All right. Agreed. Ang Lee’s heavily psychological Hulk was no world-beater. But did that mean, following in the footsteps of alternative versions of the Batman and Superman series, we wanted a new incarnation of this steroidal superhero, the unjolly green giant, a mere five years later? Action specialist (not master) Louis Leterrier presumes our familiarity with Dr. Bruce Banner, skips the biographical backstory, and plunges right into the thick of things, at a price, however, of some incoherence. And the film still takes almost half an hour to reach the first computer-generated manifestation of the title character, at that time hiding out in the slums of Rio, studying anger-management and seeking a permanent “cure.” From there, rooted out by his jingoistic nemesis, Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, father of the hero’s devoted girlfriend, Betty (perilously close to Betsy) Ross, he pursues a programmed course — science vs. military — to the same climax attained, a step ahead, by his Marvel Comics stablemate, Iron Man, squaring off against an angrier, bigger, hulkier version of himself. Can the custodians of Marvel not think of any other plot pattern? (In the post-climax coda, Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr., drops by to promise sequels.) Needless to say, Edward Norton vs. Tim Roth would not be anybody’s idea of a Battle of the Titans, so the slope-shouldered actors must bow out in favor of computer-cartoon figures, a titanic battle between jumbo wads of chewing gum. Lou Ferrigno, the Hulk from the late-Seventies TV series, enjoys a cameo as a campus security guard, a forlorn relic of the pre-CGI age. (The late Bill Bixby, the Bruce Banner alter ego on the series, pops up on a Brazilian TV screen in an episode of The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.) That show, likewise called The Incredible Hulk, was nothing to get nostalgic about, but neither will this show be. Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
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