Poster © Universal Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction & Sci-Fi
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 52 mins
ReleasedJune 13, 2008
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorLouis Leterrier
StarringEdward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth
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The Incredible Hulk (2008)
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| The Incredible Hulk's Details | |
| Genre | Action & Sci-Fi |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 06/08/2008 (Gibson Amphitheatre); 06/13/2008 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 52 mins |
| Budget | $150M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Hulk by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| The Incredible Hulk's Interests | |
| General | Heart rate watches, soda bottles, Rio rooftops, gamma radiation, breathing drills, Portuguese lessons. |
| Music | Craig Armstrong, with a nod to the lonely piano theme from the old TV show. |
| Movies | Hulk (2003). Ang Lee's take, a lot more feelings, a lot more split screens. |
| Television | The Incredible Hulk. Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno and a whole lot of hitchhiking. |
| Heroes | Stan Lee. One cameo, one very unlucky soda. |
| The Incredible Hulk's Crew | |
| Director | Louis Leterrier |
| Writers | Zak Penn |
| Producers | Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd, Kevin Feige |
| Cinematography | Peter Menzies Jr. |
| Music | Craig Armstrong |
| Edited By | John Wright, Rick Shaine, Vincent Tabaillon |
| Production | Marvel Studios, Valhalla Motion Pictures |
| Distributed By | Universal Pictures |
Ask a room full of Marvel fans to name every MCU movie and somebody always forgets this one. Fair enough. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner as a tense, quiet guy hiding out in Rio, and the opening stretch is honestly a decent chase thriller. Then it turns into two CGI giants punching each other in Harlem at night, which looks like a video game cutscene somebody forgot to finish rendering. Tim Roth is having a blast as Blonsky, a soldier who wants to be the monster so badly he gets turned into a bigger, bonier one. Liv Tyler and Norton have real sweetness together, but William Hurt’s General Ross mostly yells into radios. The Hulk never looks heavy, and the movie leaves almost no room for jokes. It made $264.8 million worldwide on a reported $150 million budget. A 5.6 because the opening chase works and everything after the big green reveal turns to mush. $876 says you forget this movie exists again by next Tuesday.
What works: The Rio chase is a tight little thriller, and Tim Roth clearly enjoys playing the guy who wants to be a monster.
What doesn’t: The finale is two weightless CGI brutes trading punches in the dark, and the Hulk never feels like he has any real mass.
Who it’s for: MCU completists filling the gap, and anyone curious what Bruce Banner looked like before the team-up movies.
Spoilers
Banner jumps out of a helicopter to turn into the Hulk on purpose and stops Blonsky, now the Abomination, in Harlem. He goes back into hiding, a quiet cabin scene hints he’s learning to control the change, and Tony Stark turns up in a bar to tell General Ross that a team is being put together.
Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is hiding out in Rio de Janeiro, working at a soda bottling plant and practicing breathing exercises so his heart rate never climbs high enough to set off the big green problem. He is also messaging an anonymous scientist known only as Mr. Blue, hoping for a cure. One tiny accident at work puts General Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) back on his trail, and Ross calls in a commando unit headed by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth). Back in the States, the general's daughter Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) still thinks about Bruce. Louis Leterrier directs. One hundred twelve minutes, keep your pulse under two hundred.
Calm people only. Bring a spare pair of very stretchy pants.
| Edward Norton | Bruce Banner |
| Liv Tyler | Betty Ross |
| Tim Roth | Emil Blonsky / Abomination |
| William Hurt | Thaddeus Ross |
| Tim Blake Nelson | Samuel Sterns |
| Ty Burrell | Leonard Samson |
| Christina Cabot | Kathleen Sparr |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $264.8M; Domestic box office $134.8M; Opening weekend $55.4M; Profit / loss (est.) -$92.6M; Rotten Tomatoes 68%; CinemaScore A−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 68% (238 reviews); Metacritic 61 / 100; CinemaScore A−; IMDb users 6.6 / 10 (580,122 votes); movie.guru score 5.9.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.