The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The Incredible Hulk

The Good:
So many nods to fans of the comic and the tv series it'll make your head spin!
The film really picked up on the feel of the television series and added many comic elements to it.
Norton was a great Banner.
Hurt was a decent General Thunderbolt Ross.
It was cool to see a gamma-irradiated brawl played out.
Tim Roth was pretty good as Blonsky.
The special effects were good... but...

The Bad:
The Hulk still looked CG to me.
I didn't like the propotions of the Hulk.
The continuity of at least one scene (early chase scene) was AWFUL, I mean Ed Wood style awful. Night then day then night... ugh.
The film seemed somewhat anti-climatic.
Liv Tyler.

Overall: This is no Iron Man by any stretch. Is it better than Hulk from 2003? Well, yes and no. The movie was a more traditional tribute to the character's history, but the editing wasn't nearly as good. In 2003 you had the wonderful Jennifer Connelly, in 2008 you get sub-par Liv Tyler. The storylines in both leave something to be desired. Both Hurt and Elliot were good General Ross-es. Norton was better than Bana (though I didn't hate Bana). I think it all comes down to in 2003 you had a terrible version of Absorbing Man and in 2008 you get the Abomination - 2008 is a better film just because of that. I liked it, but I would rent it.

X-Men: The Final Stand (2006)

X-Men: The Last Stand

(written June 20, 2006)
I was so excited to see this the third installment in the X-Men franchise. I had been anticipating it for months. The movie poster was even my desktop at work. So...

The Good:
I always like seeing the new character included in any comic book movie, so seeing Angel, Beast, Callisto, Juggernaut...
I really liked Juggernaut a lot. He was dumb, cliche and just in general a great choice for the role.
It was pretty... the special effects were neat to look at.
Got to see the Ghost Rider preview.
The Wolverine in the woods bit was pretty fun.

The Bad:
I respect that the story was different than the comic cannon, but the plot was just bad. One can stray from the cannon and still make a great film. For instance the choices made by Marvel and Raimi in Spider-Man: they made the web-shooters part of his physical change and switched Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy (and made her survive). Great decisions - superb movie. Though the first Spider-man film was a 10, to be honest I liked the second film even better. Wow, I strayed from my point I think.
No character development. I cared for no one in the film.
No regard for physics - see the fight in the house, especially the Juggernaut/Wolverine part.
Terrible ending... terrible.
What the heck was the point of putting Angel in the movie? He was superfluous.

Overall: Sadly, I give this movie a Batman & Robin. It was interesting to see once... It has pretty girls in it... but the earlier movies were better...*sigh* the first two X-Men were so good. Brian singer you better deliver on Superman Returns.