The Hulk

So The Incredible Hulk comes out today on DVD and Blu-Ray. It has a special 3 disc set that you can purchase along with the regular single disc. I went and saw this movie in the theater and I have to say that I liked it. I thought that they did a great job with it. Then again I liked the version that Ang Lee did a few years ago with Eric Bana as the Hulk. The way he shot it I thought was interesting and different.

Anyway, if you are unfamiliar with the story of the Hulk it goes like this: Bruce Banner is a brilliant scientist (they always are) who helps to develop a gamma bomb. While testing the bomb, a teenager wanders onto the test site and Banner ends up saving him by using his own body as a shield against the gamma rays. Rather than killing him however, it unleashes a gamma powered, green skinned, super powerful beast. Now everytime Bruce gets angry, the Hulk takes over. He is pursued by the government and others and no one knows for sure what to make of him.

So there is the basis of the story in a nutshell. Like I said, I thought that they did a really good job of capturing the essence of this in the movie. If you're looking for something to watch this evening that won't require a great deal of brain power to be used, pick it up and give it a try.

What I really want to mention with this however is what it has always symbolized to me, what I thought the first movie did a good job of portraying. That is the mental aspect of things. For me the Hulk represents powerful emotion. Not just anger or rage, but the over all power of emotions. Think about it for a second. Our emotions can cause us to do a lot of things. They can transform us in ways. The Hulk represents that trying to keep those emotions in check.

Bruce is often afraid of what will happen if he allows the Hulk to run free. He therefore makes every effort to keep himself from reaching certain points, afraid of what it may trigger in him. This is the way that we react too at times with our emotions. So often we want to hold them in and keep them bottled up. We try to find ways to keep control over everything. That is what Bruce does. What we finally learn though is that no matter what we do, how much effort we put into this at some point those emotions are going to come erupting out. There comes a time when we have to release those feelings that we have bottled up.

There are of course times in our lives where allowing this to happen can cause problems. But there are other times that it is exactly what needs to be done. It is up to us though to be able to discern when the time is right for each. Just like Bruce finally has to let the Hulk go on occasion, we have to let out our feelings as well. The key is to not be a slave to those emotions, but rather to master them and know when is the right time to go with the flow. When we do that, we tame the Hulk in our own lives. Peace and Love y'all.