Heroic smackdown

Timur Bekmembetov’s “Wanted” is pretty but dumb, much like the character Fox played by Angelina Jolie. There’s a nifty, not-totally-unforeseen twist towards the end and James MacAvoy is a solid action lead, but for all the visual trickery and physics-defying stunts, “Wanted” remains underdeveloped in its execution.

Louis Leterrier’s “The Incredible Hulk” is a quasi-sequel-cum-reimagining of Ang Lee’s version from not too long ago. Replacing Eric Bana with Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, Leterrier also places the emphasis on sheer spectacle as the big green does what it does best: smash. William Hurt shows up as General Ross and this time there’s actually a real villain, the Abomination. The relationship between Banner and Betty Ross is again taken into consideration. For better and for worse though, this “Hulk” keeps the focus on smash. Compared to “Iron Man”, not to even mention “The Dark Knight”, this one falls short.

You'll find yourself wishing for the end as you endure Neil Marshall’s “Doomsday”, which stars Rhona Mitra and Bob Hoskins (!) in yet another apocalyptic tale of some virus that does something and bleeb blop gloop. After an hour, I just couldn’t care anymore. I’d heard awful dialogue (“You're going there? If there is such a thing as hell on earth, that's it”) and seen an extended cannibalism sequence. Yet I pressed on, because surely it would get better? I would not. As a major fan of the director, the man responsible for Brit-werewolf flick “Dog Soldiers” and the best horror in recent memory, “The Descent”, “Doomsday” is a pure stinker, so bad that it’s not even so bad it’s good.

Martin McDonough’s “In Bruges” is a delightful black comedy set in the preserved medieval town of Bruges (Brugge), featuring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell as two hitmen waiting for the dust to settle back in London while questioning why on earth their employer (Ralph Fiennes) would send them to, of all places, this one. “In Bruges” uses Bruges as a breathtaking backdrop to the unravelling of the characters’ fates. In a year where the bat cast its shadow over everything else, even before its release (with Ledger’s death), it’s easy to neglect some of the gems that came out this year, and “In Bruges” is one of them.