The Incredible Hulk (12A) *** Dir: Louis Leterrier With: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt They tried to make him go to anger rehab and he said, yes, yes, yes. At the start of The Incredible Hulk, its hero Bruce Banner is living in Brazil and getting to grips with his rage. He's gone 158 days without turning into a not so jolly green giant and life is generally more relaxed - days are spent watching TV, talking to the dog or hanging out with a martial arts master who does a nice line in controlling one's emotions.

But as fans of the Marvel comic books, television series, and movies know, Banner can never be a man at peace until he finds a cure for what ails him. At this rate - the character has been on the go since 1962 - they'll nail the common cold first.

His last cinema outing was five years ago in Ang Lee's ambitious but dispiriting Hulk. Louis Leterrier's movie, which has Ed Norton playing Banner, has been described as a "reboot" rather than a sequel. The last franchise to be rebooted was Bond. There, it was a case of back to basics with thrilling results. With The Incredible Hulk, the consequences are more humdrum.

Norton's ice-cool CV - American History X, Fight Club - made him a fascinating choice to play the ultimate hothead in the comic-book universe. He was unlucky, however, in that Iron Man, starring the equally hip and unlikely superhero Robert Downey Jr, reached cinemas first. Downey, as coincidence would have it, turns up in TIH as Tony Stark, his Iron Man alter ego, to perform the sterling service of cueing up another movie. Nothing like keeping it in the Marvel family.

Leterrier (Transporter) wastes no time in getting down to business. With a character as well-known as Hulk, he doesn't need to bore the audience silly with an elaborately constructed origins story. We know the score: mild-mannered nuclear physicist Dr Banner was once on the wrong end of a military experiment. Given a mega dose of gamma rays, he turns into a raging leviathan if he gets angry. Imagine a seriously hard-to- handle two-year-old who happens to be 16ft tall, built like a brick outhouse and is a novel shade of green. Scary.

For the safety of others, particularly his scientist love Betty (Liv Tyler in smart-girl specs), the otherwise gentle Banner is hiding himself away until a solution can be found. On his trail is General Ross (William Hurt), Betty's father and military bully-boy. Having been frustrated in his quest many times before, the general has this time asked tough-as-tungsten Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to join his team.

Roth is right up there with Norton as the last actor you'd imagine playing an action man. Neither looks as if he could tear a wet lettuce leaf in two, never mind chuck Humvees around like Frisbees. That's where science comes in handy. Just as the Hulk is transformed through rage, Blonsky gets a little help from the men wielding test-tubes and syringes to become a stronger soldier.

All this monkeying around in labs gives Norton, making his writing debut, and co-scripter Zak Penn (Fantastic Four, X-Men: The Last Stand) a chance to make all the right noises about the dangers of meddling with nature and pitting science against God. Not a lot of time is spent on this promising tack, however, because there's just too much else to be getting on with.

Custom and practice in superhero movies dictates that homage must be paid to the character's creator (another fine cameo appearance by Stan Lee), his previous imitators (watch out for a certain gentle giant security guard), and his modus operandi (cue scenes of Banner walking to some lovely sad music provided by Glasgow-born Craig Armstrong).

Witty asides also need to be inserted - Hurt has a good line about his daughter's choice in suitors. And let's not forget the all-important love interest. Tyler's scenes with the computer-generated Hulk call to mind King Kong bonding with his lady. Just as the big ape took Fay Wray, Jessica Lange and later still Naomi Watts to his clifftop lair, so the Hulk sits with his Betty in a cave. He even roars like Kong to let the rest of the jungle know he's in residence.

It's all very sweet and far more captivating than the snooze-inducing fight scene at the end. There's a certain wow factor in seeing large animated creatures knock seven bells out of each other, but it tends to diminish after about 30 seconds.

Norton, the actor and writer who promised to deliver a new spin on the character, ends up serving some same old-same old. If he wasn't such an absorbing presence it would be less of a problem, but faced with the choice of watching Norton as the angst-ridden Banner or seeing the computer generated Hulk do his stuff, the quiet man lands the knockout blow every time.