Audience Reactions to the Incredible Hulk (2008)

This morning, I attended the midnight premiere of The Incredible Hulk. I thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm and candor of the other audience members. Throughout the film, they were very reactionary. They gasped and groaned, cringed, laughed, and exclaimed.

When Hulk and Abomination battled, every one of us sat on the edge of our seats with our mouths agape. We didn't breath unless we were gasping, groaning, or cringing. Maybe we chuckled a little too.

The humor was subtle and sarcastic enough that we could actually laugh at it. It wasn't as overwhelmingly cheesy and annoying as most movies. I think some of the audience even missed some of it. It was quite refreshing.

When the credits started to roll, the tension in the theater exploded. All at once, everyone started cheering and clapping.

They stood up and started talking. The entire theater was abuzz. People didn't leave. They were too excited. They formed small groups all over the room to talk. They didn't talk like they did before the movie either. They were all speaking at the same time, right over the top of each other, about three times as fast as normal. It was unlike anything I've ever heard before.

The first person to speak enthusiastically exclaimed The Incredible Hulk to be the "funniest thing I've ever seen!" The film was constantly sprinkled with in jokes and sarcastic humor.

The theater was about 20% female and 80% male. Within the first minute of the credits every single female within earshot of me (there were at least 5) uttered the phrase "And I was like Oh My God!" excitedly.

It was also generally agreed that the movie was "sick." To be specific, "So sick!" "The sickest thing ever!" and "That was SO sick!"

Other comments included repeating "amazing" and "incredible" over and over, "Just beating the crap out of each other!", "best movie I've ever seen," and considerable excitement at the level of detail and incredible number of fandom references. I'm not sure if the hardcore fans even caught them all the first time around.