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

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

[Dominic Harr]

If I had to make a speculation about the direction of the final episode, perhaps Agent Smith upon getting a taste for Real Life through the body of the real person (yeah is anything real?) will find that he has something in common with Neo and join him in the fight to take down the Matrix.

Did you see the trailer at the end of the credits for Matrix 3? They pretty much pointed out where the story is going -- Smith is trying to take over the Matrix. The story is going to get *very* interesting from here, I think.

[WRhine]

Did you see the trailer at the end of the credits for Matrix 3? They pretty much pointed out where the story is going -- Smith is trying to take over the Matrix. The story is going to get *very* interesting from here, I think.

I didn't stay to see the trailer, however I keyed on some of your comments about Smith. Yeah, I liked where the story was going at the end. I'll probably see the Movie again this week-end to pick up some of the stuff I missed first time around.

[discostu]

No Zion isn't the real world, none of it is real. The Matrix is just a subsection of the whole cyberspace thing. The first indication of this is the Rasta name for the city and the large number of Rasta's in the city and heavy Rasta imagery of the "religion" people there have. Remember it was Rasta that gave cyberspace it's definition and theme in Neuromancer which is where Matrix gets a lot of its sensibility from (jacking in, avatars battling symbolically while what's really happening is programming on the fly, heavy use of martial arts by the avatars, and the Rastas).

This was pushed again in the White Room.

And again when the councilor talks to Neo about the importance of machines.

And finally when Neo displays his Matrix powers in the real world. Remember his powers are all about being able to comprehend the program from the inside and change it.

Everything revealed as the plot is a lie, which is good because the primary hooks of it don't make any sense at all (human batteries, the Architect needing Neo to reset things but trying to stop him, the Architect needing Neo at all).

[Dominic Harr]

Yeah, I think it was very, very deep, actually.

The funniest thing about this is the folks dissing it because they didn't think there was any plot!

Talk about broadcasting that something went over their heads . . .

There's a connection between Neo and Smith, some sort of Yin-Yang type thing. They can both apparently "feel" each other's presence (that first scene, where Neo realized Smith is at the door, for example). Smith is the one the Oracle was talking about -- a program that goes off on it's own and doesn't wish to be deleted.

And on, and on.

Neo created something in Smith when he 'freed' Smith, and now Smith is using that power to try and take over the Matrix himself.

Which means, ironically, that the Oracle and Architect now need Neo to stop Smith!

[WRhine]

No Zion isn't the real world, none of it is real. The Matrix is just a subsection of the whole cyberspace thing.

I'll admit that your take on this is a logical assumption, especially given that Neo found a way to kill the Sentinels in the "supposed" real world a la Matrix fashion. My first guess on this was that Neo has taken his Matrix skills to the next level...the Real World. Perhaps not!

[WRhine]

Which means, ironically, that the Oracle and Architect now need Neo to stop Smith!

Very interesting analysis Dominic. Damn it, now I definitely have to see the movie again.

[brownie]

The first movie managed to be great b/c Keanu Reeves did not have many lines. If he has a lot of lines in this movie, it is automatically a B movie.

[Dominic Harr]

If you have the time, sit to the end of the credits for the trailer for Matrix 3. The credits are long, 15 mins or so, but I thought it was worth it!

[LanPB01]

Thinking of both movies, I actually think he has LESS lines in the second one. However, more than enough characters appear to pick up the slack in the bad dialog department.

[RightWhale]

It sucked.

That's Hollywood. They never go deep on the second sequel.

[discostu]

He did take them to the next level but in doing so proved that it was like the next level of a game, still in the computer not out of it.

Ooh, I forgot one more clue: Smith taking over the person and not just the Avatar.

Really it's the logical answer to the puzzle the Architect said Neo was to solve. If it's unavoidable that people will figure out the Matrix and escape from it, rather than periodically resetting it (and killing all but 23 people, another piece of illogic in the plot), give them another Matrix to "escape" into. Of course eventually you'll get too many people traveling back and forth and things will get messy and hard to maintain just like they would if they were really escaping. But reseting is a lot easier if nobody is actually in the real world.

So the question becomes what's the real reality? IMHO they're not actually going to tell us, in Revolution the good guys will take over the unreality and that will be about it. It'll be a threeway battle between them and Smith and the machines. But I doubt the veil comes off, if it does I'm hoping for something smarter than the battery explaination.

[WRhine]

But I doubt the veil comes off, if it does I'm hoping for something smarter than the battery explaination.

