Image via Wikipedia.

First of all, Edward Norton performed brilliantly. As soon as I heard that he would be taking on the role, I knew I would love it. He really did capture a lot of what makes Bruce Banner so likable as a hero, and in my opinion he trumped all of the other actors while doing it.

The Incredible Hulk stays much closer to the original story line of the comics. The story picks up five years after the Hulk first ran from the military, thus avoiding the seemingly obligatory plot setup of the gamma accident, placing Banner deep in South America hiding from those who chase. This works out well, too, as the movie can, in a sense, followup Hulk without too much stumbling around.

Did I mention it has been five years since Ang Lee’s Hulk came out (and consequently, disappointed)?

As four guys watching the movie, we really enjoyed the references back to the original story. Everything from catch phrases to silly purple pants were mentioned, and in a way that pays homage to its origins without necessarily adopting anything which wouldn’t carry well on film.

One thing I love about comic book movies happens to also be the thing I most enjoyed about seeing The Incredible Hulk tonight. After the movie, I drowned myself in Wikipedia and IMDB for about an hour or so, reading about the mythology, story lines, and linking between the characters of these books. I was never a comic book fan, but man do I love reading the stories now. Lots of fun, in that guilty pleasure sort of way.

Image via Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is the ultimate source for a comic book fan. I could so spend hours there, just jumping from one story arc to another. Try Batman on for size, I’ve done that before over there.

Finally, I really am looking forward to how Universal and Marvel plan on tying these movies together. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say there have now been two big hints to a big movie on the horizon, probably 2011, in both The Incredible Hulk and Ironman this summer. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed, since there are still many hours left for them to completely screw up.

Here are some of the links I came across while perusing Wikipedia, if you happen to be interested.

• The Incredible Hulk on Wikipedia
• Movie’s trivia page on IMDB