Michael Morbius (2022) snarls as a vampire for a moment and says, ‘I’m sorry. I’m starting to get hungry. And you don’t wanna see me when I’m hungry.’ He snarls again, as if to emphasise his warning. This is reminiscent of the ‘The Incredible Hulk’ (1978) on TV, when another doctor (Bruce Banner) habitually warns before turning into the green embodiment of rage – ‘Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.’ Seems like Morbius’ trigger is hunger and that of the Hulk is anger. Combine them and we have a hangry (i.e. hungry plus angry) problem.
The ‘paradox’ is that if there is enough mindfulness to note the rising of ‘hanger’, there should be enough control to prevent it from flaring too – unless there is decision to unleash the appetite for destruction later. When negative emotions override positive emotions and reason, Mara, the demonic personification of death (and desire) becomes one’s ‘lord’. Not that there are Morbiuses and Hulks in real life, these extreme depictions of emotions we can ‘relate’ to do warn us of the ‘monsters’ we might slant towards if we let them go untamed.
While some might argue that destructive emotions can ironically be constructive under the certain conditions for ‘heroically’ righting wrongs, the problem is that these preferred conditions might not always arise when emotions totally run wild. ‘Saving the day’ might be somewhat accidental. If there is argument that there can be ‘mindful control’ of what to do and not do in monster mode, this contradicts the fact that it is precisely with unmindfulness that we become monstrous. If we are mindful, we are in control. To the extent we are not, we are already out of control.
