The TV show was fantastic IMO. Before that show Hulk was a secondary character in Marvel canon. Now he's Marvel Studios' only A-lister
The first Hulk film in 2003 is what screwed everything up. Reception of TIH was mostly positive and it made decent money at the BO in spite of the major uphill battle it had to face.
I truly believe if 2003 Hulk hadn't happened and we were only given TIH then it would have been almost as popular as Iron Man 1 and a sequel would have been greenlit immediately
Also, Iron Man was a hit largely due to Robert Downey Jr. Try and picture anyone else in that role. Doesn't work.
The TV Show was good for the
time. And it deserves credit for elevating the Hulk in the public conciousness. Unfortunately that influence has stuck in the studios minds for the subsequent films. No other way to explain how a character who talks in the books, who shows intelligence, reason and humour, gets rendered virtually mute with the narrow emotional range of pissed off or puppy eyed, for
both movies. They followed the TV show rather than the books for the 'characterisation' of the Hulk himself, and that won't sell so well these days.
And I agree 03 Hulk had a bad effect on TIH, but I still remain convinced TIH would have done a lot better if they had gotten the Hulk himself right. They were closer than 03, but still dropped the ball in that regard.
And Iron-Man...Well, impossible to know for sure how well it would have done with another actor. Thing is when RDJ was cast we couldn't know he would nail the part so well until he went and did it. Same as with Ledger as the Joker. When cast I doubt many foresaw just how successful his performance would turn out to be. Bottom line, RDJ is
great as Stark, and yes, it's damned hard to imagine anyone else in the role (now), but he is not the only game in town. Sometimes we simply just can't know how good an actor will be in a part until we see them do it.
