Special effects and primal rage dominate the summer's second movie about a Marvel Comics super hero -- after Iron Man -- and the second Hulk adaptation in five years following Ang Lee's 2003 disappointment. An excess of drippy romance notwithstanding, The Incredible Hulk is the kind of straightforward popcorn movie that ten-year-old boys will go ape over.

The action-seeking, pre-adolescent male inside every film lover has felt overlooked during first weeks of 2008's blockbuster season. Iron Man was a tad dry and not mindless enough to qualify as a traditional comic book flick. The fourth Indiana Jones movie was too nostalgic and, except for the long jungle chase and the killer ants, more tailored to adults. The garish Speed Racer had a subconscious vein of illicit meaning that escaped its core demographic. And Kung Fu Panda was arguably aimed too low, appealing more to the pre-school set.

The monster mash of The Incredible Hulk is more in line with the early adolescent male aesthetic that rules the Cineplex when the weather starts heating up. Tempers are quick to flair this time of year and anger is often the first response to one's problems. Reflect a moment and you'll realize it's your biggest problem, just as it is for the Hulk's alter ego Bruce Banner, played by a stone-faced Edward Norton. Yet wishing it weren't so and trying to suppress it forever is impossible. Flexing your muscles and smashing things simply feels right. Controlling and channeling that instinctual energy is what makes you a hero.

Director Louis Leterrier, working off a script by Zak Penn, plays it safe by avoiding any deeper subtext or ironic layering, instead concentrating on telling a legible story with plenty of action and sprinkling on enough humor to make you think the proceedings are cleverer than they really are. The title sequence harkens back to any number of cheesy 1970s TV shows (think Emergency more than the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno version of The Hulk) and is meant to establish the bond between Bruce and his girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). It also offers glimpses of the experiment that went awry and resulted in Bruce's gamma poisoning and his periodic transformations into the ferocious creature Hulk.

Switching to the present, Bruce is working in a soda bottling plant in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil, trying to avoid detection by Betty's father General Ross (William Hurt) and working anonymously with a stateside scientist to find an antidote for his condition. Through the accidental release of some blood into a soda bottle -- drunk by none other than a man played by Marvel founder Stan Lee -- Ross discovers where Banner is and dispatches a team that includes a soldier named Blonsky (a miscast Tim Roth). The ensuing chase through the slum and factory is excellent. When Bruce's pulse rate hits 200, he morphs into you-know-who.

Waking up in a Guatemalan rain forest bare-chested and clutching his loose trousers, he decides to go to the Culver University campus in Virginia where Betty works. When she spots him in their old pizza parlor haunt, Tyler's upper lip quivers so much it looks like it's going to explode. Meanwhile, Blonsky -- anxious to regain his youthful form and capture the Hulk -- volunteers to become weaponized himself. Ross' scientists administer painful injections that prime him to become a creature dubbed The Abomination, who confronts Hulk in an exciting if too-obviously-digitized battle on the college campus. Hulk shields Betty from harm and eventually she and Bruce make their way to New York and seek out the scientist (Tim Blake Nelson) he communicated with from South America. The climactic showdown between Hulk and The Abomination takes place on the streets of Harlem, which are decimated in an orgy of violence worthy of a Godzilla flick.

The love of a good woman is the only thing that can keep savagery in check, a theme that would be more convincing if Norton and Tyler had better chemistry. Their connection feels more like that between a mother and son, which may be comforting to pre-teen males whose hormones haven't kicked in yet. The producers really only have the bottom line on their minds judging by the ending of The Incredible Hulk. They blatantly set-up the sequel, reportedly an action extravaganza titled The Avengers that will bring together multiple Marvel comic book heroes, including Tony Stark of Iron Man. They can bank on legions of fanboys lining up to buy tickets.

(Released by Universal Studios and Marvel Studios; rated "PG-13" for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images and brief suggestive content.)