The Incredible Hulk

Edward Norton is Bruce Banner, the mild-mannered scientist who transforms into a big, green stomping machine when he gets angry, in the second live-action Hulk feature. It's part sequel to Ang Lee's "The Hulk" and part wholesale reboot of the comic-book movie franchise. This time around, Banner is the unwitting victim in biological warfare experiments (all duly established in the credits sequence) by military zealot Gen. Ross (William Hurt as a pitiless warmonger), and is hunted down like an errant lab animal by a team led by a new supersoldier guinea pig (Tim Roth). It's a perfectly workable film, with all the seriousness a modern comics/graphic novel fan could want and slick action direction by Louis Leterrier. Lee's themes of repression and transgression are replaced with a more generic fear of the inner monster, but it gets a fascinating twist when Banner realizes that adrenaline boost of desire and arousal is as powerful a spark as rage and fear. Imagine a life of abstinence when Liv Tyler is your sweetheart. And, yes, the CGI Hulk looks pretty great.

The single-disc DVD features commentary by director Leterrier and co-star Roth, and six deleted scenes (running about 13 minutes). The three-disc special edition adds 17 more deleted scenes (most of it personal drama between Norton and Tyler and a greatly expanded role for Ty Burrell as Lennord) and an alternate opening in the great white north, plus the half-hour "The Making of The Incredible Hulk," plenty of featurettes on the special effects (check out the new motion capture technology all over Norton's face), and an animated comic book sequence, plus a digital copy of the film that can be downloaded to PC, iPod or other compatible players. The Blu-ray edition features all this plus the interactive "U-Control" function, with picture-in-picture interview clips, behind-the-scenes footage and other goodies.