To smash or not to smash? That’s the question often faced when it comes to the Incredible Hulk. After 40-some-odd years of comic books and TV shows, the central storytelling question surrounding the Green Goliath is whether one should focus on exploring the psychological recesses of Bruce Banner (the Hulk’s alter ego) or just letting the Hulk come out and smash things up real good. In 2003, director Ang Lee went with the former in “Hulk,” a movie that was more somber character study than explosive comic book mayhem, and the resulting feedback from both audiences and critics was a collective shrug. That’s why, five years later, the Hulk is back on the big screen in “The Incredible Hulk,” not a sequel but a full-scale reboot of the franchise. This time around, Banner and the Hulk ditch all that introspective stuff and get busy with the property damage. The result is a superhero movie that’s perfectly serviceable and fun when the action is high, but comes off rather flat when the Hulk isn’t around.

“Incredible” opens up in Brazil, where Banner (Ed Norton) is hiding out. By day, he works in a bottling factory; by night, he practices yoga and martial arts to control his anger and corresponds with a mysterious scientist (codenamed “Mr. Blue”) in order to find a cure for his Hulk transformations. In hot pursuit is “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt), a disgruntled Army general who believes Banner and the Hulk belong to the military—and whose daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler), is hopelessly in love with Banner. Ross tracks Banner down and sends in a team of commandos led by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to capture Banner. There’s lots of smashing, punching and destruction and eventually, Banner returns to the U.S. and enlists Betty’s help in finding a cure.

Whenever the Hulk comes out to play, “Incredible” is incredibly fun. Director Louis Leterrier, whose previous credits include “The Transporter” franchise, is adept at staging energetic action scenes. The Hulk’s first appearance—during a confrontation with some street thugs and Ross’ commandos in the bottling factory—benefits from some moody lighting and is a great introduction to the Hulk. The battles between the Hulk and the military are meaty and the CGI effects are good enough that the Hulk doesn’t look too out of place when tossing tanks around a college campus or smashing police cars in New York. One of the best action sequences doesn’t involve the Hulk at all, though. Before Banner hulks out in Brazil, there’s a thrilling chase through cramped city streets and slummy apartments that’s tense and suspenseful (even if it borrows heavily from “The Bourne Ultimatum”).

The swaggering surety found in fellow Marvel Comics compatriot “Iron Man” earlier this summer is largely absent from “Incredible.” When the pace is frantic and the Hulk is loose, the movie gains a certain confidence that’s lacking whenever the regular humans are on screen. At the very least, Leterrier and Norton give the movie a few light touches (including an amusing riff on the classic “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” line), which keeps “Incredible” from becoming too serious and ponderous, like 2003’s “Hulk.”

What’s missing from “Incredible” is a sense of Banner as a character and why his rage is so difficult to control. Whatever faults can be found in Ang Lee’s version of the Hulk, there was at least a motivation behind Banner’s anger, a root cause for the Hulk’s destructive power. Norton is a fine actor and does a decent job of capturing the major points of Banner’s personality, but he never goes much deeper than being a nervous scientist with a bad temper. Liv Tyler is similarly competent, and while she and Norton have some brief flashes of chemistry, there’s never a real strong sense of relationship between the two. The Hulk gets a pair of decent adversaries in the form of Thunderbolt Ross and Emil Blonsky. Of the two, Hurt turns in a better performance and keeps Ross from becoming a cackling comic book villain by grounding him with real motivations.

But as Ang Lee proved, when it comes to the Hulk, audiences mostly want to see the Hulk get mad and break stuff. Lee’s approach gave the characters some weight, but couldn’t connect with audiences where it seems to matter most—the absolute glee that comes with watching unfettered mass destruction. “The Incredible Hulk” is, in many ways, a lot like Banner—the film doesn’t take many chances and is less than confident when it comes to human interactions. Although, who can blame Marvel Studios for playing it safe after Lee’s film flopped?

The Hulk may be the strongest one there is, but Banner has to be even stronger. The Hulk eventually gets tired of smashing, but Banner’s always left to pick up the pieces