The Incredible Hulk

OK, so I just went to see The Incredible Hulk. Good movie. I'm glad that Marvel finally decided to make their own movies. Iron man was Excellent and Hulk is more like I'm used to in comics.
So here's what I liked and didn't like about the movie.

Liked:

• References to the old TV show - Both Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno had a cameo in the movie. How can that be when Bixby has passed away you asked. They briefly used some TV footage for a scene when Banner (Ed Norton) is flipping through the channels. Ferrigno was a security guard just like in the 2003 movie. The other awesome TV reference is that at one point they used the "lonely man" song from the TV show as part of the score of this movie. I love the nods to the history of the character - as long as they're subtle.
• Hulk Smash - yes, this is the comic and cartoon hulk. The one that you have to willingly suspend your disbelief for. Oh, and in reference to nod's to history look for some things that they got from the game "Hulk - Ultimate Destruction". Hulk smash indeed.
• Ed Norton - Norton did a great job as Banner. He was believable as a guy on the run, you believed his pain at seeing Betty with another guy. The best thing about it was that you could buy that he was just some scrawny scientist before his world went down the drain. Other people who have done banner just didn't have that scrawny look. Bana looked like he'd done some working out. Bixby looked like an ordinary guy, but still not the geeky scientist with the troubled past we get in the comics.
• Avengers - that's right, just like with Iron Man we get some great teasers of things to come. Including a cameo from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.
• Dynamic protagonist - Banner's relationship with himself as the hulk changes somewhat as the film goes on. I'm looking forward to a hulk film that has some of the other incarnations of the hulk, in addition to the ever popular raging Hulk.
  

Didn't like:

• Origin story - Yeah I know that it isn't really believable for a man to survive a nuclear blast and turn into a big green guy, but there's just something poetic about the Hulk being born in an explosion. After all, he's portrayed as a walking bomb waiting to happen. I never did like the whole medical experiment thing, even back with the tv show. Give me my Gamma Bomb Hulk.
• Teaser shots. Some of the material shown in the teasers, such as the conversation between Banner and Leonard Sampson were absent in the movie. In fact I didn't see much use of the Sampson character at all other than as a nod to comics.
• Abomination - yeah, I liked the character, I liked the fights, but I didn't really see the need to change his appearance. I want things to stay true to the source material whenever possible. It's a small thing though, like the movie Spider-man's organic webshooters.

Overall I liked it. At the end of the movie it seemed that it had gone to quickly. I never felt like I was waiting for it to end. I think marvel learned some good lessons from the 2003 movie. One thing left to say - Bring on the sequels and tie-ins!