pump up the action while Edward Norton was hired to keep things classy. The result see-saws between some interesting character work by Norton as the beleaguered Bruce Banner, a man who’ll do anything to avoid getting angry and unleashing his gamma-powered alter ego, while Leterrier is only too happy to oblige by staging some smashing good fight scenes between Hulk and the Abomination, another gamma-irradiated freak of nature. The film rushes from scene to scene with a pace that suggest some heavy cutting (indeed there are 40-minutes of deleted scenes included) and the tone can’t quite decide on Iron Man irony or Dark Knight drama. But it’s a passable effort by all involved that, if not completely erasing the memory of Ang Lee’s misfire, at least makes you hungry for a sequel. Universal’s Blu-ray comes in a clever green lenticular package and the transfer is equally spiffy, matching the quality of Paramount’s recent Indy outing pixel for pixel. And the extras are beefed up too, sporting the aforementioned deleted scenes, an alternate opening, commentary, Making Of and several onscreen data pop-ups accessible on the U-Control function. Hulk also includes the BD-Live interactive option and a digital copy of the film.