Hulk might be our favorite of the Marvel characters. Frankenstein meets Jekyll and Hyde? How awesome is that? With that said, we weren’t very excited to see the Incredible Hulk. Maybe it was because of the negative buzz left after the last movie, the talk of Edward Norton fighting with the studio over the final cut, or the director being the guy that did classics like Transporter and Transporter 2. With all that said, the Hulk was pretty damned good!! It works really well right along side of Iron Man and only suffered by comparison because of the amazing acting chops and witty script in Iron Man. However, Hulk easily overtook Iron Man in action, action and more action! In a way, that was also its only flaw. You can tell there was more to this movie but much of the character moments were left behind to make way for scenes that set up the big action. The studio is already saying that the Bluray release of Hulk will have over 70 minutes of extra footage! That is a sign that they lost some of their direction. Regardless, you have to really look for those flaws when watching the film. It is a MUST SEE for the summer. How can you not want to watch Hulk on the big screen? 7.8 out of 10 for the Hulk!

Some small fanboy rambling spoilers - One of the best things about the Hulk was the way it sets up the direction of the Avengers franchise. Our favorite Marvel team book is Mark Millar’s Ultimates and this movie is very much Ultimate Hulk. Not only do they establish that Banner was unknowingly working on the Captain America super serum, they also bring up Cap a few times. Both the Hulk and the Abomination are essentially a botched Captain America which is a much preferred origin. Also, Starks appearance in the movie is identical to Nick Fury’s roll in the Iron Man movie. Add to this that both the Cap and Thor movies are going to be period pieces and you have the perfect set-up for The Ultimates movie. Remember, the first issue of Ultimates is just a Captain America WWII story! If Marvel pulls that off, it will be an amazing event as we’ll have four movies that stand on their own but also act as “issues” in a big story arch. Very nice.