Because In Contention‘s Kris Tapley is totally in the tank for big-budget movies based on graphic novels (being, in his own words, “a comic book fan”), you can’t really trust his rave review of The Incredible Hulk. The only Hulk rave I will take to the bank will be one from a genre hater** like myself. (Are there any? Most critics are too cowardly to admit to biases.) Then and only then will I be persuaded.

“Louis Letterier‘s The Incredible Hulk is not only likely to be the biggest, most exhausting (in all the good ways) filmgoing experience you’ll have this year,” Tapley says, “but it also…promises to be one of the greatest cinematic roll-outs the genre has [ever seen or] will see.” Nope, not buying it. Especially considering the use of the word “exhausting.” I don’t want to know from that word unless I’m jogging or pulling an all-nighter.
This passage, however, sounds like real honesty: “And while it might miss with some and perhaps only find itself passable to others, it has struck the landing for this skeptical viewer in a big, big way.” That’s me Tapley is (probably) talking about. One the “somes,” standing tall with the “others.”
Now watch me love or half-love the Hulk, which I’ll be seeing tomorrow night.
** Yes, comic-book movies.