When the action drops in, it's blatantly CGI but with more real-world heft than anything in the last half of Indy 4. The Hulk himself looks more steroidal than superheroic, as if the expressive beast from the first film had been replaced by a crazed wrestling star.

Director Leterrier manages to inject the action with a megadose of style, and Kurt Williams's visual effects wizardry makes the final showdown a thundering battle of musclebound titans. Credit must go to Norton (who pulls double duty, co-writing the film with Zak Penn) but also to director Louis Leterrier, for his intelligent sense of proportion. Leterrier reportedly wanted a more angst-y movie to emerge from the editing room, but ends up as a broody, moody action movie that never quite gets the blood boiling.

The result is not as good as "Iron Man" and there are plot holes, but it's an action movie in that style, willing to take its time and take advantage of the fact that it has a first-rate actor at its center. This "Hulk" may not be a certified smash, but as a popcorn movie steeped in action, it keeps our attention.