of course it's mentally insulting to anyone with the slightest scifi reading background but what can you expect.
Whatever. I don't buy movie tickets anymore. 

Fuckin' ell, you snooze you lose around here, bastard :P

P.S. I mostly agree with Willem. Matrix films = cool, internet hype heralding them as Christ V2.0 = uncool. 

1) The marketing campaign, lol, "WOO THIS IS CRAZY INTELLIGENT, STEPHEN HAWKING COULD HARDLY UNDERSTAND IT." That's damned retarded.

2) Aforementioned plot hole. I've heard that originally the machines were harvesting humans for computing ability, which would make sense. However, that was apparently too intellectual for their CRAZY BRILLIANT MOVIE, so they dropped it and said they were harvest humans for - uhh - POWER. We today have better methods of getting power than this, and these machines have like amazing AI and all these elaborate abilities - lol, the sheer stupidity of this is amazing.

Despite the fact that it was utterly style over substance, it was good for a mainstream action movie. 

"The marketing campaign, lol, "WOO THIS IS CRAZY INTELLIGENT, STEPHEN HAWKING COULD HARDLY UNDERSTAND IT." That's damned retarded. "

Example link? I don't remember the trailers being like that at all. 

As movies go the first one wasn't bad but didn't really have anything new to offer to the non-trenchcoat wearing rubber pants fetishist crowd.

People as batteries was indeed the stupidest plot point there's been for a while.

I also wonder how many times Keanu Reeves had to say "Woah!" until they had a good take. The twat.

The sequels just rehashed more of the same, in the long-standing tradition of sequels, and were even worse for it in that the original didn't have much substance. 

No offense meant to anyone here but I've always held the belief that most complaining about the Matrix is done to make the complainer feel smarter. "I'm FAR too well read and educated to be able to enjoy such a SIMPLISTIC and RIDICULOUS set of movies". Frankly, get over yourselves.

Again, this doesn't apply to anyone here. You guys are awesome. 

Don't worry.

In terms of films it wasn't so bad, but I gave up on films around about when it came out, so maybe it helped push me towards that.

Now blasting demons, hacking stuff up with chainsaws or reading a book is enough for me.

Films rarely, really. 

wouldnt be so bad if they didnt have that smug, ponderous, this is so intelligent vibe to them. The first one worked because although it was style over substance, it knew that and generally stuck to that.

With (especially) reloaded and also many parts of revolutions, there was too much sense of "this isnt just your normal popcorn movie folks, we have something deep to offer". Except they didnt.

I have time for both sorts of films, popcorn and pretentious arthouse, as long as they play to their tune. 

especially 3

not because of the story. just cos they had guns & fighting & stuff 

The disease of modern society are the matrix movies? 

"With (especially) reloaded and also many parts of revolutions, there was too much sense of "this isnt just your normal popcorn movie folks, we have something deep to offer". Except they didnt. "

Admittedly, there was far too much blah-blah in the sequels but I really enjoyed some of those scenes. Like when Neo encounters the Architect. I thought that scene was great. 

no, all the people claiming it is are just pricks. Yeah, sure.

It had some nice stuff but the overall thing was a big stupid mess. If they had done the original coherent scifi stories and not ripped everything (right down to the red and blue potion choice), mixed and ruined it with stupid fights and rock and roll that don't really relate to anything, it could have worked many times better.

Great material and ideas not seen on the screen before (although having existed for decades in writing), badly spoiled in the end.

Science fiction is very often criticism of the state of affairs at the time of writing, thought experiments lighting up the mechanisms of society, and people's motivations by taking them to absurd extremities.

Matrix took those and blended it with a jesus saviour figure shooting guns in nonsensical action scenes. They almost never make any remote sense at all. First the hero hides behind a pillar and the baddies shoot like mad, with stone chips flying everywhere. Then the hero just steps out and starts shooting, with absolutely no regard for cover. And of course is never hit.

The suspension of disbelief required. Uhh. Why won't Neo turn pink and expand to fill the whole room, suffocating everyone. It would at least be a bit more unexpected. Same level of realism.

No. Really. The themes that movie could have handled were numerous. The whole illusion issues for one.

All thrown away.

Sad really, and completely expected. 

*adjust monocle*

Quite! 

 

Don't worry, I saw Freddy vs Jason in theatres twice (the second time drunk) and thought it ruled. My view is, if you're going to make a smart movie, make it smart. If you're going to make a dumb movie, make it dumb.

Also, I agree with Nitin on #108. This is also what I hate about M Night Shamylan. Condescending preachiness on the part of some asshole who isn't even saying anything all that "deep-etc," and in spite of gaping plot holes (again, M night's got tons).