I agree. That was the weakest part of the plot in the first Matrix. I kept on thinking: If the Matrix is all controlling and also operated machines in the Real World then why could they not build nuclear reactors to power the Matrix? Didn't make sense to me. I do hope though, in the interest of finality, that some definable clue as to what is real and what is not is brought into the conclusion of Revolution. If the film is open-ended, I guess we can assume that another trilogy is in the works. Keep that Matrix Money Flowing!

[WRhine]

If you have the time, sit to the end of the credits for the trailer for Matrix 3. The credits are long, 15 mins or so, but I thought it was worth it!

Thanks Dominic...

[discostu]

Just about anything would make a better power source, then you get into the side question of why entertain your batteries in cyberspace.

I fear they're going the cash cow route. I heard (though unconfirmed) the reason they split Reload and Revolution into 2 parts was that it was too long. Well Reload officially clocks at 1:38, if Revolution comes in around the same we've got about 3 hours of movie (a little over but you get rid of stuff like that idiotic dance party and trimming back to 3 hours isn't tough). If studios should have learned anything from Potter and LOTR it's that SF/F fans have 3 hour butts. So if Revolution isn't at least 20 minutes longer than Reload the reason for the split was to get us to buy two tickets instead of one. Already showing a definite willingness to keep the series going through any means necessary. And you know Hollywood, if they think there's money in it they'll find a way to make a sequel to anything, they made a sequel to Maginificent Seven after all.

[Prodigal Son]

bump for reading after I've seen it!

[garjog]

Spoil alert.

You say: "The Matrix this "Neo" is in is the 6th 'version' of the program. The 6th 'release', if you will."

But that sill doesn't answer my question. You say “this Neo.” So there are different versions of Neo? Then he is a program like Smith and not a real man? His images on the TV screens in the white room suggests that "Neo" had come several times before. I don't see how he could be real if he appeared exactly the same six times before.

Some don't see a problem with both worlds being a computer construct. But, if all is illusion then the plot provides no moral lesson and the film is reduced to pure entertainment on the level of B rate sci fi. (Fun but hardly profound.)

If all is illusion then there is no reference point to judge what is right or wrong, good or evil -- saving Zion or Neo's love for Trinity isn't real -- so what wither the passion?

If "surprise, everything is just an illusion" is the message of the film, then is falls flat aesthetically in my view. Sort of like the punch line of a "shaggy dog story" when the audience discoveres that they have been tricked into listening to a long, detailed story that doesn't really have a coherent ending but is just a joke.

[Dominic Harr]

Then he is a program like Smith and not a real man?

Sort of, yes. It's what gamers call an 'avatar'.

The real person *behind* "the one" might have been different, but the avatar of "the one" is what repeats.

Like a game -- the person playing Laura Croft would be different, but the avatar in the program would always be Laura Croft (if you're familiar with Tomb Raider).

I'm unsure if Zion is real or not. It would make a fascinating plot twist if it weren't, sort of like those shows where someone wakes up from a dream, only to still be in a dream.

As far as there being a 'message' -- most good fiction, in my mind, does not have a 'message'. It just sets up a reality with characters in a dramatic situation, then moves those characters thru various events that lead to a resolution of the situation.

Typically it's about creating a hero or heroes, giving them a goal, then putting obstacles in the way of that goal to be overcome.

This is what I find entertaining. And if they do their job right, if they flesh out the reality enough and are clever enough with the characters and the obstacles, then analogies will flow from there. Because all good fiction, and especially all good science fiction, is based on the same human story lines we can all relate to.

"The Matrix" is an artificial world that has people inside it conviced that the fiction is true. This is a conflict people deal with in their every day lives.

So "The Matrix" is/can be Soap Operas, Women's Lib, Party Politics, Religious Fundamentalism, Puberty, Love, Communism, Pop Culture -- literally anything that fits the core concept.

That's the power of analogy, and that's the power of a good story. You can read into it a

To me, anyway. Your mileage may vary.

[Benrand]

Cool! I went to school with the Princeton prof James Pryor...that's cool.

I liked the movie, it's a good movie, not quite blade Runner due to the ridculous loud music and stylish nonsense, but the story was good, and the last movie should be good as well.

[LayoutGuru2]

The 'Matrix'
ABS CBN News, Philippines - 2 hours ago
... If the Matrix films, the most philosophically-challenging movies to be produced ... of
the politics of its makers, then this subliminal equation (Hitler=Bush ...

[joesnuffy]

stay home - read a book