X-Message-Number: 22108
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 05:51:44 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Transhumanist Movie
From: "Charles Platt" <>

See Hulk.

To my mind this is one of the all-time great transhumanist movies. We are not
subjected to the "tragedy" of a character who becomes superhuman. Hulk is a
tormented guy, but science in this movie is not depicted as being evil because
it has an unexpected side effect. There's even a soliloquy against government
and religion.

Of course the premise is absurd, from a comic book. This is understood. But
the comic book was an attempt to create a modern myth figure, and the movie
has accurately captured and extended that early attempt, with absolute respect
for the source. Ang Lee is a smart, subtle director, and he is never
condescending to the source material. Just as he made art out of kung-fu in
Crouching Tiger, he has created art out of the superhero genre.

Moreover this is not just a story of a man who transcends being a man; it's a
movie than transcends being a movie. This is true state-of-the-art rendering
and animation. At the same time the film shows knowledge of, and respect for,
the great movies that explored such themes in the past. There's a shot of a
giant arm holding a female character, exactly like my memory of King Kong
holding Faye Wray. There's a moment when Hulk sees himself in a lake, much
like a moment in the original Frankenstein.

I also enjoyed Ang Lee's cheerful willingness to coopt the "cheap tricks" of
Hong Kong action movies (John Woo style): fast zooms, strange cuts,
slow-motion. And there's a lot of split-screen. I couldn't figure out why
until I realized that it's a way of replicating the look of a comic book. When
you read a comic book, you're aware of the panels either side of the one on
which you are focusing. Multiple contiguous pictures within a screen create
the same effect. A lot of audacity and a lot of love went into this movie.

What I like about it most is that it will implant the idea of using science to
transcend the human condition in the brains of countless young viewers. The
science is as good as it gets in a Hollywood movie: They spin down blood
samples, they use real hypodermics, they have a multifactorial process
(involving nanotechnology, radiation, and an inherited genetic abnormality) to
activate a latent condition--and the computer screens appear to be displaying
real protein molecules.

Hulk is merely a cheap metaphor for what we would like to achieve. But the
movie encapsulates it compellingly, and suggests that even if we make a few
errors along the way, the basic endeavor is still valid.

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