The Incredible Hulk

Skippable, and it is the one entry the franchise itself has mostly disowned. Edward Norton was replaced after it, Marvel did not hold the distribution rights for years, and no sequel was made, so a film released six weeks after Iron Man ended up as an orphan.

What you lose by skipping it is small and specific: General Ross, who matters again seventeen years later, and the Abomination, who turns up twice in Phase Four as a joke. Both are reintroduced when they return. Everything about Banner is restated in The Avengers.

The film is better than its reputation and is pitched oddly. It opens as a fugitive thriller, with a man in a Brazilian favela learning breathing exercises and counting days without an incident, and that stretch is genuinely good. Then it becomes a monster film, and the final act is two digital creatures fighting in Harlem at night, which is exactly as legible as that sounds.

Norton's involvement in the writing became a public disagreement, and the released cut reportedly lost a substantial amount of the more introspective material. The post-credits scene, with Tony Stark in a bar, was the second time the franchise promised something.