Return of the Incredible Hulk
From Hulk Wiki
In the late 1980s, television movies which reunited the casts of older TV shows were big business. Nostalgic viewers tunes in to see new stories about characters they had followed years earlier. In 1988, THE INCREDIBLE HULK became another series that reformed as part of a reunion movie when "The Incredible Hulk Returns" roared onto NBC as a TV movie of the week. NBC viewed the Hulk as a great vehicle for spinning off television series which featured other Marvel comics characters. This film featured the Hulk's comic nemesis, Thor, and rocketed into the top five of the ratings that week. A year later, NBC returned with a second Hulk movie featuring the marvel comics hero, Daredevil, called "The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk". The movie also did well in the ratings, holding its own against the world television premiere of Harrison Ford's movie "Witness" and crushing ABC's big budget, heavily promoted "War & Remembrance" mini-series. NBC had planned to produce Hulk movies which featured the She-Hulk and Iron Man but neither made it to the screen because the scripts that were written were reportedly very weak. The green one made his last live action television adventure in 1990 in "The Death of The Incredible Hulk", this time without another Marvel side-kick. The film also did well in the ratings, but not as well as its two predecessors and NBC passed on doing a proposed fourth movie entitled "The Revenge of the Incredible Hulk". Bixby went into negotiations with ABC and CBS to produce the film, but his battle with cancer ended any chance of it being produced.
The post-series TV movies are disapointing when compared to the best episodes of the original INCREDIBLE HULK series. The big problem was that Ken Johnson had no involvement in their production. As a result, the values that Johnson brought were pretty much thrown out the window. The first film played like a bad episode fom the series' fifth season. The second was somewhat better but did not feel like a true Hulk adventure. The third and final film did approach the series in terms of story qualty but, again, suffered from many flaws.
In the late eighties, there were a wave of "reunion" movies on television as the stars of "The Andy Griffith show", "The Brady Bunch", "The Six Million Dollar Man" and many other popular shows of yesteryear reunited for new tales involving the characters they had made famous. 1988 found Bixby, Ferrigno, Colvin and Corea working together again on "The Incredible Hulk Returns.", a two hour film for NBC. Now settled working for a research institute, David has been able to prevent his transformation from occurring for over two years, is very near to completing a machine which will cure him, and is involved in a serious relationship. This is spoiled by the arrival of a former student of David's with an "affliction" of his own: an alter ego that happens to be the Marvel Comics' character, Thor. The Incredible Hulk once again begins to make appearances when corruption within the institute prompts a crime organization to steal his invention. With the creature's reappearance, David once again is forced to go on the run. Though weak in many respects, The Incredible Hulk Returns" garnered the fifth highest rating spot out of all programs aired that week. NBC, encouraged by the high ratings, signed a deal with Marvel comics to produce more Hulk movies featuring other Marvel comic characters. Six years after he walked off into the sunset in A Minor Problem, we find that David Banner has been gainfully employed at the Joshua-Lambert Research Institute where he and a team of scientists are putting the final touches on a Gamma Transponder. It has been two years since his last transformation into the creature and Banner is now happily involved in a relationship with a young widow. Banner hopes to put all worries about the risk of transforming into the Hulk to rest by using the Gamma Transponder to reverse the effects of gamma radiation on himself. Unfortunately, things don't go according to plan. David is surprised by the arrival of Donald Blake, a former student of his. Blake explains that he now shares a mystical bond with a Viking god named Thor. Blake calls upon Thor to appear in order to prove the validity of his story. The viking god causes David to transform and a battle between the Hulk and Thor leaves David's lab severely damaged. With his experiment now set back, David and his transponder become the target of a crime organization that is spurned on within the ranks of the Joshua-Lambert Institute. Comments: A disapointing movie that hurts even more when you consider that this was the Incredible Hulk's first return to prime time television in six years! The movie does retain the feel of the original series a bit better than its two sequels but still falls flat. Kenneth Johnson once said that an audience would only give you one big "buy" per episode which was usually spent on getting them to believe that a man could transform into a large, green monster. Having the Hulk fight a viking god is preposterous enough to slap be a real slap in the face of original Hulk fans. The acting is poor, the special effects are cheap looking and the all-around production values are poor. About the only thing to note in this movie is that this would be the last time we would see jack colvin as this was his lat outing as jack mcgee his chracter was left unresloved . Eric Kramer ("The Hughley's") guest stars as Thor. 1 1/2 Stars
