--- title: "The Incredible Hulk" year: 2008 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-incredible-hulk" fi1m_score: 58 critics_score: 58 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-09-19T11:40:40.122787+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T11:40:48.769983+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Incredible Hulk (2008) Directed by Louis Leterrier · 1h 54m · MPA PG-13 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure **Fi1m score: 58** · Critics 58 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* Edward Norton spends 114 minutes trying not to turn into the special effect the poster promised > Louis Leterrier’s reboot is at its best when Edward Norton is a frightened man running downhill and at its weakest when he is a green rendering of one. The Rio chase is worth the evening; the finale is two textures fighting in the dark. ## Synopsis Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is hiding in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, working a line at a bottling plant and practising breathing exercises to keep his heart rate down, because when it climbs something else takes over. By encrypted email he trades notes with a stranger called Mr Blue about a cure. In the United States, General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt) still wants what is in Banner’s blood, and when a drop of it turns up in a bottle of soft drink he sends a team led by the ageing commando Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to bring him in. Banner’s former lover, the scientist Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), is teaching at Culver University and has a new man, Leonard (Ty Burrell). Banner has a cure in mind and the army on his heels. ## Review Five years after Ang Lee’s *Hulk* (2003), the character has been started again, and this time nobody is going to be asked to feel sorry for him for long. Louis Leterrier, the French director of the *Transporter* films, gets the origin out of the way in a wordless montage over the opening titles and picks up Bruce Banner as a fugitive with a heart-rate monitor on his wrist. Zak Penn’s screenplay treats the rest as a chase. That is a sensible decision, and for about an hour it is also a good film. The hour is Rio. Peter Menzies shoots the favela in hard daylight, alleys so steep they are practically ladders, washing lines, tin roofs, and when Blonsky’s team comes over the rooftops after Banner the camera goes with them, handheld and close. Vincent Tabaillon, John Wright and Rick Shaine cut it fast but never so fast that we lose the geography, which is rarer than it should be. We were leaning forward, properly caught up in one thin man in a sweat-stained shirt trying to get down a hill before his own pulse betrays him. When the change finally comes, inside the bottling plant, Leterrier keeps it in shadow and shows us the soldiers’ faces instead. It is the best-judged sequence in the film. Edward Norton plays Banner as a man permanently embarrassed by his own body. He takes his pulse, breathes through his nose, walks away from a fight he could win; he is a scientist who has been turned into a liability and knows it. It is a quiet, intelligent performance, and its trouble is that the film’s whole design is to interrupt it. Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky is better served. He is a career soldier past forty who has watched his knees go and would trade anything to feel strong again, and Roth lets you see the envy arrive on his face the first time he sees what Banner becomes. William Hurt does the moustache, the cigar and the certainty; his General Ross regards Banner as government property rather than a man, and Hurt plays it without a wink, which is right. Liv Tyler’s Betty is given a soft voice and a good deal of rain to stand in, and not much else. Craig Armstrong’s score is mostly brass and urgency, but he finds room for the lonely piano theme from the 1970s television series, and it is the one moment the film admits to a feeling other than adrenaline. Lou Ferrigno, who was the Hulk in that series, turns up as a security guard. Paul Soles plays a pizzeria owner called Stanley with more warmth than the scene needs. These are small courtesies to the audience that grew up with the character, and they are handled with more care than the plot. The Hulk himself is the problem. He is a rendering, and he looks like one: skin the colour of a rubber plant, muscle that swells and slides with no weight behind it, and a face that lands somewhere between Norton and a scowling gorilla. Kirk M. Petruccelli’s sets, a bottling plant, a university quad, a rain-soaked lab, are solid, real places, and every time the creature stands in one of them the film stops being a chase and turns into a cutscene. The daylight battle on the campus lawn survives this, just, because there are soldiers and armoured vehicles to give him scale. The finale does not. It puts two computer-generated things in a street at night and has them throw each other through walls for what felt like twenty minutes. We were bored, and then we were cross about being bored by something this loud. Against its own kind it sits in the middle. Lee’s film wanted to be a tragedy and was met with laughter; this one wants to be a *Bourne* film and manages it for an hour, then remembers what it is and lets the monster take over. [*Iron Man*](https://film.one/film/iron-man), released a few weeks before it, had a lead who was allowed to enjoy himself. Norton is never allowed anything of the kind, and the film is thinner for it. It runs 114 minutes and carries a 12A. Watch the Rio hour with attention and the rest with a drink, and if the person next to you asks why a fugitive thriller has turned into a cartoon, tell them it was always going to. *Fi1m score 58, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics take The Incredible Hulk as a leaner, faster and less introspective film than Ang Lee’s 2003 version, and the majority think the trade is worth making. The praise clusters on Louis Leterrier’s pace, particularly the fugitive chase of the opening stretch, and on Edward Norton, whose Banner most think is played with more conviction than the material asks for. A few reviews also enjoy the throwaway gags and a coherent scepticism about the military. The reservations gather around the computer-generated action. Several critics find the Hulk sequences numbing and the film livelier when he is off-screen; the closing fight with the Abomination splits them, with Time Out calling it the strongest sequence and The Hollywood Reporter calling it the disappointment. The spread is wide. Digital Spy is close to a rave, while Slant and Eye for Film see a shallow, homogenised blockbuster that has thrown away the earlier film’s layers and put nothing in their place. ### Reviews we read (16) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (B-): The film retreats to basic, low-risk Hulk-smashing action without the psychological complexity of Ang Lee's version, delivering competent entertainment that prioritizes fan service and set pieces over depth or ambition. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-incredible-hulk-1798204447) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a solid, action-focused thrill ride with an intelligent script and smart direction from Louis Leterrier, marking a shift from the prior film's introspection toward spectacle, though the climactic CGI battle disappoints. