Why does this movie feel like it doesn't belong?

I think because it's hulk part 2.

The whole thing is a mess, they should have done 20 mins of origin and then had Banner leave and "5 years later" it.

THEN Norton acts like an ass and ruins anything salvagable. so re-re-reboot in avengers.

It's like Batman vs superman was supposed to be 10 years ago but everyone Fraked that up.

OH SPOILER ALERT!

I think it's the almost total absence of humour. The best bit in the film was Liv Tyler kicking the taxi door then telling Norton "You zip it, we're walking". Everything else felt too serious.

Because it was one of the first two. It was Hulk and Iron Man. One severely underperformed, flopped if you consider the property, and the other one performed marvelously(lol). So the rest of the franchise was based off of Iron Man.

Weird thing is, Incredible Hulk wasn't particularly bad. What "killed" it was the final fight which was very "meh". And that "meh" colored the whole perception of the film.

While I know it's canon with the MCU, as for answering the OP's question, I can only think of three things:

1. It does feel as if this was originally HULK 2, but they tacked on a new origin and rewrote it a bit to make it a reboot.

2. After all the films in the MCU, this has had no real sequel. Will we ever see the Leader, or for that matter the return of Abomination? Hopefully. Betty Ross? I'd like that. Apparently William Hurt will be reprising the role of General Ross in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, so that's a start.

3. Edward Norton didn't come back as Banner.


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This movie is something of a crossroads movie in the MCU Avengers series..... Iron Man 1 and 2 were sort of lighted-heated takes on The Dark Knight series.

The first two Iron Man movies a degree of realism.... just look at Iron Man 3 when fans called for the Mandarin as the villain and people behind the movie came out with comments on "how can we introduce him into our take on Iron Man"?... and coming up with stupid idea's on how to get the Ten Rings of Power into the series.... and in the end turned the character into a joke.

Hulk was the second step towards Avengers, and as this movie steps up into gear it does seem to go toe-to-toe with Iron Man (mainly the first one)... yet seems completely out of sync by the times we get to Avengers Assemble a few years later, even without the actor change, this movie seems blackballed in the series, with just a passing comment here and there.... in fact the SHIELD tv series seems to references it more.... and as a result, does feel out of place.

TIH's tone in general is rather different from other MCU movies. It is a little darker, more serious. At least that is my interpretation, as Jessica Jones similarly seems vastly different from Agents of SHIELD or Agent Carter, the latter being much more in line with typical MCU movie tones. I don't perceive this to be a fault, however, as it keeps things fresh.

I think it fits perfectly with the MCU. They just can't show footage from the movie for obvious reasons. Norton got replaced by Ruffalo and they changed the Hulk's look in Avengers without any explanation. Other than that, the movie has been referenced several times in the other movies, Ross was in Captain America: Civil War, they showed footage of the Hulk attacking the military at the school in Iron Man 2 and Avengers (you could barely see it though). Sure the tone was different but that's because the movie came out a year before Disney bought Marvel (and Iron Man 1 feels a little different from 2 & 3 as well)

This movie was before the Avengers era but it was suppose to be one of the solo origins leading to the Avengers.

The tone of the movie feels different because Marvel was taken by Disney afterwards and they went a little softer on the gritty tone.

If you watch Iron Man 1 which is the only other Marvel origin film before the Disney merge, the tone of that movie is also more serious and matches this movie.

The only difference was that Iron Man was a huge success while Incredible Hulk flopped. I truly believe the reason Incredible Hulk flopped is because they just simply don't know how to make a big angry green monster appealing as a super hero.