Swank-mo-tron: Well, the summer has yielded yet another nerd aimed summer blockbuster for us to prop up and tear down with our incredibly popular and influential Big Shiny Robot! roundtables. Today’s topic is Louis Letterier’s pseudo-reboot of the Hulk franchise.

I for one, enjoyed the hell out of it and feel like it was on par with Iron Man. Having said that, though, I think there were elements of the Ang Lee film that I liked more and elements of this that I liked more than the Ang Lee version, but overall, this is the ultimate fan version of the Hulk story. He gets to do and say all of the cool Hulk shit that he does (“Hulk Smash!” as he does his ground breaking move and how he gets to put out a fire with his thunderclap…)

All in all, I’m excited to see how this movie fits together with the Avengers. This could be a really interesting dynamic.

What did you guys think?

Humanjunk: Initially in the opening credits of the flick I was a little peeved that they re-did the origin of the character rather than just using the first movie as a basis for this one. But, Edward Norton’s acting, and the man on the road concept peaked my interest and within the first 30 minutes of the movie I had one thought: this is the Hulk.

Neotron: Is it a sin to say that I liked this flick as much, if not more, than Iron Man? Well, not as a whole. But there’s something about the nitty, gritty physical drama involved in Hulk that hits homes. It way exceeded my expectations and I had a blast. After reading The Ultimates, and having more a feel for Banner and the Hulk, I thought Ed Norton was the perfect Bruce and the Hulk was perfectly super-duper pissed and primal. The CGI was the only thing that I was worried about going into the theater. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was believable and often forgotten that I was looking at computer animation. I’ve always thought CG characters should be darkened, with a high concentration of light and shadow realism (i.e. Gollum). The darker greens on Hulk with dingy dirts and grime made it stand out above Ang Lee’s version. The Hulk simply looked intimidating and ferocious. The work done to his facial expressions were a real added charm. I’ve heard people rip on some of the acting in the film, but I thought it was superb. William Hurt and Tim Roth both did amazing jobs as supporting characters and Norton and Tyler sold the romance and then tension. And, holy shit, the audience went nuts when Tony Stark walked into the bar at the end. Can’t fucking wait for The Avengers.

M.C. Frogger: I really liked this Hulk but, of course, I really liked Ang Lee’s Hulk too. Edward Norton was perfect, the way that he would run looked like a scientist, and he was scrawny, too. I thought I was going to hate Liv Tyler, but I didn’t, she wasn’t that bad.

All and all it was a good movie, the Hulk emoted like no other (in fact, he reminded me of my puppy). You could actually tell how he felt from his eyes alone.

One last thing, when do we get to see The Leader?

Swank-mo-tron: For some reason, I just don’t see Marvel racing out to tell the quintessential Hulk vs. Leader story on film anytime soon. That would be like a Batman movie racing straight to The Calculator. Maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.

Dr. Cyborg: I went to the midnight viewing of this movie and was forced to sit next to an ass-hole the whole time, no, I am not talking about Swank-mo-tron, there was another, bigger ass-hole. He clapped whenever someone got hurt or whenever Edward Norton didn’t have a shirt on, and laughed annoyingly loud when they made any of the many one liners.

It felt kinda like hell.

The worst moment was when Edward Norton was in the glass annex and they shot gas bombs into the windows, Edward Norton took off his shirt. The man next to me let out a “whoooooooo.” Then Edward Norton put the shirt over his face to act as a sort of gas mask. The revelation that Edward Norton was not stripping for him forced him to recall his “whooooo” by saying “oh never mind.”

The fact is that I liked this flick, but I wouldn’t put it above the Ang Lee version at all, I think they were equal for different reasons. I didn’t think that Edward Norton brought anything special to this roll but was acceptable. I liked the Hulk action, and I thought that this was one of the best Stan Lee cameosto date. I thought that Tim Roth was really good, and that his action sequences I.E. him running faster then all the soldiers, then standing a chance against the Hulk were the coolest moments in the film.

Humanjunk: That dude you sat next to was me.