The Matrix - POST ALL MATRIX-RELATED DISCUSSION HERE

[remixor]

Scorsese is a fantastic filmmaker.  There are still a couple of his films of his I've not seen, but almost every one I've seen has been pretty incredible.  

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is also awesome (as is the novel).  McMurphy rules.

I've not seen the other films you list, but it seems like you have pretty good taste in movies so I'm sure I'll check some of them out.

[MrColossal]

holy shit brainstorm!

i've seen the ending to that movie tons of times and never known what it was called....

thank you mr mcphee

[DGMacphee]

Narangas, aye, I agree.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I wrote my list, and quite ironic as I finished watching the entire series and movies today -- Funny, but I'm not too sure why I didn't add it to my list.

But after reading up on a lot of the religious meaning in the story, it's interesting to see the parallels between NGE and various religious and scientific texts -- especially to see the story combine the idea evolution and religion, which are normally two opposite extremes.

However, the suprising thing I also found out is director/writer Hideaki Anno never purposely alluded to anything with most of the Christian symbolism and reference -- Anno and the crew said they just added a lot of that stuff because it looked and sounded cool.

So much for authorial intent, eh -- sometimes people just accidently create meaning.

Eric: I remember my Dad showed me that movie a long time ago -- and I never forgot it.

[TheYak]

My proverbial 2 money units:

I saw the Matrix: Reloaded on the 15th and enjoyed the experience.  I may mention something from the movie that might spoil it for others.  If that's the case, then wtf is that particular dumbass doing reading this thread?

I found the Matrices, particularly The Matrix, to be a welcome introduction of the masses to the sci-fi/cyberpunk world.  There have been very few movies of this type and not many have been any good.  Shall I name a few examples?  Hackers, Bladerunner (which some may argue about but was unnecessarily obscure and was much less interesting than the novel, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?"), Lawnmower Man (which vaguely comes into this category and was loosely based upon a Stephen King short story that has absolutely nothing to do with anything digital).

The Matrix had a nice, "What if?" factor coupled with some excellent camera work and some nice HR Gigerish imagery.  

On to Reloaded:  It leapt right back to the ending of the original, and relied heavily upon action.  Do fight scenes really need to take up 3/4 of the movie in order to keep our attention?  The scene where he's beating up the Mr. Smiths is unnecessarily long.  I know it's meant to be an epic battle and show the force he's up against in that department but it actually gains tedium rather quickly.  I didn't care too much about the car chase but enjoyed the in-the-car fight scene for its intricacy.  I, personally, would've preferred a bit more dialogue in the movie although it has actually been criticized for having too much.  I'm totally with Eric on one thing: WTF was with that rave scene?  The techo was sub-par and watching a bunch of neo-tribalists jumping around is hardly my idea of entertainment.  The love-scene was particularly sterile as Keanu gives it at much depth and feeling as he does most of his characters (will he ever get any better than Bill & Ted?).  The "Exploding Vagina" scene was unnecessary.  Not that I found it offensive, merely excessively stupid.  My wife refers to the scene as the Orgasm Cake scene while I refer to it as the Unhealthy Devil's Food that promotes bladder infection and a severe need to urinate.  That said, I found Reloaded to be an entertaining diversion in the form of some nicely-implemented action taking place in a fairly familiar sci-fi world.  

There are some, my sister among them, that consider a movie to be a waste of time unless it provides some insight into the human psyche or provides them with some bit of knowledge so they can walk away from it feeling that the time has been well spent.  I, for one, think a movie is a means of escape, relaxation and entertainment.  I enjoy comedys, dramas, action flicks, indie flicks, "B" movies and others.  If you want something in-depth or meant to be a learning experience, take a college course.  Read a book.  Do some internet research on a topic that interests you.  But don't go see some audio/visual entertainment that will last anywhere from 80 to 160 minutes and is meant to appeal to the majority of the population.    

[magintz]

Well... guess what I saw last night

It was brilliant, fight scenes galore, which were all done superbly. An interesting plot line, and a great film throughout.

Has anyone else seen it yet? It was amazing, words cant really describe it, you have to see it for yourself.

SPOILER
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Spoiler

My Favourite part was the fight with all the Agent Smith's, that was brilliant, how Neo could still manage to defeat them (sorta).

I also thought the idea of the keymaker was good, and that at the end Neo had the coice of ending the war or saving Trinity, we all knew what he would choose, and I am looking forward to the third film sooooo much now.

[close]

[Fuzzpilz]

Look below, EvenWolf started a thread on this a week ago (titled "The Matrices"). Plenty of discussion in there.

As for myself, I haven't seen it yet... if it ends up being on TV at some point when I have access to one, I'll probably watch it, but I don't care enough to pay for it or bother getting it off the net.

[Nacho]

I´m a little bit tyred of people starting topics about the same film. Matrix is just an excuse for showing unnecesary effects. The effects must be at the service of the storyline and not on the contrary. I think I´m going to became an anti-Matrix soon.

