Hulk: Struggle For Control

I certainly see the reasoning for including the snow scene at the beginning but Bruce never points the gun at himself, so that inclusion is rather confusing. He seems to be clearly pointing it away. Maybe there is some stock footage somewhere or a scene from a different film that could be repurposed in some way? Overall I appreciate the intent of that addition but it does feel jarring right at the start.

So I really liked what the editor did overall. I'd never seen the movie all the way though before but I could enjoy this version enough to watch it fully so it's a vast improvement over the original! I did notice the absence of the heart rate thing, as I remember it being present in the street chase originally. It's a welcome change and there's only really one part where I noticed reference to it, towards the end.

There is a lot of bad stuff in the original movie that spoils the enjoyment such as badly thought out locations and awful jump cuts. I can see that the editor did some work around at least one of these bad edits and the bad edit was left untouched, while the faneditor's change was flawless. It feels like a real shame that the editor could have polished the original movie by adding some cross fade or some other remedies to improve on that. I can't fault the fan editor of course but I feel like it's a missed opportunity.

Finally, I'd like to quibble about the encoding quality of the movie. I have to say I find it to be excessively high. Whilst I appreciate the editor's love for quality and I respect that, for me it means if I am going to keep it in my movies folder, I have to re-encode and that feels wrong somehow. It also takes a longer time to download. It's a minor quibble for sure, I just feel like for an AVC encode, 5Mb/s is more than adequate and for super high quality, 8Mb/s would be vastly more than enough, except for the most egregious of detailed movies such as pacific rim rainstorm scene. Anything above 10Mb/s is wasteful IMO, but it is only a quibble, I'm not giving negative points for that.

All in all, This is a superior version to the theatrical edit, but there is still room for improvement. Great job!

Wow, finally I got to see this movie without the idiotic heart rate monitor and the ridiculous idea that Banner becomes Hulk any time his heart rate goes up instead of when he is angry! But I get ahead of myself. I am one of those people that really enjoyed this movie, despite the heart rate thingy. I even didn't mind the aged CGI now that I saw it again ten years later. So, any changes that would be made in a fanedit version of the film would had to be very specific. And oh boy did the editor got them almost just right!

Technical-wise, I could tell when the deleted scenes were added, they were kind of "weird", like the fps was less than 24 or something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I could tell, not that I really minded but I have to mention it. My second small issue with the editing was the scene before they were supposed to have sex (which is cut off), but we see them in the chair with Betty giving him a haircut and then touching each other and suddenly they are up and kissing and then we cut off to something else. I really think that if the scene where they are abruptly standing was cut off and we left them in that tender moment in the chair, would had a much greater impact both as a moment and it wouldn't be an awkward editing choice. Otherwise, the work done by the editor was great!

As for the narrative, besides the brilliant cut of the heart rate thing, I really enjoyed the deleted scenes and I also did not miss at all the silly humor that was cut off. Also the added deleted scene after the credits was interesting. But, as another reviewer stated, since this a heavily CGI movie, cutting off fight scenes between the Hulk and the Abomination wasn't necessary. There are plenty of, not bad, but aged CGI filled scenes through this edit (because there is nothing that can be done about it obviously), so having less "Hulk smashing" was a bit uncalled for.

I strongly recommend this edit and I believe that it will be your go to version in the future! Also, props for the subtitles!

Thanks to anyone who read my review and thanks to Lapis Molari for the hard work!

2008's The Incredible Hulk is easily in my Top Five Favourite Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
I love the DVD release even more with it's 45 minutes of extra deleted scenes, as I would have been very happy with an almost 3 hour theatrical cut. Thankfully we have the Tomahawk Extended Edition to fill that dream.

But if you are looking for something that fits in between those two, then we have your answer right here with Lapis Molari's newest fan edit.

Pacing has been improved while character beats have been bolstered., strengthening the overall narrative considerably.

I love all the choices made for re-inserted deleted scenes. Each one adds extra depth and insight to the characters and their motivations. Unfortunately, all the deleted material used appears to be of a different frame rate (???) as they all have a distracting jittery quality. The audio levels of the deleted scenes also seem slightly different from the main material.

Lots of great choices made regarding the trims and changes. I thought the 'Love Scene" was masterfully edited.

There was a brief moment where the audio goes out of sync when Betty says, "It's okay", in the cave. And you can hear the cut during the factory scene when Banner is beaten and throw in the shadows behind crates. But these are brief blips on an otherwise nicely cut project. The additional new music was very well done.

I thought the newly redesigned End Credits scene was very clever! Though the Coulson footage really popped out at me, as it was of a significantly higher quality than the main feature.

But in the end, it is all about story, and on that front, this fan edit succeeds wonderfully.

A very fun watch.
Thumbs Up for me.
:)

Not just a vast improvement on the original version, lapis' edit of Incredible Hulk is a tantalizing glimpse of an alternate MCU where the tone is a bit more Edward Norton and a bit less Robert Downey Jr -- that is to say, dark but not grim and not constant snarky asides. The characters under lapis' editing are more consistent, likeable, sympathetic and, in Tim Roth's case, menacing. For anyone re-watching this film prior to Abomination's reappearances in Shang-Chi and (upcoming) She-Hulk, this is definitely the version you want to watch. One nitpick: while I applaud and agree with the decision to remove Banner's heartrate monitor as a plot device, at several points during the soda factory chase I could hear it beeping and wondered if something was wrong with my phone somewhere. Lastly, the integration of "The Consultant" into the post-credits sequence salvages that original version from incoherence, and it's hugely appreciated to have it here with the film proper.

This edit changes a largely ignored MCU chapter into one of its must-see highlights. Hugely recommended.

P.S. As always, lapis knocks it out of the park on the cover art side of things. Always nice to see Gil "Sugar" Kane's art pop up unexpectedly.

A great edit! A much deeper "Hulk" emotionally, and the post credit scene works so good. Cover art is amazing!

Only complaint was that some of the cuts to remove the heart rate plot were noticeable due to visual continuity and some quick audio cuts that were noticeable. Not bad, simply less than perfect cinema quality, probably due to what Lapis had to work with.

But overall, really great work and a really fun watch!