Countdown To Avengers: The Incredible Hulk

As usual, there will be spoilers...

Directed by Louis Letterier
Written by Zak Penn and Edward Norton

Cast
Edward Norton as Bruce Banner
Lou Ferrigno as the voice of The Hulk
Liv Tyler as Elizabeth Ross
Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky
William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross
Ty Burrell as Leonard Samson
Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (cameo)

The Incredible Hulk is currently the least financially successful of the movies in what has since been dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making only $263,427,551 worldwide at the box office. That's a figure that still nearly doubles the film's budget, but it has apparently made Marvel Studios weary of a sequel, saying at the recent premiere of The Avengers that there are no plans on making a new Hulk movie.
It seems that Marvel Studios are taking the relatively low return on their investment to heart, but I believe it was merely a question of timing. It was released just one month after Iron Man, and just one month before The Dark Knight. Not only that, but that summer featured the return of Indiana Jones and a pair of instant animated classics from both Dreamworks and Pixar in Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E. In a summer so saturated in hits, The Incredible Hulk was always going to be the underdog.
It was certainly not a sign of the quality. It perhaps never reached the dizzying heights that Iron Man did in its best moments, but it was a more consistent movie, remaining very good throughout.

Five years previously, there had been a Hulk movie (entitled simply Hulk) directed by Ang Lee of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame. It was a failure both critically and financially, and this movie was marketed as a complete reboot of the franchise. The opening credits make that perfectly clear, with a montage showing the Hulk's origin that is notably different from its portrayal in the original movie. There are however certain aspects from that movie that appear to have been kept. The events in the intro are shown to have happened five years ago, which keeps the timeline correct, and the original film ended with Bruce Banner alone in Brazil. Sure enough, when we first meet him in this movie, he's living in Brazil, albeit in one of the heavily populated favelas rather than a shack in the rainforest.

Using training in aikido, he has been learning to control his heart rate to avoid what is referred to in the movie as "incidents", as well as keeping in contact with a scientist who is attempting to cure him and working as an odd job man at a bottling plant for a soft drink company. It is here where the plot really kicks off as a minor accident reaches the attention of General Ross - still searching after all these years in his crusade to use the Hulk for his own ends - who sends an elite team, including Emil Blonsky (a Russian/British soldier on lone from the UK armed forces). After an epic footchase sequence across the rooftops of the favela in which the Hulk makes his first appearance, Banner makes his way back home to get more data for the mysterious Mr. Blue in order to find a cure.

When it comes to casting, the makers of The Incredible Hulk did a mostly solid job, with Edward Norton perfect as the mild-mannered Bruce Banner fighting to control his inner rage. It's an interesting variation on characters he's played before in Fight Club and even the latter half of American History X, and it was upsetting to hear that he would not be returning for The Avengers.
Similarly, Tim Roth excels as the obsessive Emil Blonsky. A man who - after seeing what the Hulk is capable of - volunteers for a scientific procedure which gives him enhanced strength, speed and agility. After his second fight with the Hulk leaves every bone in his body broken he finds that he also has an enhanced healing ability, but still he wants more. Eventually, his obsessive lust for power turns him into an abomination that only the Hulk can hope to defeat, leading to an epic battle that whilst a lot more impressive than the final battle between Iron Man and Obadiah Stane, still pales in comparison to the two major action sequences that preceded it.
William Hurt's "Thunderbolt" Ross also gives an impressive performance as a similarly obsessive villain. The one weak link in the main cast is Liv Tyler.

As Elizabeth Ross, Liv Tyler is perfectly fine. She's still a very good actress, who can handle the role competently. The problem isn't with her performance so much as her complete lack of chemistry with either Edward Norton - as her love interest - or William Hurt - as her father. In fact, this is probably the major reason why this movie can't hope to live up to Iron Man's bar-setting standard. That movie had a core cast with an amazing chemistry that allowed them to just roll off of each other, keeping the dialogue extremely witty (apparently this was mostly improvised). This movie's main cast all do great jobs, but don't really seem to gel together nearly as well, making a movie that is very good, but not great.

Apparently, Edward Norton clashed with the producers regarding the final cut of the movie, and insisted on rewriting portions of the script, which is probably why he didn't reprise the role in The Avengers. I'm not sure who won that argument, but if it was him, I thank him. It really does tell a great story that transitions between the Hulk from the Ang Lee movie (an uncontrollable beast) to the Hulk we'll be seeing in The Avengers (he now has more control over his actions, which is shown both in the moment where he finally gets to speak - "Hulk... SMASH!!!!" - and the final scene in which Banner triggers a transformation through meditation.

As for other connections to The Avengers? There really aren't that many initially... the opening sequence features both the Stark Industries logo, and images of documents signed by a certain Nick Fury. Later in the movie, the S.H.I.E.L.D. database is used in order to locate Banner and Betty Ross. The very last scene of the movie makes for a more blatant link, though, as Tony Stark himself visits an inebriated General Ross to discuss "putting a team together".