The angry green giant is back! Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) has exiled himself to Portugal after his experiment with gamma radiation went awry, turning him into a superhuman rageaholic whose growth spurts and pigment change signal impending destruction, guttural toddler-talk, and the inexplicable busting of all his clothes save his pants. Banner is now working in a bottling plant and learning how to control his emotions while he searches for a cure.

When a drop of his blood falls into one of the U.S.-exported bottles and an unwitting customer finds himself with an unusually kicky energy drink, though, Banner is suddenly on the military's radar again. The US government wants to harvest Banner's genetic power to develop a weapon, thus commencing a hunt for him.

The early chase scenes through South American villages are tense and colorful; later, when Roth's Blonsky morphs into "the Abomination" and nighttime battles take place on flame-dotted Harlem streets, the film explodes into a full-on monster movie. The creatures themselves are veiny, scary, and bordering on the grotesque, with Satan-worthy roars.

"The Incredible Hulk" is Marvel's second production-after "Iron Man", of course-since launching its own studio, and like its debut, the movie leaves you with an unmistakable impression: The geeks have finally inherited their universe, and they're going to have as much fun with it as superhumanly possible.