"Hulk" delivers the action goods (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It turns out MarvelStudios knows how to make solid movies out of Marvel Comics.

The production arm of Marvel Entertainment is two for twoin 2008, hitting home runs with "Iron Man" and now "TheIncredible Hulk." "Iron Man" has more wit and style, but "Hulk"is a neat thrill ride with an intelligent script by Zak Pennand smart, well-paced direction by the French director of "TheTransporter" series, Louis Leterrier.

The film does represent a sea change from Ang Lee's 200"Hulk," which had the temerity to delve into Oedipal conflicts,repressed memory and scientific hubris. This movie emphasizesaction over introspection, but star Edward Norton, whoreportedly tinkered more than a little with the script, makescertain the hero still broods over the curse of his cellspoisoned by gamma radiation.

The film is poised to carry the weekend buoyed by anunbeatable combination of buzz and hype. The franchise is safe-- and, at the end, the Marvel folks hint that they might bethinking of a way to team Iron Man with the green fightingmachine.

The movie brightly starts off long after former scientistBruce Banner (Norton) has turned himself into a freak show inan unwitting experiment that produces a man who when angeredbecomes a green monster many times his size. Bruce is hidingout in a Rio favela, learning Portuguese and working as a daylaborer in a bottling plant. He is training to curb hisemotions, a kind of anger management that is going well untilhis nemesis, Gen. Ross (William Hurt), shows up with a militaryunit led by Russian soldier of fortune Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth).

The first of the large-scale action scenes has Bruce chasedthrough the hill-clinging shanty town before getting veryangry. He then works his way back to the U.S., where his formergirlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth Ross (Liv Tyler), the general'sdaughter, and a cellular biologist (Tim Blake Nelson) mighthold the key to his return to normalcy.

Meanwhile, Emil receives treatments from scientists to turnhim into the Abomination, a foe on an equal footing with theHulk. As we wait for the inevitable showdown, Bruce strugglesto shake off the mantle of his Hulkness. The story -- acombination of the Frankenstein and King Kong myths --essentially is about a man trying to escape his superpowers.Yet the movie keeps throwing villains at him -- first thegeneral and then the Abomination -- that force him to continuebeing the Hulk.

Some silliness leaks into the story. You wonder why Dr.Bruce keeps worrying about a neighborhood being "safe." When aguy can turn into a creature that repels bullets and flipsHumvees like Frisbees, what's to worry? There is even confusionabout what triggers green episodes. Previously, anger was thetrigger. But this movie more than suggests that a metamorphosiscan follow sexual excitement, which is not the same thing.

The confrontation between the Incredible Hulk and theAbomination is a CGI pig-out, so all contact with story orcharacters is lost. But the film has built up enough goodwillto withstand this third-act letdown.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter