BLU-RAY OF THE WEEK: The Incredible Hulk

It was an easy choice to pick this week’s Blu-ray when I discovered that Amazon was having a fantastic sale on The Incredible Hulk.

For $10, you can snag the Blu-ray of this underrated Marvel Studios picture and add it into your queue of movies to watch as you gear up for The Avengers next year.

Marvel has done a pretty incredible thing by stringing these movies together and this movie was no less fine than the others, but seemed to receive the least amount of attention.

It also had one of the best Stan Lee cameos in recent memory.

As Bruce Banner, I think Edward Norton worked really well in the part and I’m still confused about exactly why he wasn’t asked to come back for the Avengers. There were rumours that he was in the editing room on this film, working on it until the end. Some might find that annoying, but I think it’s a dedication to craft. The man is a wonderful actor. I’m not upset they replaced him with Mark Ruffalo, though. He is equally fantastic and I can’t wait to see what he does in the Avengers movie.

If you’re going to pick this film up, I would recommend revisiting Ang Lee’s Hulk as well. On Blu-ray it’s even cheaper, coming in at $7.99. I think this film is twice as underrated. It’s a long, slow burn to the action, but it’s such a compelling drama that I can’t help but just love it. It’s also one of the most comic-booky of the comic-book movies, both in editing, visuals and tone. I think with the proper distance people can do a better job of appreciating it. Between the fight sequence with the hulked out dogs and the desert fight, there should be more than enough action, too.

And to anyone who found the story stupid, I think if you’d read the EXACT same story in a comic book, you’d have been on board. For some reason it just didn’t seem palatable to a movie-going audience and I don’t get it.