Review of The Incredible Hulk

THE INCREDIBLE HULK
STORY: A scientist seeks to cure himself from a self-inflicted experiment gone wrong before a warmonger can capture him to use his results to make perfect soldiers.
MESSAGE: Facing the problem, studying the problem, persistence, self-control, core values, self-defence and love all win the day.
WIN: A good representation that one must get out from under oppression in order to get anywhere. The hero was very observant and had quick reaction times. In a way, the movie exaggerates those hidden other personalities in us that come out when we're not being ourselves, and it correctly shows that though we attempt to control it, it is only by eliminating the source that we can be free of them. (The source of our monsters is identified, and a solution for getting rid of the source, is outlined in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.) There is some truth to the fact that a person can, to some degree, be present, even if acting out. The hero exhibited greatness, in loving someone despite the harm that person has inflicted, or, if not loving, at least letting them live. He sticks to his guns. The hero enlisted the help of religion to make himself stronger, and to proof himself somewhat from his inner demon. Although couched in physical terms (emotion related to a body part, control connected with breathing) there was the sense that one could, through discipline, etc., rise to a point of being in control. (In other words, Man is more than just a stimulus-response animal.) The heroine was amazing at seeing through to the being within, despite the exterior change. She was brave, admiring, loving and helpful. The bad guy was accurately antisocial, in his alliance with destructive things and his distain for others, even his daughter. There was a nice crack about how even though a guy was a top psychiatrist, he was still a nice guy. This acknowledges that most psychiatrists are wierd. He had a small role, but exhibited the typical fallacy of psychiatry that one must tell a person what is wrong with them. The movie correctly showed that a person has to be good to have a lot of power.
LOSE: A drop of the hero's blood ended up in an old man, but we didn't see the result. Other drops ended up in another man, and we saw the result. Were the results different? The movie, in a tiny way, did promote psychiatry by making the psychiatrist a guy who saw positive motives in the hero. In reality, psychiatry does not assume there is goodness and virtue deep within us (that we are spiritual at the core) and psychiatry, as a science, assumes that we are all flawed, and soul-less, base animals at the core. Generally, psychiatry is a tool of anti-social people. In this case, the psychiatrist was against the bad guy, which made the psychiatrist a good guy (a fact salvaged by the earlier statement that this guy was uncharacteristic of the usual psychiatrist.) The Hulk went beyond mere self-defense and created more destruction than was absolutely necessary. The hero did try to take responsibility for fixing his error, but he did originally work to help create the ultimate soldier, which is a fact uncharacteristic of true hero. In other words, with the guilt of that collusion on his head, he may not have been able to be as powerful as he was.
EFFECT ON ME: It restored my faith that people are good at the core, deep down at the spiritual level. It made me want to look for and love that core which is good in people, looking past those additives that appear to make people seem evil.
Sincerely,
Becky Mate
Script Consultant
www.virtueinthearts.com