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/incredible-hulk-review-movie-2008-125350/) - **The Telegraph**, Mark Monahan (70/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a jolly pleasant surprise that delivers energetic Saturday-night entertainment with punch and pace. Norton plays Banner with intelligent conviction and there is good chemistry with Liv Tyler. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/3554062/The-Incredible-Hulk-energetic-entertainment.html) - **The Times**, Tom Charity (70/100, inferred): The critic describes an enjoyable, unpretentious follow-up that is faster and lighter than Ang Lee's version. It works as a tight fugitive scenario with throwaway gags and a coherent anti-military stance. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-incredible-hulk-v57pfcfb8vl) - **Little White Lies**, Matt Bochenski (65/100, inferred): The film is not as bad as its early press suggested and offers an enjoyable summer diversion thanks to a grounded approach, effective effects and a strong central performance from Norton. It remains disposable and unlikely to reward repeat viewings. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-incredible-hulk) - **Empire**, Simon Crook (60/100, inferred): The film reboots the Hulk franchise efficiently with energy and some inventive action sequences, but it is a broody, moody affair that lacks fun and dynamic lead performance from Norton. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/incredible-hulk-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (60/100, inferred): The reboot is solid and efficient if unadventurous, delivering crisp action in the opening sections thanks to the director's action background and strong performances from Norton and Roth. It ultimately feels limited by comic-book conventions and ends with a self-referential trailer-like sequence. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jun-13-et-hulk13-story.html) - **Time Out**, Wally Hammond (3/5): The critic finds Leterrier’s version a simpler, leaner and more satisfying take on the character than Ang Lee’s 2003 film. Some middle-section longueurs are offset by neat touches and a strong climactic action sequence. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-incredible-hulk) - **Total Film** (55/100, inferred): The Incredible Hulk is most entertaining when the Hulk is off-screen thanks to strong human performances and witty tone, but the CGI action sequences are spectacularly average and numbing. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-incredible-hulk-review-2/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (50/100, inferred): The film is a generic, middling superhero outing that improves on the 2003 version in some visual and action aspects but lacks a vivid central character. It settles for formulaic fights and familiar tropes rather than aiming higher. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/movies/13hulk.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (40/100, inferred): Leterrier's reboot strips away the prior film's aesthetic and emotional layers for a shallow, arrhythmic chase spectacle that fears character development, though the final Hulk vs. Abomination battle provides some vigorous, well-choreographed excitement. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-incredible-hulk/) - **The Guardian** (40/100, inferred): The critic finds that Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk lumbers to little effect. It begins with Bourne-style chases but ends in a monster-vs-monster showdown in Manhattan. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/15/culture.review2) - **Digital Spy**, Ben Rawson-Jones (85/100, inferred): Praises the thrilling action sequences and fluid direction by Leterrier, noting it avoids pretensions and delivers visceral thrills with strong CGI and cast performances. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a99150/the-incredible-hulk/) - **The Skinny**, Paul Greenwood (3/5): Commends the reboot for its action-packed pace and use of the TV series score, highlighting spectacular set pieces while noting some coherence issues in action. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-incredible-hulk) - **Den of Geek**, Sarah Dobbs (2/5): The critic finds the film lacks purpose and emotional depth, focusing too much on the Abomination's origin while Norton and Tyler's performances are flat. It fails as entertainment despite action. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-incredible-hulk-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a conventional, homogenised summer blockbuster that delivers predictable action but lacks subtlety or distinction. They single out the casting of Edward Norton and the brief reflection on the American military in William Hurt's performance for minor interest amid otherwise bland sound and fury. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-incredible-hulk-film-review-by-anton-bitel) ## Details - **Director:** Louis Leterrier - **Director:** Louis Leterrier - **Screenplay:** Zak Penn - **Cinematography:** Peter Menzies - **Editor:** Vincent Tabaillon, John Wright, Rick Shaine - **Music:** Craig Armstrong - **Production design:** Kirk M. Petruccelli - **Costume design:** Renee Bravener, Denise Cronenberg - **Producer:** Gale Anne Hurd, Kevin Feige, Avi Arad - **Cast:** Edward Norton as Bruce Banner; Liv Tyler as Betty Ross; Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky; William Hurt as General 'Thunderbolt' Ross; Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns; Ty Burrell as Leonard; Christina Cabot as Major Kathleen Sparr; Peter Mensah as General Joe Greller - **Runtime:** 1h 54m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 12 June 2008 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Adventure - **Budget:** $150 million - **Box office:** $265 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6eBeW19Lg ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IT, JP, KR, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RS, SE, SG, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Film and Television Music Award for Top Box Office Films 2009: Film and Television Music Award for Top Box Office Films (won) - Saturn Awards 2009: Best Science Fiction Film (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Fly* (1986), Fi1m 88: Cronenberg’s scientist loses his body by degrees, and the film has the nerve to grieve for it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fly.md) - *The Fugitive* (1993), Fi1m 88: The chase film this one wanted to be, with Tommy Lee Jones as the general who can act. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fugitive.md) - *Hulk* (2003): Ang Lee’s slower, stranger version, mocked at the time and more interesting than its replacement. - *Iron Man* (2008), Fi1m 80: The same year’s other origin story, and the one whose lead is permitted a personality. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/iron-man.md) - *Elite Squad* (2007): José Padilha’s Rio, shot from inside the favela rather than over a fleeing tourist’s shoulder. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-incredible-hulk