Re: bambuz on 112. LOL. Yeah I love that, that happens in like every action movie too. If I ever get hired to be a bad guy, I'll try to have better aim. 

who was it that said that people are like bacteria? (me a few posts back)

I'm sure that it wasn't that Matrix I was thinking of (heh - a virus).

I vaguely recall a conversation I once had with someone who was saying that it was in part of one of the religions (Hindu possibly?), or it could have been a very famous author. I think it was a religion.

Cant remember though, I must have been wrecked. 

I agree that this makes no sense if taken literally. However, if you take it metaphorically, you could look at the entire movie as an allegory for modern life -- a world where huge, artificial and autonomous human-built entities (corporations in real life) run the show, and have constructed an elaborate fantasy world for humans (consumers) who provide their fuel supply. In the movie the fantasy world is the matrix, in real life it's the comfortable bubble that we mostly live in, where meat comes shrink-wrapped from the supermarket, toys and clothes come from department stores, and diamonds from the jeweler, and the reality, the actual machinery that runs the whole thing, is largely hidden. There's no slaughter of cows, unsafe labor conditions, or exploitation of civil war in our bubble, all that is hidden behind the glossy lines of luxury car, and the cool, sterile lighting of the shopping mall.

All of this could be my own invention, of course, but I think that generally when something doesn't make sense in a movie, book, or song, it's an invitation by the author to look more critically. Like when a narrator says something clearly wrong, that's usually the author saying "hey, pay attention, this narrator can't be trusted in general." 

your interpretation is great, and I agree that it describes modern life and the disconnection/comfort/hidden evil that most people (including me) go through/live in. However I don't think the Wachowski brothers are that smart. What you're discussing is "smart anti-authoritarianism" as opposed to "stupid, whiny leftism," and if you want an illustration of which side of that line those Wa-chowski boys are on just watch "V for Vendetta."

The 13th Floor, Existenz, and Dark City all did similar ideas earlier and arguably better. Not to mention all the scifi accessible to those able to read for 30 years prior to any of it being proposed to some asshole with his hands on the hollywood purse straps.

Again, I prefer Matrix ONE, to the average action movie. But I've never mistaken it for good scifi. 

you could be right, and of course works of art don't really have to be limited to artist's intent when interpreting them.

Plus, you are correct in that their ham-fisted treatment of V for Vendetta made it clear about how sophisticated they are as directors. It kind of seems like the matrix was an accident they couldn't repeat. 

but not a great film. I dont agree with bambuz's post above at all about stupid action sequences.

The scene he talks about in particular is one of my favorite staged and choreographed action scenes, is it unrealstic and unbelievable, yes. But its also extremely well done for cinematic effect.

By that time in the movie you shold know what type of film it is, and if you're still expecting Solaris, you are obviously going to be disappointed.
V

V for Vendetta is another story, utter rubbish from start to end. 

The next time you are dragged to see entertainment on the big screen, turn off your mind, relax and float down stream. It is not killing you to disengage the cerebellum every now and then, you are just letting the thing recharge. 

That is a good way of looking at it, Metl, but I prefer the version (whoever mentioned it) where humans are used for their processing power.

Like vampiric labotomy.

I prefer this grim idea because it interprets the same way but the cause and effect are the same - the general mass are blinkered so that the society can function. Not so that some mysterious resource can be gleaned from their imprisionment. I spose it's a more direct fairy tale type idea - the black and white certainties.

In the fifities everything was explained by nuclear, just recently it's been genetic engineering. Machines = electricity is pretty lazy.

The matrix was a pretty out there concept, for box office films, and they could have explored it better. 

In the fifities everything was explained by nuclear, just recently it's been genetic engineering.

So true. Seems like every vampire or zombie or werewolf movie nowadays explains everything as being caused by a virus or genetic mutation. 

"The next time you are dragged to see entertainment on the big screen, turn off your mind, relax and float down stream. It is not killing you to disengage the cerebellum every now and then, you are just letting the thing recharge."

OK, 2 things:

1) Dragged? Get over yourselves.

2) I agree. Movies are mainly about FUN and FANTASY. Just let yourself go and get into it. You'll have a much happier life if you stop expecting every single thing you do to nourish you on a spiritual and intellectual level. Some things are simply meant to be fun. 

I agree. Movies are mainly about FUN and FANTASY. Just let yourself go and get into it. You'll have a much happier life if you stop expecting every single thing you do to nourish you on a spiritual and intellectual level. Some things are simply meant to be fun.

i can see both sides of the argument here. whilst i wholly agree with the above, the common view seems to be that 2 & 3 were trying to 'to nourish you on a spiritual and intellectual level', which is what has gotten most people's backs up. i can't say as it bothered me that much but i can see why it would others.

v for vendetta is one of my favourite films though :(