Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

RELEASED TO TV IN 1989 and directed by Bill Bixby, "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk" is the second of three movies in the wake of the TV series that ran from 1977-82.PLOT AND MAIN CAST: Drifter David Banner (Bill Bixby) is held as a suspect in a crime connected to the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk (John Rhys-Davies), but is helped by blind lawyer, Matt Murdock (Rex Smith), who knows he's telling the truth and just so happens to be the masked crime-fighter Daredevil. Lou Ferrigno plays the jade giant while Nancy Everhard appears as Murdock's office associate. Marta DuBois plays the crime victim manipulated by the Kingpin.This one isn't as good as the previous "The Incredible Hulk Returns" (1988) because it's hard to beat Eric Allan Kramer's charismatic performance as Thor. The way Daredevil is depicted in his first appearance on the screen is pretty faithful to the comics (a mix of Stan Lee's original version with Frank Miller's early 80's version), except that the creators inexplicably opted for an all-black costume rather than dark red. Perhaps it was cheaper to have a black costume or maybe they felt it would be more realistic. Either way, it was a mistake. Nevertheless, the costume's not bad and it sorta makes Daredevil look like a ninja.Daredevil's origin is eventually divulged and it's pretty interesting. I always felt he was one of the more fascinating superheroes due to his blindness and heightened other senses. It would take fourteen more years before Daredevil would make his theatrical debut (2003) and 26 years before he'd get his own TV series (2015). Ferrigno is effective as usual as the green goliath. Unfortunately, the creators fumble the ball in the female department as the characters played by Dubois and Everhard are pretty unsubstantial.THE FILM RUNS 93 minutes and was shot in the Vancouver, B.C., area. WRITER: Gerald Di Pego.GRADE: B-/C+

I grew up watching the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno "The Incredible Hulk" television series as well as the made-for-TV movies, so in going back to watching this I am tempted to bring in a bit of nostalgia but I will do my best in suppressing that as much as possible to give a relatively objective review. However, I still found this to be entertaining. To this day I can appreciate the sense optimism in the writing and film making that came from the 1980s. Even though "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk" was 1989, I can still feel that optimism and go along with the fun that it brings; even with all its faults and missed opportunities I can still sit and enjoy it for what it is. A care free, fun comic book television film. Even with the fun I had, I do want to bring up the aspects I have against the movie first before ending on its strengths. For instance, a film called "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk"...there's no trial. Unless you count one dream sequence that runs a little too long, then that's it. This felt like a completely missed opportunity to put David Banner and the Hulk on trial. This could have been a very interesting commentary on the people who commit crimes that have been diagnosed with split or multiple personality disorders. I believe there could have been a lot of material to work off of in those regards and gave the audience something with much more depth to it in a time where comic book movies hadn't gone far down before. But to be fair, that's not necessarily what the original series was all about. It had heart of course, but it wasn't known for its social commentary. The show, as well as the TV movies are a campy good time; albeit with a grounded and internally tormented lead character. And another thing that I have a small gripe about is *SPOILER ALERT* how the villain, Wilson Fisk, gets away. He flies off in an aircraft that I would have seen the Fantastic Four riding around in, which is a little too silly for how relatively grounded the film was being prior. Yes, it did have plenty of its campy moments but it never felt like a cartoon...for the most part...until the end. Other than that this was still enjoyable for what it is. As long as you're not trying to take it too seriously then it shouldn't be hard to get into. Bill Bixby does yet another great job in the role of David Banner and shows that he did have some talent behind the camera as a director. It's always fun to see Lou Ferrigno pummeling some bad guys. Rex Smith as Matt Murdock/DareDevil is actually pretty fun and charismatic. And the Kingpin, played by John Rhys-Davies is obviously chewing some scenery. In terms of villains, he isn't a very well developed character but at that point the Kingpin was known best for just being a big bald guy that runs crime from atop his tower so the actor did what he could to at least make him a little fun to watch. So if this sounds like you could sit and have some mindless fun then here you go.

Since the release of Marvels new Netflix Daredevil series, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit this TV movie. I have always been a fan of The 1970's Incredible Hulk TV show. I thought Bill Bixby played the human side of the Hulk very well and quite honestly, I don't think any of the newer actors have come close to his portrayal. What makes the three TV Hulk movies interesting is that Bixby intended to finish the Hulk saga since the television series ended abruptly without giving the show or story a proper farewell. The first Incredible Hulk TV movie featured Thor and the story of Donald Blake while the second film featured Matt Murdock aka Daredevil. You can clearly tell that this film intended to be back door pilot for a future Daredevil TV series because the story mostly focuses on Matt Murdock and his war on crime against the Kingpin. This movie is by no means great but it does do something's right and for me it was fun seeing Bixby reprise the role of David Banner. As I understand, Frank Miller used the look of Daredevil in this film when he wrote his retailing of Daredevils origins in his Man Without Fear mini series. It appears that Marvel, Netflix and co were also heavily influenced by Daredevils look in this film when they were designing Daredevils urban ninja costume in the current Netflix series. If you are a fan of the 70's Hulk show you will definitely find some entertainment in this. If your curious about where Daredevils black ninja outfit came from then this movie is worth a watch. This movie is cheese but in a good 1980's way and if you love superheroes as much as I do, then give this a watch.

Of all episodes (I know this is a feature film), this one will come across as quite grim. On the whole, this is the only episode where viewers will see the Hulk 'extra' angry.ITV (UK TV) showed this in the mid 90's, which was generously cut. As a result of this the film lost its 'anger' identity for the entire plot, rendering the story useless (evidently it was edited terribly - with VHS style Pause/frame motion movement when changing to the hulk).However (oh is this good news(?)) the good came when our channel Five played the film in its entirety a couple of years ago. It showed David's real fear of being attacked in a train, and when he turned into the Hulk, it was the first time we saw the Hulk with the intent to kill. He was ultra angry. He was ripping the seats off and snarling like a rottweiler!Specifically during a scene at a Court, Banner was at his Hulking-best (he was even choking one of the lawyers with his hand - one of the many scenes deleted by ITV).After it being aired on Five, the restored savageness could now justify the crap story. When ITV played it they literally killed off the point of the story... which was basically saying that David is getting a bit **s*ed off with his alter ego.