'The Incredible Hulk' (PG-13)(out of four)

Five years after director Ang Lee's admirable yet underwhelming and over-long "Hulk" movie was met with disappointment in theaters, the Marvel Comics icon is back as the leaner and greener "The Incredible Hulk." Loaded with smashing action, it's the type of Hulk movie that fans wanted in the first place: a smartly written and slickly acted visual effects spectacle that not only honors the character's roots, but redefines itself as a big-screen superhero.

"The Incredible Hulk" is not a sequel to "The Hulk," but more of a franchise reboot. Gone are Lee and the principal actors Eric Bana, Jennifer Connolly and Sam Elliott, who've been replaced by French director Louis Leterrier and a cast including Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and William Hurt. And while the origin story Lee established with "The Hulk" is retooled for the opening credits sequence of the new film, the 2003 ending serves as a springboard of sorts for the 2008 version as we find Banner (Norton) in exile in Central America.

Its there where Banner is trying to lead a life on an even keel (the film reminds you throughout how many days he goes "without incident") while he tries to discover a cure to becoming the Hulk after he becomes enraged. From wearing a pulse meter, learning breathing techniques and sending blood samples to a mysterious researcher in the U.S., Banner does a good job of hiding his identity until an accidentally spilled drop of his gamma ray-contaminated blood leads to a chain of events that tips off the military to his whereabouts.

Before too long, the scientist is on the run again from his nemesis Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Hurt), who wants Banner in custody in order to replicate his hulking abnormalities for use as a military weapon. Complicating matters is the fact that Banner is still in love with colleague, Betty Ross (Tyler), who is also the general's daughter; and Gen. Ross' new mercenary Emil Blonksy (Tim Roth), an aging Special Ops solider who is willing to undergo experimental injections to become the ultimate fighting machine.

While the first "Hulk" wasn't a bad movie, there's no question that its 2008 counterpart is superior in many ways. For anyone familiar with Leterrier's "Transporter" movies, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that "The Incredible Hulk" is decidedly different in tone: The first film's high-tech, split screen techniques (which sometimes bordered on being pretentious) are stripped out by Leterrier in favor of heart-pounding rooftop chases involving Banner, and serious hand-to-hand combat that pit the Hulk against the horrifying creature Blonsky eventually becomes, The Abomination.

Of course, the visual effects have also considerably improved over the past five years since the first "Hulk" movie, and thankfully to the point that the computer-generated character renderings of the creature and his enemy feel in "The Incredible Hulk" feel much more real. The shots are especially mind-blowing when the Hulk comes face-to-face with the military's dazzling weaponry.

Leterrie draws inspiration from the "Hulk" comic book stories and classic television series for his version of "The Incredible Hulk," not only by bringing in familiar foes like The Abomination, but giving Hulk co-creator Stan Lee and the series' star Lou Ferrigno meaningful cameos. Better yet, Leterrier uses Ferrigno to voice the computer-generated Hulk, who mostly roars in anger but occasionally throws out a line like the familiar "Hulk smash!"

Odes to television's Banner -- the late Bill Bixby -- surface, too: in an incidental cameo and next, through Norton's Banner's eyes, which turn green just as his transformation into the Hulk begins.

Ultimately, "The Incredible Hulk" is a good match for Marvel Studio's first summer offering, "Iron Man," even though they're two totally different types of superhero films.

Norton, an actor who proved time and again that he's great at playing inner-turmoil, is terrific as Banner, and in some ways, resembles in stature the beloved-Bixby. It's the sort of role that's tailor-made for Norton; a person embroiled in the serious dilemma of abandoning his plight for inner-peace to serve the greater good. Downey brought that same sort of soul to the role in "Iron Man" too, but it also a role that benefited from the actor's inherent wit. There are funny moments in "The Incredible Hulk," too, just far fewer. (Fans of "Iron Man" get ready, though, for an amusing surprise at the conclusion of the film).

While Norton is strong, Tyler's is performance is more uneven. She's a likable screen presence, but her Betty Ross just doesn't seem to have the sort of emotional depth that Connolly did in the 2003 "Hulk." Hurt brings a fine edge of ferocity to his interpretation of Gen. Ross, and Roth, as Blonsky, turns one of the best performances in the film as an edgy, aging soldier whose captivated by powers of the Hulk who will go to extremes to get what he wants.

Ultimately, Roth brings the sort of bad guy-intensity that the first film sorely lacked, which gives the superhero we know and love as the Incredible Hulk a reason to be a superhero. And this time, the Hulk smashes it out of the park.