THE UNREAL THING: What’s wrong with the Matrix? [MOVIE REVIEW]

The New Yorker ^ | March 12, 2003 | Adam Gopnik

[paulklenk]

Long, but well worth the read.

[fourdeuce82d]

Saw it...disapointed. It sucked. Balls.

[paulklenk]

Sorry to hear that... I was hoping it was going to be a mindblower. Will probably end up seeing it anyway, just for the effects.

[fourdeuce82d]

just for the effects

worth it for that- but an awful lot of Blah Blah Blah "your choices are a function of your destiny, but ultimately your purpose will determine your choices, but the power of The ONE is to transcend your purpose, which is, ultimately, your choice.

Oh and by the way, Trinity may die. And you'll fight some Albino Gay Euro-trash.

[LanPB01]

I just got home from seeing it as well. It does not even come close to the first movie. There are a some good action scenes, and some decent scenes involving Agent Smith (though nothing is explained about this new "relationship" between he and Neo). Other than this decent 30 minutes, the movie is full of stupid dialog, a ridiculous dance/sex scene that looked like it should have been on the cutting room floor of an MTV video, and some bad acting.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Damn it! Next time put a "Spoiler Alert" in the title - I havn't even seen "The Matrix" yet!

;0)

[paulklenk]

You mean like:

SPOILER ALERT

It sucks!

END OF SPOILER

[RLK]

An excellent read. My opinion is that The Matrix was perhaps the best science fiction film I have ever seen. I knew it the quality and complexity would be hard to follow in a series. I wonder it the makers even have the patience and creativity to do so. There are not very many times in a person's life that they have that spark. It may be a one-off act of genius.

[paulklenk]

Thanks; I completely agree.

[Jeff Chandler]

I thoroughly enjoyed The Matrix, although I had absolutely no intention of seeing it until I read your essay.

I had a feeling, based on the trailers, that the sequel was not up to snuff.

[Travis McGee]

Did anybody ever catch the years ahead of its time Oliver Stone (yeah, I know) mini series called Wild Palms?

[DoctorMichael]

Warning! Spoiler follows!

I saw it tonight, came home and am now reading all the Matrix 'spoiler' Threads that I avoided before this.

Good article. The special effects of 'RELOADED" were jaw-dropping; the scenes were all beautifully lit (I was particularly impressed by the lighting in the Oracle's scene, very LSD-ish); and the movie was stunning in its cinematography. However, I too was disappointed in the plot which plodded along at points, was full of really bad dialog in others, and was full of metaphysical blather in still more.

Where the genius of the original was that it seemed effortless in weaving the featherlike story, plot, action, religion and metaphysics into a tight knot............RELOADED was leaden.

Still worth the viewing.

[goldstategop]

The iron rule of Hollywood sequels is that a sequel will rarely be as good as the original... although like with every rule, there can and will be exceptions. As for The Matrix the Democrats feel right at home living within it and don't want to wake up. Its a pleasant dream for them.

[The_Reader_David]

I've not seen the sequel, but the original The Matrix evoked a curious reaction from all the Orthodox Christians who saw it: we all liked it, and we all concluded it was a "monastic movie".

If one reads the metaphor as the equivalence, the Matrix = the material world, one ends up with Catharism or some other anti-materialistic gnosticism. But if one reads it as "the Matrix = the fallen world", one gets a different gloss. The escape to reality in The Matrix is ascetical: the desert of the real is the desert of Scetis or Palestine or the "northern desert" of the Siberian forest. For the Orthodox Christian, the desert experience, the life of monasticism, has a kind of normative influence: in a way, the ascetic discipline the Church calls all Orthodox Christians to, suggests that to be a full-time Christian, one needs to be a 'part-time monk'.

The fallen world bombards us with illusions just as real seeming as those the Matrix imposes on its denizens: I 'need' this coat, so I resent the poor man taking it; I 'need' a new computer (even though manifestly, since I'm typing this mine is just fine); the kids' soccer game is more important than Sunday Liturgy; and on and on. The struggle with the passions is not very cinematic, so flying gunfights will have to do for the movies, but the affray is no less sharp, and the demons no less deadly than Agents.

The original The Matrix is nicely incomplete as a story, the way the Gospels without the Acts are incomplete. I suspect I will see The Matrix Reloaded I just hope the subtext we Orthodox found in the original is still present, in which case, maybe it won't suck. (A villain whose name is a reference to the Franks is a good sign: visit www.romanity.org to see why, though 'the Carolingian' would be more apt than 'the Merovingian' as a suggestion of villainy to Orthodox minds.)

[Jesse]

It's only a movie. This guy needs to get a life.


My review.
Second Matrix. Thumbs up for special effects. Thumbs down for plot line.

[RLK]

I suspect there is also the problem that the second film might have been rushed. If you fall in to a brilliantly written piece of material, a brilliant movie can be produced. For a person to write a sequal might take several years before production can even be started.

[antidisestablishment]

Was that the one with Jim Belushi? I think I saw it a couple of times. Thought it was pretty good from what I remember...

At to Reloaded, I didn't figured they'd get it right twice.

[Hildy]

I've been reading alot about a scene featuring the most evil people in history...and they flash a picture of GW Bush. Is that true?

[Travis McGee]

In Wild Palms evil corporate tycoons were promoting new virtual reality glasses that would suck you into their fantasy world.

Sort of like TV, only better.

Actually it was pretty good, as I recall.

[WRhine]

I just got home from seeing it as well. It does not even come close to the first movie. There are a some good action scenes, and some decent scenes involving Agent Smith (though nothing is explained about this new "relationship" between he and Neo).

I saw the Movie tonight as well and concur with your opinion. It was something of a let down; though I went in believing that the sequel would probably not live up to the original. The scenes with Agent Smith in particular seemed like they were haphazardly thrown in for old time’s sake and as an action filler. It would have been more interesting if Agent Smith and Neo had a couple of scenes where there was more dialogue than impromptu slugfests. And like you I couldn't figure out how Agent Smith, who told Neo he was busted out of Matrix Agent Core when he was killed by Neo (so how did he come back with EXTRA powers?) fitted it with the new Matrix.

In sum there were too many gratuitous action sequences that really were not that much better than the original, long pointless suggestive dance scenes and not enough cogent dialogue that binded the original together so well. Most of the movie seemed herky jerky to me—a compliant I have with most movies today. That said, I thought the ending of the movie was quite good. Only at the end did the film seem to begin to capture the intrigue of Matrix I. I have to hope this carries on into the final episode.