Until recently I wasn’t even excited about The Incredible Hulk. Though this film is a reboot and has nothing to do with previous Hulk movies, the 2003 film Hulk left a pretty bad taste in my mouth as one of the worst comic book movies ever made (only Elektra may have been worse). However something changed for me when I saw Iron Man a few weeks ago. What does one have to do with the other you ask? Well, recently Marvel Comics stopped licensing its characters to other movie studios and started bankrolling and putting out movies themselves under Marvel Studios. The idea is that Marvel would create movies based on their characters that are more in line with the comic source material and all the while getting to cake out of control. The surprisingly good Iron Man was the first Marvel Studios film, The Incredible Hulk is the second. Thus my excitement about The Incredible Hulk. If Marvel can come through so well with Iron Man, maybe they’d also do it with The Incredible Hulk.

With in the first five minutes of The Incredible Hulk I knew it was gonna be better that 2003′s Hulk. Instead of wasting half the movie with how Bruce Banner became the Hulk, that’s all taken care of in the opening credits. From there the movie is off and running and rarely slows down. The action scenes get broken up with just enough enough character building scenes that the characters don’t seem hollow and the action doesn’t get old.

One of the things that Marvel seems to be going for in making its own films is to not just attaching big names to the project but to attach good actors. Iron Man had Robert Downy Jr., The Incredible Hulk has Ed Norton of Fight Club and American History X fame. Though Ed Norton doesn’t really get to truly show off his acting skill, he does a good job of making the audience believe that Bruce Banner is truly a person battling some inner demon.

The Hulk himself appears in the form of a CG character that at times looks very real and organic and at other times looks more like a character out of Toy Story with a very plastic and rubbery appearance. At times you most truly make an effort to ignore how much the CG stands out. The Hulk’s on screen performance is truly what the Hulk should be though. Brutal, savage and beastly. They did a very good job of making the Hulk appear and act like a monster while still retaining a very human feel.

When it was all over I can say I thoroughly enjoyed The Incredible Hulk. While not perfect, it was good and the few shortcomings the film had can easily be improved in a sequel. I honestly like how Marvel is going about their film making. Without spoiling either Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk I will say that there is obvious evidence that both films exist in the same universe as each other and future crossovers are possible and likely. And with Leonardo DiCaprio in line to play Captain America and Brad Pitt in line to play Thor, we could be looking a some huge things happening for movie goers. If you aren’t quite following what I’m getting at, I’ll sum it up in one word. Avengers.

I’d recommend everyone to at least give The Incredible Hulk a chance. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised like I did.

Score: 4 out of 5