Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) might be a filmmaker of rare and undoubted gifts, but the verdict on his 2003 big screen version of the comic book series Hulk was largely a negative one. Though the film has its fans, its muddled plot, lack of cohesion and sluggish pacing was a big turn off for the bulk of the movie going audience, and the film was tagged a big time disappointed. The gang at Marvel Comics, however, obviously felt that there was plenty of cinematic life in the character, and have given him another shot with The Incredible Hulk. A kinda-sorta sequel to Lee's film (there's no retelling of Hulk's origin story, and the film largely flows on from the events of the previous film), The Incredible Hulk sees Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and William Hurt stepping in for Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliot respectively, while action hack director Louis Leterrier fills the shoes of the far more impressive Lee. And while nowhere near as ambitious as Lee's film, The Incredible Hulk succeeds because it's so relentlessly straight and free from narrative or thematic quirks. This is a no-frills take on the character of The Hulk, and it largely works.

The film begins with Dr. Bruce Banner (a solid turn from Edward Norton, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was a driving force behind the project) hiding out in Brazil, and desperately trying to control his rage - after being dosed with gamma rays, any overt anger or excitement will turn Banner into the gigantic, rampaging, green-skinned Hulk, a beast with an innate desire for destruction. Pursuing him are military martinet Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt, slicing the ham fairly thick) and professional solider Emil Blonsky (the wonderfully menacing Tim Roth, who gives the film's most enjoyably creative performance and provides most of the highlights), who want to turn him into a US Army wrecking ball. But when Blonsky ODs intentionally on gamma rays himself (or something.), he becomes the massive Abomination, a creature even more dangerous than The Hulk. Meanwhile, Banner's sweetheart, Dr. Betty Ross (a characteristically sweet and charming Liv Tyler) helps him to try and find a cure.

Tightly paced and strongly characterised (well, for a comic book movie), The Incredible Hulk finds a nice balance between action and introspection, sensibly recalling the tone of the excellent Iron Man (speaking of which, there's a cameo here that will knock comic book geeks' socks off) and rating as a very pleasant surprise indeed. While the CGI battles between The Hulk and Abomination are expectedly clunky, there are enough fun references (Ty Burrell and Tim Blake Nelson play characters that may, in potential future installments, become the villains Doc Samson and The Leader, respectively) and strongly crafted scenes to mark The Incredible Hulk as a highly enjoyable, if not quite exceptional, comic book adaptation.