2003, PG-13, 137 minutes

What's the first thing that comes to mind when the word "superhero" is mentioned? Surely you think of comic books. Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman are probably the first three that come to mind, but many people also consider the Hulk a superhero. The truth is, I had little-to-no knowledge about the Hulk before I saw this film, and I'm baffled - the Hulk is not battling a clown or a deranged businessman in a green costume, he's fighting his inner demons. Sure, you could classify three of the characters in the Hulk as villians, but in the end the Hulk is really about a man at battle with himself.

The Hulk doesn't use his powers to benefit others. He doesn't save the girl at the end, or save the town from total destruction. If anything, he's the one that's causing all the problems. Except the Hulk is still human afterall, so you can't just kill him off, not to mention that he doesn't always have his powers either. He only turns into the huge, green Hulk when he's under emotional stress. Many comparisons have been made to King Kong and other classic monster movies of the ཚs and that's a fairly accurate assessment.

The Hulk is really Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), who's still haunted by nightmares of his past. His only real friend is his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly), whose Army General father (Sam Elliot) holds a secret to Bruce's past that also involves his father (Nick Nolte) in a complicated backstory.

Standing in Bruce's way are our three "villans," if you want to call them that. Betty's father, whose intentions are good but misguided; Talbot (Josh Lucas), who wants a sample of the Hulk's DNA so he can make a huge profit; and finally Bruce's father, who also has some secrets of his own.

The movie gets off to a fairly slow start, but the information provided becomes important and more relevant later on. The beginning really builds Bruce and Betty's characters and makes us care what happens to them. We learn how tormented Bruce is by memories of his childhood and the inner rage he holds within. Betty is the only person that really sees the good person he really is, and she's probably the only reason that Bruce can keep his sanity. After Bruce gets exposed to the radiation, the movie reallys starts to take off. It provides an adrenaline rush while also keeping you involved emotionally. Not very many movies are able to do this, but The Hulk is not like many movies. Also, an interesting little feature is the split-screens that give the movie a comic book-like feel. It can become distracting at times, but it's used to good effect.

You've probably noticed that I haven't mentioned how the Hulk looks. To me, this isn't really important next to story, but if it means anything, the Hulk looks impressive, especially up close when you can the details of his face. Although I've enjoyed some of the recent comic book movies such as Spider-Man and both the X-Men movies, they don't hold a candle to The Hulk. There's always one good summer movie with lots of action and special effects (Minority Report was last year's) that manages to engage emotionally as well as visually. The Hulk is this year's movie and it is not to be missed.