The computer-generated Hulk rages through the streets of New York City in the action-packed Incredible Hulk, which stars Edward Norton.

Universal Pictures / Marvel

The Incredible Hulk, the story of a mild-mannered scientist whose unwitting exposure to gamma radiation turns him green and huge when he gets angry? The comic book turned hit TV show turned movie? Didn’t we see that a few years ago?

Well, yes and no. Eric Bana played the not-so-jolly green giant in Hulk, a 2003 movie version directed by intellectual Taiwanese director Ang Lee. But that film, which explored the conflicted relationships of scientist Bruce Banner, his girlfriend and her military father, was not quite the summer popcorn movie many fans had expected.

I’m not sure that the new The Incredible Hulk is any less cerebral or dark and brooding. Perhaps more so, in fact, thanks to Edward Norton, who gives a very thoughtful, internalized performance as Bruce Banner. The tale is, after all, basically a reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The new film was, however, produced by Marvel Comics, which already has had great success this season with Iron Man (which gets a clever nod at the end of The Incredible Hulk). Apparently, Marvel felt a new brush-up of the Hulkster was in order after the lackluster box office of the 2003 film. And so the special effects this time are more colossal. The Hulk (who goes by the alias of Mr. Green sometimes) is a house-sized creature who looks very much like his comic-book self. And there’s a rousing battle staged on 125th Street in Harlem in which the Hulk battles a Hulk wannabe. Yet by the time all this happens, both enormous monsters look more like a couple of Play-Doh creatures battling it out, just like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. They are more comic book than real.

At the start of the film, which was directed by Frenchman Louis Leterrier (who made his name with the two thrilling Transporter movies), Bruce Banner’s unfortunate experience with the gamma rays at a military laboratory spins by in a zippy two minutes, a bow to the rare moviegoer who doesn’t already know the story.

Cut from this to a slum on a hillside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Bruce has been hiding out. But not for long. He has kept in contact with girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), a scientist who was wounded in his original attack and escape from the military lab. She has recovered and is back at the picturesque Virginia college where she teaches, trying on the sly to find a cure for the green feeling that occasionally comes over Bruce.

Following the film’s snazzy opening, the pace seems to slow to a crawl here. Unfortunately for Betty and Bruce, their actions have caught the attention of her father, Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. He designed the original experiment in order to create a team of super soldiers who would be impervious to bullets. The general wants the serum from Bruce’s blood for his plans as much as Bruce wants to destroy it. With his new aide, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who is eager to not only find Bruce but to get himself injected with the serum and become invincible, the general believes he has just what he needs for success.

Soon the general and Blonsky are all over that Rio slum and Bruce is on the run. But perhaps the story has become too familiar in that the surprise last-second twists in the chase sequence seem as inevitable as the moment when Bruce, his heart racing, turns into the Hulk. No surprise, either, that he’s going to get out of Brazil, nor that he will soon be knocking on Betty’s door.

The film follows a pattern laid out by the comic books and this time there aren’t many moments for offbeat fun, although Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk in the TV series, turns up in a cameo. (The late Bill Bixby, who played Bruce in the series, appears in a clip from another of his TV shows, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.) Thank goodness for Tim Blake Nelson, who provides a touch of comic relief as a scientist who may hold the remedy for Bruce’s gamma ray sickness, although the character is not quite the savior Bruce and Betty had hoped for.

There are several flashily violent encounters in The Incredible Hulk that fill the screen with flaming debris. The film is being marketed to preteens and parents should be aware that the violence tests the edges of its PG-13 rating.

What with all the running around, Norton and Tyler don’t get to create a great deal of chemistry. Roth’s Blonsky is a fairly standard movie menace, using his furrowed brow to good effect. In some respects the story mirrors the dilemma of Peter Parker in the Spider-Man movies,. but this superhero is certainly not as accessible nor as much fun.

** 1/2The Incredible Hulk

Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt.

Rated: PG-13, contains violence, profanity.

mjanuson@projo.com