Welcome to my monthly Marvel Cinematic Universe series! Going in order of release date, I will be watching each of the MCU movies and analyzing the women’s dialogue. The fun thing about this type of analysis is that it is driven by the data. That means that every movie has the potential to show something different about the women of the MCU. I’ve decided to go by release date instead of the official timeline. I’m curious to see if there are any notable changes to the writing over time.
This month we discuss the oft looked over and perhaps most difficult film of the MCU franchise, The Incredible Hulk.
In order to dig into the script of this film, we need to cover some production background. The high level takeaway from this review, however, is that in my opinion Betty Ross (played by Liv Tyler) is one of the best women in the MCU and got completely shafted. Also, that Marvel needs to hire more character driven screenwriters.
The production background: The Incredible Hulk was not the first major Hollywood Hulk film made in the 2000s. It's predecessor, The Hulk was absolutely awful. I mean, there was a mutant poodle in it and that is really all I remember of the film. It received terrible reviews. In order to add The Hulk into Phase One of the MCU canon, the studio decided to put out a new Hulk film.
The tricky part here was that they did not want to create another origin story film, especially as that was a major criticism of the first one. So, The Incredible Hulk was made to be a sort of reboot, sort of sequel. It establishes during the open credits that Bruce Banner has already become The Hulk and is on the run from the US military for "stealing" military research and development intelligence (basically, his ability to turn into The Hulk which they allude to being based off of Howard Stark's research that created Captain America).
Here is where things get dicey for The Incredible Hulk: The original script with draft by Zak Penn, noted action scriptwriter. You'll notice he also got billed as the writer. However, he then had to leave the production due to scheduling conflicts and as such, Edward Norton (cast as Bruce Banner) stepped in to assist with finalizing the script. Ed is a huge fan of The Hulk and it truly shows in the character development between Bruce and Betty.
It also creates a sort of Jekyll and Hyde film watching experience because it is really obvious which parts of the film Zak Penn wrote and which parts of the film Ed concentrated the most on.
Our leading (and really only) lady, Betty, does not make her appearance until about 50 minutes into the film and honestly I recommend just jumping to that part. The first half of the film is an over-contrived, somewhat racially bigoted excuse to get Bruce back to the United States with thin veneer of plot and a lot of explosions.
However once we get to her, Betty proves to be a highly intelligent, empathetic, and strong willed character. She's not only a doctor of cellular biology who was clever enough to make a backup of the gamma radiation research before it was destroyed, so also has the balls to step in front of a moving tank and yell at it until her father (the general hunting Bruce) stops the tank and comes out to speak with her.
Betty has her own agency throughout the entire film. She insists that Bruce let her help him. She is perfectly capable of standing up to her father and the rest of the military attacking The Hulk. She chooses to remain on the run with Bruce. Even in the film's only almost-sex scene, she gets a moment to clearly state her consent to having sex with Bruce (unfortunately he realizes that it might result in him transforming into The Hulk...thanks Marvel that's something we REALLY needed to know).
Seriously, Betty is a queen and has some of the most wonderful, quietly witty dialogue of the entire film.
BRUCE (dumps BETTY's purse out on the bed) Basically, we can't use any of this, because they can track all of it.
BETTY Well, my lip gloss? Can they track that?
BRUCE ...No, you can take your lip gloss.
She watches Bruce transform into The Hulk, and takes it in stride and starts figuring out how to help him. Bruce and Betty are honestly relationship goals with their mutual respect and care for one another.
That's what makes the rest of script frustrating. It is very obvious that a Yale graduate and Academy Award nominee wrote the meaningful dialogue while the action "plot" was handled by a stock action writer. Ed not only gave Bruce a lot of depth, he also treated Betty's character with respect.
The film ends with a meaningful look of sorrow between The Hulk and Betty before he leaps away, once again on the run from the military. Betty is left behind, never to be referenced or heard from again. In fact, the directors of Avengers: Infinity War just recently revealed that (spoiler alert) Betty was one of the characters killed by Thanos off screen.
I AM BESIDE MYSELF WITH FRUSTRATION. Betty is an amazing character and in the comics not only gets married to Bruce, she is also the Red She-Hulk. While Red She-Hulk likely does not fit in the narrative of the MCU, I also see no reason to kill her off especially off screen. I would absolutely love to watch another Hulk movie with Betty in it and I really feel the franchise deserves more characters like her.
Check back on the last Saturday of every month for the next entry in my MCU series! Next up: Ironman 2.
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