In the theatrical movies, there isn’t much to choose from in terms of the portrayal of Hulk. They all work for me.
Bruce Banner, however…
Ed Norton caught Banner’s wariness perfectly. I believed that this was a man always on the run. But I didn’t see Banner’s intelligence in his portrayal.
Mark Ruffalo had the advantage of scripts that mostly get Banner right. But while he says the right things as Banner, he doesn’t feel like Banner from the comics to me. Something about his voice and demeanor are off. I can’t quite pinpoint it. He’s bigger and a little more gruff than Banner is in my head.
(Edit: Ruffalo’s talkative Banner / Hulk combination in Avengers: Endgame worked better for me. It felt like the Hulk circa the Pantheon storyline.)
So far, Eric Bana came the closest to how I saw Banner from the comics. In a theatrical movie.
But since there were also television movies (Return of the Incredible Hulk, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, The Death of the Incredible Hulk), it’s within the scope of the question to nominate Bill Bixby’s performance as David Bruce Banner as the one that feels closest to the classic comics. He was a little on the slight side. You could believe he was intelligent. And he was gentle, compassionate, and unassuming.
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