The Incredible Hulk Blu-ray
By Samantha Clark -- Video Business, 10/20/2008
UNIVERSALStreet: Oct. 21
Prebook: now
> The Hulk has plenty of muscle in its high-def version.
With its special effects and high-paced action, The Incredible Hulk is the kind of movie that’s perfect for Blu-ray, and it delivers. As expected, the picture is sharp, with every emerald vein popping out of the big green giant’s arms, and the fighting sounds explode through the subwoofer. The special features package offers the usual deleted scenes and making-of featurettes, which explore all aspects of the production and introduce the new advanced motion capture technology used to get the realistic facial movements of Hulk and his nemesis, Abomination. Universal also offers up its standard U Control Blu-ray-only feature, which allows users to choose different pop-up and picture-in-picture tracks to display as the movie is playing. They’re great, interesting additions for multiple viewings of the film and can be turned on and off anytime with a click of the remote.
Shelf Talk: Based on its target demographic alone, Hulk should do well on Blu-ray. The three-DVD version is priced $5 lower, but fanboys will probably pony up for the enhanced quality and interactivity. The movie’s release date has been nicely timed to be far enough away from major competitors Iron Man, Hancock and Dark Knight.
Action, color, PG-13 (action violence, frightening images, suggestive content), 96 min., BD $39.98, reviewed on a PlayStation 3 with 46-inch Sony Bravia and HDMI connectionExtras: commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, comic books, U Control picture-in-picture, BD Live, digital copy
Director: Louis Leterrier
First Run: W, June 2008, $134.5 mil.