Simply... Incredible.

Like most everyone else on the planet I thought Ang Lee's Incredible Hulk was... interesting to say the least. The comic books panels were an interesting touch. Very unique and very inspired but failed very miserably. The comic book panels were great, but the rest of the movie - well - wasn't. Many were quite amazed at the idea that Marvel would give the green fellow another crack, myself included. I'm glad they did.

It is difficult to put something like the Hulk onto the big screen. It obviously has to be done in CGI to do it justice. The television show was great because Ferigno was huge and Bill Bixby was a great actor. Together the Incredible Hulk worked. Marvel, in their infinite genius, brought a lot of the television elements to the big screen version. Anyone who was a fan of the TV series remembers that scene in the opening credits of Bruce Banner walking in the rain with his bag over his shoulder and a car driving and stopping to give him a ride. They recreated that to perfection!

The setup of the movie was all done in the opening credits. Unlike the first movie the supposition was told to us. Bruce had his dialogue - we had 500 comic book panels - blah, blah, blah explosion and the Hulk. Not here - oh no. It was all done without words and during the opening credits AND it was nearly identical to the TV shows opening. I can't even say how brilliant it was.

We got our dose of Stan Lee of course. We got Lou Ferigno. We even got Bill Bixby. This touched me. I loved Bill Bixby. He was a genius actor. Before the Incredible Hulk he was on another popular TV Show: The Courtship of Eddie's Father". During a scene in the Hulk movie we got to see Ed Norton sitting in a chair doing yoga and the TV was on. We were watching the TV and seeing Ed through the reflection of the screen (brilliant camera work) and one of the shows was THAT show with Bill Bixby. I'm sure he would have been in the film, but he died in 1993.

There was plenty of action which is good. Hulk actually had dialogue including his trademark line which I was waiting for! I got it and it gave me chills. In fact - the whole movie sent me chills from beginning to end. I was never even a fan of the Hulk comic, but this took the cake. They went with the military tie-in of course and for one obvious reason: foreshadow.

Yes - I said it - foreshadow. I love it. Don't you? As a movie junkie I love it when these big budget flicks let us know in very subtle ways what we have to look forward to. Take I Am Legend, btw. There was foreshadow but how many caught it? When Will Smith is driving through New York he passes a billboard on a building. On the billboard was the Batman crest hovering above Superman - i.e. Justice League!

In the Hulk we had some great foreshadow. In the beginning we got to see Nick Fury's name and later we learn that the agency after the Hulk were using some men from S.H.I.E.L.D. and that's awesome as long as they do NOT get Hasselhoff to play Nick Fury. Besides that one we got to see at the end the cameo of Robert Downey's Jr. as Stark. He mentioned them forming "a team" - *drum roll* THE AVENGERS! Yea baby! That will be hot. There was one other LITTLE known foreshadow. Around the time in the film when the Abomination was being "made" the name on the cryo-chamber that stored the serum was Dr. Reinstein... a.k.a. The Red Skull... this leads one to the conclusion: Captain America.

I am excited and I am thrilled. I'm still pumped from the Hulk and I want to see it again! 18 stars and HULK SMASH!