I wonder what would happen if David Banner were finally put on trial. Let's find out in "Trial of the Incredible Hulk!" OK, so the title might cause you to expect something far different that what you're actually going to see here. In some ways this is more of a Daredevil vs. Kingpin movie than it is about the Hulk.

David has given up on finding a cure. He has become content with simply hiding out and avoiding trouble. As long as the creature doesn't have a chance to surface David is at peace with is life. As much as he's given up on life he can't stand by and watch a woman get hurt which results in the Hulk emerging. As no good deed goes unpunished it's David who is arrested for the attack thanks to the Kingpin who needs to pin this on David in order to keep his own goons out of the pen.

Enter Matt Murdock, an attorney whose primary drive in life is to stop Kingpin's reign of crime that has the city terrorized. He can't understand why David won't take the stand in a trial that would aide in his crusade. Matt has a secret himself, though; he's a masked hero known as Daredevil. Teamed up with the Hulk he is about to become more green and red than Kingpin can handle with the life of one brave witness hanging in the balance.

Until the popularity of DVD exploded "Trial of the Incredible Hulk" was the hardest of the Hulk movies to find. There are a total of 3 that came out after the series ended, but while the other two were fairly common (I saw them each at least a couple of times on TV and VHS), I never actually got to see this one until I got the DVD.

You’re probably wondering why this one is so elusive; I think it’s mostly because it is far from great. What makes it so bad? First let me say that I do think it’s worth watching; I’ve seen it more than once since buying it and will see it again sooner or later. For some of the more positive aspects, it has a good story concept (despite how corny it sounds to put the Hulk in a courtroom) and some decent to great actors in many of the most important roles.

I wouldn't say this is John Rhys-Davies's best role, but he still lends a bit of credibility to Kingpin. Nicholas Hormann is particularly good as Edgar who I personally think steals every scene he's in even when up against the mighty Gimli (if you don't get that reference, run, don't walk, to see "Lord of the Rings" NOW!). Rex Smith as Murdock / Daredevil is not bad (better in many ways than Ben Affleck despite getting paid far less and participating in a much lower-budget production). And of course the team that makes this version of the Hulk's story iconic, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, are everything you could hope for them to be.

The biggest flaw in actors or characters is that of Ellie. She is not very well written or portrayed. She’s meant to be sympathetic, but she’s not believable enough to pull it off. Some of the other minor characters lack as well, but for the most part the acting is not one of the major issues here.

As much as I hate to say anything negative about Bill Bixby and his directing abilities (after all, much of what I love so much about the series is due to him) there are a lot of elements that fall short of what I expected starting with Lou as the Hulk getting too little screen time, far, far too little. In fact, I better go check the credits to be sure he was in this at all. What was the title of this series? Oh, that's right, The Incredible HULK! Think we could get some, you know, Hulk in here for a few minutes?

That's bad enough but there's more. Daredevil's scenes are weak in their action choreography, camera work is poor (some shots are at odd speeds making them look weird), and some special effects sequences lack the technology to make them look realistic (particularly the final scene with Kingpin). 1 or 2 of these elements alone might not be so bad, but together they tear the production down in a hurry.

The big finale of all other Hulk shows feature the show’s namesake, this one features David and Daredevil. It lacks the explosive power we’ve come to expect especially since, like I’ve said, the Daredevil choreography is not impressive. Hulk should have been given some time here facing off with Kingpin and lending his Hulk bulk to the battle in some way, shape, or form.

To make this feel less like a Hulk movie is the absence of the familiar theme. The most unforgivable lack, however, is the absence of Jack McGee. We’ve followed him since the original movie, and suddenly he has fallen off the face of the Earth. His character deserved a more significant final end than he was given in the last movie even if it had only been referred to rather than acted out. Have him give up the Hulk chase to make a life with a woman, find out David is alive and feel compassion for his plight to the point that he keeps the secret once he has the story he's been after for so long, virtually anything that paid respect to the character would have been better than nothing.

We do get to see Hulk rampaging in a courtroom which is a great moment for those of us that enjoy rampaging monsters breaking stuff. It's really the only truly good Hulk-out in the whole movie. Despite this one courtroom scene and David being in jail there is very little of anything having to do with David or the Hulk actually being on trial. If you think you're going to be seeing Hulk being confronted by the legal system or David having to defend himself while faced with a jury you might come away disappointed.