The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man was just the warm up for this mega-tons of fun, super powered summer movie adrenaline blast that will probably have you leaping out of your seat.

It's as satisfying a mix as this summer's Iron Man, even if it lacks that movie's spirited sense of humor. Most important, it erases the miserable aftereffects of Ang Lee's Hulk of five years ago.

It's about time, but we finally have a super summer fantasy adventure not only worthy of blockbuster status, but one that actually lives up to the self-imposed accolade of its title.

It's funny, exciting and well acted. It neither insults your intelligence nor takes itself too seriously.

The Incredible Hulk is a franchise reboot of the highest order. It's a heart-pounding ride with rollicking action scenes, suspense, a tortured hero and even a dab of romance.

The Incredible Hulk is a fast-paced, well-acted take on the big green monster and the man inside it.

The Incredible Hulk is exactly what it should be: An all-out action romp that resets the comic book icon's big screen continuity and paves the way for future installments.

The final battle between Hulk and Abomination was an intense exercise in wanton annihilation, where finally the Hulk reaches his full destructive potential. For that moment, we have Hulked-out perfection.

To be honest, we were expecting a disaster. Instead, we got a kick-ass superhero movie.

Edward Norton's a more evocative actor than Eric Bana, and he supplies all the emotions required by Leterrier and writer Zak Penn.

"Incredible" overstates it, but The Incredible Hulk finds a viable way to retell an old Jekyll and Hyde story, dating back to the early 1960s and a Cold War that inspired its share of unruly Marvel Comics misfits.

Luckily, The Incredible Hulk strikes a much-better balance between the human drama and the comic-book action that everyone was pretty much expecting from Ang Lee's ultimately disappointing 2003 film.

It's always a gamble when a mindless summer movie attempts to be more than a mindless summer movie. The Incredible Hulk plays the tables and almost manages to break even.

Just as Iron Man had the whimsical and roguish personality of its star, Robert Downey, The Incredible Hulk has the pensive and brooding quality of its star, Edward Norton.

The film is at its best when Norton is onscreen, which means the final CGI-versus-CGI battle isn't the strongest portion of the movie, but it's the perfectly accepted method of concluding these sort of things.

The special effects lag in certain instances and the story jumps off track in a couple of places, but, next to those minor issues, the film is a quality comic-book adaptation.

Manages to align the character with the energized tropes of contemporary superhero franchises by making his strength the real star of the show.

The Incredible Hulk, the second adaptation this decade of the Marvel comic-book story, is a big improvement over 2003's Hulk.

The relaunch of Marvel's green goliath is an improvement over director Ang Lee's ponderous 2003 Hulk in nearly every way -- except that the actual Hulk still looks scarcely better than something from a video game, and he still barely talks.

Green, lean and mean, The Incredible Hulk is a thrill-oriented reboot of the superhero franchise that should have action fans cheering.

It's hugely entertaining, and not only leaves the door wide open for a sequel but an entire universe of Marvel movies. Avengers assemble!

Norton is terrific at comedy and agony. The Incredible Hulk marks one of the few times he seems completely present in a commercial feature.

The Incredible Hulk is Rock’em Sock’em Robots to the 10th power. In spite of cheesy computer-generated effects, it gets the job done.

The Incredible Hulk isn't in the Spider-Man/Iron Man league, but as you watch you can see it clicking into place as part of Marvel's burgeoning macro-franchise roster of superheroes.

Broad, loud, straight-ahead and raucous, The Incredible Hulk may not be the smoothest or smartest movie ever made, but it sure captures the spirit of its giant green protagonist.

The movie's a lot like the Hulk himself: big, dumb and violent -- but in a good way.

The new film isn't a sequel, and it isn't a remake, and, despite the desperation the whole concept exudes, it isn't as bad as you'd think.

Fans of the comic-book franchise and the cheesy TV series will be relieved that brute entertainment has largely prevailed and that the many inside jokes culminate in a tease for a superhero summit.

