Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Five Pearls of Incredible Hulk Wisdom

1. Giving Hulk a shield in this movie was a stroke of brilliance. In the last movie, Hulk was just a raving lunatic. Now he's a misunderstood super soldier with an anger management problem.


2. Early on in the movie, Banner's on the run in Latin America. He's jumping from country to country and ends up down and out in Mexico City. It tugged at my heart strings to see a White man being brought so low. I could tell it was tough times when the little Mexican boy thought he was a begger and gave him some pesos (I guess the dollar isn't worth what it used to be). How humiliating! I almost teared up, but I did a breathing exercise. I'm aight now.

**NOTE: Want to do a fun experiment? Try putting the keyword "Mexican" (Not safe for work) into Google image finder (without safe search on.) This is the third highest result:I wonder what the Google algorithm is trying to tell us. And yes, I put in "Black man" (definitely not safe for work.) Trust me, you don't want to know.

3. Is it me, or is it not such a big deal to see US soldiers blown up in a movie nowadays? Especially the cartoon movies. In Transformers, it was shocking to see Decepticons slaughtering US soldiers in the desert. Forget about an IED, our soldiers are safer in real life than they are in the movie theatre. What's more troubling is that the films don't emotionally involve us in the death of the troops. We're used to that kind of treatment for the usual "enemies" in the movies--like angry Negroes, or crazy Arabs, or crafty Asians, but to be cheering along the hero as he kills good-ole-American troops apart is surreal.


It was a sad moment in Ironman when the troops died, but not enough to keep Tony Starks from jeopardizing more soldier's lives. Hulk takes it a step further. He plucks a helicopter out of the air like it was a mayfly and sends men hurtling to their deaths. It's kind of scary that as a moviegoer, in that moment, you don't even care. And if anyone has forgotten, there are soldiers dying--for real--as a result of a military experiment gone horribly wrong.

4. And isn't it a little creepy the way these movies depict the military industrial complex? They make Tony Starks--an arms dealer for goodness sakes!-- into a hero and SHIELD is made into the Department of Homeland Security on steroids. Quick question: Where was Nick Fury when Katrina hit?


I hear they're making a new Shield movie, but I'm going to have to pass if they cast Michael Chertoff in any more films.

5. Besides the Incredible Timroth, there is an even more potent wielder of super power in this movie: Betty Ross.

Take special note of when and how the weather changes in this movie. Here's a hint: Whenever Betty (Liv Tyler!) wears a white top, she causes it to rain! Maybe I've still got Lord of the Rings on the brain, but she's got some power. Storm, chile, get out the way! When this woman takes her coat off, the clouds churn and out comes the wet stuff. She could be the Muhammad Ali of wet T-shirt contests!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen the Hulk yet, but Iron Man taught me this: Americans are the only ones who make weapons and this is a good thing except when it gets in the hands of dark-skinned people in deserts, when it becomes a bad thing, but it's never anyone's fault unless he's bald. Bald people are generally bad.

I won't even tell you what I learned from The Princess Bride, which I just watched recently here at Putney. Oh. Mah. Gawd.

Abdel Shakur said...

I think I learned a similar lesson from Iron Man--which was weird because I actually enjoyed the movie. One of the things that I think made it palatable is that the Arab people in the movie were a throwback to a time when the stereotype was that they were all greedy and conniving. People would have probably been uncomfortable if they were running around blowing up stuff, shouting about Allah.

I'm curious to hear what you learned from Princess Bride. Notice and Focus!

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