The Incredible Hulk: Latest TV Spot, Pretty Much Spoilers

When I reviewed Iron Man here, I stumbled upon Robert Downey Jr.'s name in the credits for The Incredible Hulk. So I knew Tony Stark aka Iron Man was going to make his way into the film. I didn't expect, however, for him to make his way into a TV spot. Anything for money, I guess.

Not a huge plot spoiler by any means, but certainly a surprise to the casual movie-goer. The TV spot running this week (below) starts off with Stark wondering about an "unusual problem" (Hulk). It's sort of interesting that the other character replies, "You should talk" when Stark asked about the problem. Are we already alluding to his alcoholism? And is "unusual" the proper adjective for that?

Either way, it's good to see that The Incredible Hulk will at least won't be a complete failure simply by piggybacking on Iron Man's success. From what I've seen through trailers and taking a look at the cast, it definitely seems decent. Although, for the record, I didn't think the last one was bad at all. One could even argue Edward Norton > Eric Bana = Jennifer Connelly > Liv Tyler, but I guess we'll get into that once I actually see the new one on Friday.

So How Was Iron Man?

One word: Good.

The long version: Batman now has a very tough act to follow. Anyone with any interest in this comic book turned movie knows most of the details (Robert Downey Jr. stars as Iron Man, etc) and perhaps if you even have that much interest you may have already seen it. In case you haven't, do yourself a favor and dish out the $8-10 and catch it in theaters.

The cast is great. Downey revives his career with this movie. (Quick side note: Just checked his IMDB and he's listed as Tony Stark aka Iron Man in the credits for the new Hulk movie...interesting). Jeff Bridges is fantastic. This may be his best performance since The Big Lebowski, but then again I didn't see Seabiscut (that was supposed to be good, right?). Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow round out a pretty solid cast.

Howard as you may know plays Jim Rhodes aka War Machine. For those who saw the movie or the newer television trailer will see the scene alluding to War Machine. This is definitely one of the better new comic book movies we've seen in a while. I say new as in not a sequel. Sin City and V for Vendetta excluded.

If you have any interest in this at all from the trailers definitely go out and see it. For what it's worth, my girlfriend who doesn't know a thing about the whole Iron Man world throughly enjoyed it. So yeah, it's just a good film.

It's doing great in the box office too. The AP reported that "Iron Man was the 10th biggest opening of all time and the fourth biggest for a superhero movie. Among nonsequels, it came in behind only the first Spider-Man, which premiered with $114.8 million."

PS: If you haven't heard yet that you need to stay through the end of the credits, make sure you do so.

Edit: Marvel has just announced that Iron Man 2 will be released on April 30, 2010. I know I'll be there. - Ed

The Onion Inspires Me To Take a Look At This Year's Comic Book Movies

I was originally planning on just reposting the Onion News Network video below and talking about how much I love watching trailers. Halfway through the segment, however, I started to realize there are a lot of comic book films this summer. Let's get to the Onion video first though.

Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film


Now we already talked about Hellboy II and The Dark Knight, but Iron Man will be here before both of them. May 2nd to be exact, which is two weeks from Friday. I know they are running a ton of TV spots now, but I just dug up a newer/longer trailer that I've never seen before.

There's another movie that seems to get lost in the discussion, which I haven't seen a hell of a lot of information for...The Incredible Hulk. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wanted a mulligan on their 2003 Hulk. I didn't think the first try was that bad, but they definitely upped the acting here with Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and Tim Roth so I can't complain. Although Eric Bana isn't/wasn't awful. A trailer for the new Hulk was posted last month and the movie will hit theaters on June 13.

Hellboy II and The Dark Knight will follow with July 11 and July 18 releases, respectively.