The Incredible Hulk

I saw the new The Incredible Hulk movie today. While I wouldn't say it was "incredible" it was pretty good, much better than I'd anticipated from the previews and commercials. Both the CGI-ed Hulk and Abomination looked a lot better than I thought they would. Even all the little in-jokes and nods (Lou Ferrigno, Bill Bixby, Stan Lee) worked better in this movie than most of Marvel's offerings.

Marvel is doing something really interesting here. They're building a universe -- in the movies, like the one in their comics. (Face it, 95% of the people who see the movie -- or who saw Spider-man, the X-Men, or Iron Man -- have never read the comics. Most of those moviegoers might have an idea who the Hulk is, but don't know anything about the Marvel Universe.) The Hulk movie contains references to and/or appearances by S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, Stark Industries, the super-soldier program (supposedly at one point, Captain America was going to appear in the Hulk), and I don't think I'm giving away any secrets to say that Robert Downey, Jr., makes an appearance as Tony Stark. Marvel is trying to build a cohesive universe among their various movies. I don't think anyone's ever tried anything like that before, certainly not on the scale Marvel has planned. I hope it works.