I rewatched Matrix today and it was an apocalypse. Leather clothing not fitting to the actors’ bodies. Sunglasses that were considered stylish (!) at the time. Keanu Reeves as a Messiah (I can understand this part, as he wouldn’t be able to act to save his life). Carrie Ann Moss as a beauty.
:noway:
I tell you, our descendants will look upon this thinking “OK, they topped those 80s films”.
Also it’s clear that when moviegoers all over the world saw the helicopter crashing into the building with a big boom, ideas started developing in the wrong heads.
I’ll give to it that it at least pretended to ask some questions (with the answer being “kung fu their ass, bitch”), it was mildly entertaining and it first showed the world bullet time.
But for the few years it took till the trilogy ended, it was the most overrated movie, ever.
What is the Matrix?
d : an electroformed impression of a phonograph record used for mass-producing duplicates of the original
It’s pretty much half the writing depth and skill Neuromancer had, combined with half the visual appeal Ghost in the Shell had, put into one movie that, while cool enough, ended up about a quarter of the worth of either of the two things it ripped off, in my opinion.
I agree, The Matrix isn’t that great. It’s not a horrible movie, I just never got into it. And I fucking hate “bullet time”. Maybe not because the Matrix did it, but because everyone else did it afterwards. And still do.
The Matrix is underrated because the second two have a few unnecessary, boring action scenes. The philosophical content is actually pretty high for all three movies. I really liked the final battle between Smith and Neo, and the theme of choice versus deteriminism.
The only things The Matrix ripped off were 2-3000 year old ideas, such as Plato’s allegory of the prisoner in the cave, which it applied to the central story of christianity to create a modern messiah story that the average person wouldn’t recognize as a mirror of christianity.
I don’t think the Matrix is going to spur anyone onto new planes of thinking or anything, but most of the opinions in this thread ARE garbage.
The Matrix is important because it points out some important things about ourselves, such as the way we behave more like viruses than mammals. It also brings up the questions of free will vs fate, truth vs illusion, etc. It asks us to reflect on ourselves as a specie and as individuals, which is important because we don’t do that NEARLY enough, and we suffer more than we have to because of it.
Carrie Ann Moss as a beauty.
No. Carrie Ann Moss was a believable fighter in a movie that needed believability. The Matrix is not Charlie’s Angels. Throwing in a scrawny, mentally flaccid actress and pretending she can fight WOULD NOT HAVE WORKED. Don’t even get me started on how movies like CA are making young women more and more dangerously overconfident in the strength they don’t have. Bottom line, it was a big breath of fresh air to see a relatively strong woman playing the role of a strong woman.
(You guys have no idea how easily this post could have turned into a rant about everything that is wrong with modern feminism. Be thankful.)
Keep in mind that they were never trying to pass Carrie Moss off as a traditional beauty - they chose her precisely because of her masculine looks. Just as Keanu Reeves was chosen because of his slightly feminine looks. They were both supposed to be androgynous - and thus, somehow more mystical or something. You know, the balancing of male and female characteristics.
Oh, and it just happened to be alarmingly similar to Neuromancer while it was at it. I’m certain the creators just came up with the idea and acronym for ICE on their own without ever having read Neuromancer, the same way they took its ideas about the future of the internet, and Trinity as a leather-clad, sunglassed fighter who is absolutely nothing like Molly, only exactly the goddamned same. And I’m sure the fact that Zion was an important place in both works was just a coincidence, since every science fiction movie has a place called zion. It happens all the time. Oh, nope, no it doesn’t. I’d even argue the superhuman fighting capabilities of the agents are a little too close to Hideo’s for comfort.
I mean, dear god, it’s completely blatant, have you even read Neuromancer? I honestly cannot imagine someone reading Neuromancer and not believing the Matrix is a straight-up lift from most of the novel.
Man, what else has those very same or alarmingly similar themes? Oh, right, fucking Neuromancer.
Nothing you just listed is unique to Neuromancer, even before the Matrix. Zion is a judeo-christian term referring to Jerusalem (I think), and it’s no surprise that they used it in a movie that parallels christianity to represent the only surviving city of humans.
Leather and sunglasses? Are you shitting me? You think Neuromancer INVENTED that? Let’s get back down to earth here, junior.
I don’t know who the fuck Hideo is, but I thought the fighting abilities of the agents were a little too close to GOKU’S for the Matrix not to be ripping off Dragonball Z. What do you think?
The only things The Matrix ripped off were 2-3000 year old ideas, such as Plato’s allegory of the prisoner in the cave, which it applied to the central story of christianity to create a modern messiah story that the average person wouldn’t recognize as a mirror of christianity.
Oh, didn’t some guys apply Plato’s allegory of the cave to the central story of Christianity a couple thousand years ago… Hmm… What were their names…