Hulk Smash Records - ***1/2

One of the questions on everyone's minds when the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk was announced was "How is this going to be better than the last one?" (or some variant thereof, such as "Why would you take a failed film and make it again five years later?")

The answer is that the Hulk is not just an angry green monster with a very soft heart. Ang Lee may have delved too far into the depths of the gargantuan CGI alter-ego of mild-mannered Bruce Banner, but in the hands of Louis Letterier and Edward Norton, it becomes a big, impressive fighting machine, cleverer than the older one, and less prone to fits of depression.

Norton's Banner is both practical and resilient, shown fleeing from the Culvery University laboratory where the experiment went horribly wrong, dodging the overzealous General Ross (played with adequate stubbornness by William Hurt), and trying to keep his temper in check, lest it unleash the monster within.

Banner finds refuge in a small town in Brazil, where he gets a job at a bottling company, learns Brazilian martial arts and a sort of meditative breathing, and tries not to pick fights with the local hooligans. Here, under the pseudonym "Mr. Green," he begins corresponding with a mysterious "Mr. Blue," who offers to help him find a cure.

A freak accident results in some of Banner's blood ending up in one of the bottles at the factory, and ultimately in the hands of an ill-fated consumer in the U.S. It also helps Ross trace the bottle back to Banner, and the General sends a special team led by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a Russo-British operations expert, to capture him. The resulting chase produces some of the most spectacular visuals of South America, made all the more brilliant by the fact that they are shown on a large screen. When the team corners Banner in the bottling factory and the hooligans he has so desperately tried to avoid also jump into the fray, the Hulk finally comes alive and enables Banner's escape.

Blonsky, whose encounter with the Hulk leaves him more curious than frightened, learns of Ross' experiments, and expresses a desire to be a test subject for the next version of the supersoldier serum that made Banner into the Hulk. Spoiling for a fight with the creature that gave him inspiration, Blonsky gets increasingly stronger with each encounter, and this culminates in a showdown in the middle of New York City.

It is part Bourne, part King Kong, and much of the real enjoyment comes from watching the real actors (particularly Norton) rather than their CGI counterparts which don't really bear much of a resemblance to the human versions anyway. Fortunately, the actors carry the film very well on their able shoulders, and the CGI doesn't give you as much of a headache as other films with similar fight sequences might. Finally, the surprise appearance of a certain character at the end makes you wonder what might happen if he happened to bump into the Hulk, and manages to stir up enough curiosity for a sequel.

Good one for the summer.