I should also say, it's not an origin story. I've always said, with the major heroes, there's no point in doing an origin story any more. Everyone knows how Peter Parker became Spider-Man, everyone knows what happened to a young Bruce Wayne to make him Batman, etc. This movie accepts that and plays the entire origin of the Hulk (through a hazy, disjointed memory) in the opening credits. That's it. And it works really well. Sets up Bruce's POV while he's in the Hulk really well. Also, before I go any further, I wanna say that Ed Norton was an awesome Bruce Banner. He was so nerdy and plain, but with a twist of humor. Good work, Ed Norton!
The Hulk himself was better in this movie as well. They didn't attempt to make him "similar to Bruce Banner, only angry." No, this Hulk was THE Hulk - just flipping out at anything that moved/made a noise, and not even bothering to question it later. Hulk's not supposed to have a conscience or really any morals. He's just a wrecking machine, and that's what this movie gave us. So who then was the main villain? Was it Abomination (played rather well by Tim Roth... well, not so much Abomination but Blonsky)? Well, he was there, but the main villain was the army. The army hates the Hulk and the Hulk hates the army. And how was the army portrayed? As a bunch of guys just doing their jobs. Thus, Hulk was the villain - as he's pretty much meant to be. Except for General Ross, who then makes the army look like a bunch of assholes.
Ross was really good too - played by William Hurt. Totally got the character of "complete asshole who thought this might be an actually good idea" in a realistic way. He wasn't crazy, just an asshole. All of these characters gave us relationships - ones that actually mattered to the plot and made you care about the characters. Marvel is doing a good job so far, between this and 'Ironman' at making a lot of likable characters. Kudos, Marvel.
Let's talk about cameos. Well, I don't wanna give too many away, but I will let you know that, as per usual, Stan does make an appearance. Plus, there's a few others (both character and actor-wise) that pop up almost constantly. Not in an annoying way, but in a way that really adds to the movie overall. There were SO MANY Marvel-universe connections in this movie: Ironman, Cap. America, etc. Those were good. Second favorite element of the movie. So what was the first?
The first was simple: when I was younger (2 or so) I watched the Incredible Hulk live-action show. I had a puzzle and a t-shirt that I had with me whenever it was on. I highly enjoyed it. This movie was very reminiscent of that series. The most noticeable thing being THE image from that show: Bruce Banner walking away with 'The Lonely Man' playing in the background. Thank you for including that, Marvel. Well done.
Let's see - something to criticize. Again, the CGI wasn't spectacular. It's hard to make something look like a living, breathing thing on screen using only CGI. Abomination was better as he's all jagged and weird looking, but Hulk is more organic looking. Granted, he was about a million times better than the Ang Lee Hulk, but still, there's some room for improvement over the next few years/movies. Also, I wanna see Ed Norton's name in the writer's credit. He re-wrote the damn thing! How much of it was used - I dunno, but I know it was a condition of his being in the picture, and since he was, I'm assuming there was a fair amount used. Silly Marvel.
3.8 / 5 - Not quite as good as Ironman, but really damn close. Screw it - I'm gonna give it a 4 / 5 purely for not going too in-depth with the "gamma-ray accident" explanation.