Norton isn't challenged here but lends the proper amount of gravity to Hulk's predicament, rather than Eric Bana's blank-faced sulking in the first film.

At the film's core, under its rippling CGI/motion-capture musculature, lies the classic dramatic crucible of unrequited love, unaided and unabetted by the necessity of constant flight and persistent pursuit.

Wasting not an iota of screen time, the new movie hurtles through its revisionist history with a credits sequence that compacts the character's origins to a few succinct images.

Better than the first movie and certainly closer to what some will expect from a Hulk movie but still problematic, mainly due to the pacing and the other usual issues with comic book movies.

Come for the big green monster, stay for Edward Norton, the great Marvel Comics cameos, and the Hulk TV show references

Several of the dialogue-driven scenes feel a beat too fast, like the movie's afraid to get bogged down in mythology and unwilling to give the jokes time to hit their mark.

It's a retreat to core Hulk values, a film of low risks and low yields, though not entirely without its own silly merits.

The movie occasionally slips into summer-blockbuster cliches, but the action is packed, the ending is satisfying and Lee isn't directing. What more could you ask for?

It might not have made a whole lot of difference had a less talented star than Edward Norton been cast in the lead.

French director Louis Leterrier keeps things moving nicely, the transformation effects and action sequences are moderately compelling.

The effects crew does a lot of the heavy lifting. Indeed, all the stunts and effects look expensively impressive.

The Incredible Hulk is no doubt an ideal version of the Hulk saga for those who found Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) too talky, or dare I say, too thoughtful. But not for me.

In close-up the Hulk is more cartoonish than scary, but when he's ripping armed vehicles to shreds? Kewl.

Careful not to repeat the past, The Incredible Hulk does a lot of things Ang Lee's 2003 The Hulk didn't: It's lighter and faster-paced, it's funnier and it embraces (instead of ignoring) the 1970s TV series that furthered the character's popularity.

Like its monstrous hero, The Incredible Hulk gets the job done with minimal artistry and a lot of noise.

The Incredible Hulk is no Iron Man, and a brief appearance by a devilishly goateed Tony Stark only serves to remind us of that fact.

There are hints during The Incredible Hulk that another, better movie is itching to bust out. It never does. But what's there gets the job done.

The latest Incredible Hulk is so steeped in action and spectacular special effects that his 2003 predecessor might be turning a more vivid green with envy.

The first few minutes of The Incredible Hulk whiz by with so much back story that the film appeared to be having a nervous breakdown.

The cameras are always in motion, swirling and lifting during scenes as simple as someone pouring a cup of coffee. Practically every shot lasts less than 10 seconds.

The Hulk may be "incredible," but he's no Iron Man. But he's close, or at least close enough for fans.

A feature-length chase film with occasional Hulk sightings is anything but a marvel.

This by-the-numbers rendition should keep the fan boys satisfied by tapping into the pivotal elements of the Hulk mythology, but the film almost never takes us by surprise.

The villain is big and loud, and Banner has a good heart, but neither makes for an interesting character.

The Incredible Hulk bursts out of the gate like Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness and finishes like the horse at the Belmont Stakes -- in the back of the pack, a puzzling disappointment.

The comic book turned hit TV show turned movie? Didn’t we see that a few years ago?

At least the new version of The Incredible Hulk is better than the woefully misguided 2003 version, though one would be hard-pressed to think of what isn't.

A slam-bang spectacle so lacking in weight that, until the impressive finale, the film seems downright terrified of character and relationship development.

Director Louis Leterrier gets back to comic-book basics, delivering enough chases and smackdowns with its all-new cast to satisfy many a fanboy, despite some humdrum CGI work.

Its more conventional construction represents an effort by Marvel Studios to revivify a potential tentpole franchise.

The barely verbal Hulk is just not a cinematic guy and the new special effects look like a junky video game.

Don't get attached to the actors in The Incredible Hulk. All of them are sidelined for the last half-hour of the drab, monotonous film.

It's about nothing but adrenaline and noise and possessing the contents of your wallet.