[evenwolf]

Hey, take note Magintz hasn't been around for a bit. Give em some slack.  Altho I disagree with almost every point he has about the movie , he has a right to post his opinions.  And maybe I should have made my subject line a little more obvious..

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

Perhaps you should let go and just enjoy the special effects (they're worth enjoying).

[Evil]

* Evil joins Farlander's anti-matrix cult, erm, group...

The matrix is a very stupid concept. People say "It has a point, things may not be what the seem." Then make a giant 2 hour fight scene and then at the end show a sign that says, everything may not be what it seems. The matrix does the same thing with a hard to follow plot which is dumb in the first place...

[Privateer Puddin']

how is it to hard to follow? maybe you have something of an IQ challenge?

[Nacho]

Hey! No probs with Maginz, I welcome him back to the forums, even talking of Matrix  

I also agree with Archangel in the aspect that films are just for enjoying them. Films that make me think are good sometimes, but I think that the final purpose is to entertain. After this, let me say that sometimes, with some films, the special effects can be very bothering! Let me give an example...

I saw just ten minutes of the John Woo´s film "Mission: impossible 2". I just couldn´t stand what I saw. I couldn´t also see "Charlie´s Angel" and the last James Bond´s film. The action scenes are not amazing... they´re just unbelieverable and they became stupid (in my oppion...)

Let me give a good example of good special effects use... Jurassic Park. If you sum all the dinosaurs appearances the final result is... 5 minutes!!! All the thrilling atmosphere is created just by the director´s work and the imagination of the espectator.

Imagine "Saving private Ryan"... the first 45 minutes are a complete deploy of digital effects... but nobody notices it because it´s "realistic"... the digital effects are subordinated to the story...

But there is a new wave of digital films were the strory is subordinated to the effects. I am not sure if "Matrix reloaded" is going to be one of these, but I think it will. When I see it i´ll give my oppinion, untill then, Evil, keep my chair of the anti-matrix cult warm.  

[Barcik]

I've just seen it, and here's my lil nifty review:

Let's start with the high point of my evening, which of course is the action sequences. They were spec-fucking-whoa-tecular. And that car chase, holy shit! Quite possibly the best action scene ever.

With that out of the way, we can proceed to the low points. First of all, the movie was stretched over the 2.5 hours like "butter scraped over too much bread". And unfortunately, a lot of it was bullshit, and by the heaps of it. Hard rocking cavemen? No, thank you.
The thing I was most pissed off about though was the Architect's speech (which unfortunately was far from the only place that thing happened). The writers just clearly patronized the viewer there. "Let's put a load of crap there, and when the viewer won't understand a thing, he'll think it was all very wise and smart. Yeah!" Well, that speech was a full of shit.
Another thing is that the movie does indeed proceed more like a computer game than a movie.

And the last point, which is not really a low point, but is surely not good either. The second Matrix has the same problem the second LotR had: it lacked the impression of the first one. When I saw the first one, I was pretty much glued to the seat, having a god damn visual orgasm, and thinking "WOW! Now this is something I have not seen before! This is a true cinematic experience!" The second one didn't have that, as I, of course, already saw the first.

Conclusion: They should have cut the bullshit in (at least) half.

[Matt Brown]

yeah, but the last bond movie had halle berry

[Nacho]

Yeah, Halle Berry can be saved of the bonfire      

[MrColossal]

and for anyone who cares

there's a matrix massively multiplayer game coming out soon and it takes place after the 3rd movie...

and guess what... the matrix is still around and there's still evil to combat...

how curious

[Evil]

how is it to hard to follow? maybe you have something of an IQ challenge?

I was talking about having to buy the animatrix to better "understand" the movie...

[Trapezoid]

Hmm... I just had a thought.
Scenario: A lot of young teenage kids LOVE the Matrix films.
I wonder if in 20 years, they'll still love the Matrix films, but they'll all be more cynical. And then the creators will decide to make a trilogy of prequels. And the Matrix fans will hate the prequels, even though they're more or less up to the standards of the original trilogy. Wouldn't that be funny?

[LGM]

I've rewatched the first Matrix recently.. And I realised why I like it so much, and I also realised where everyone else is coming from that doesn't like it so much..

The Matrix is just for certain people, not for everyone... For people that like to pick apart every little detail in a film just for the sake of being cynical bastards, and the people that don't want to put any effort into trying to understand something in a film,  don't like these films..

People that watch films because they liked to be entertained and people that like to watch something different than Hollywood cookie-cutter garbage (Which Reloaded does touch base on a few times.... What with all the useless CG ((I blame that on stupid copy-cats of Bullet Time)) And they also could've done without the damn franchising with Powerade and shit.. But I'm guessing Warner's lawyers made them do it.) Nontheless, I like the Matrix films, and I always will..

Some people will hate/dislike the movies, and always will.. This is how the world works my friends...

[Bob The Hun]

The Matrix doesn't seem to be much of a casual, sit-down and relax movie. You have to get into it. You have to pay close attention.
That's why some people love the movies, while others, more casual movie watchers, hate them. Either way, you gotta love those special effects.