[dark horge]

In less than 17 hours I and my wife will be watching the much awaited second installment in the Wachowski Brother's dark, three-part treatise on society's relentless grind towards dehumanization and the inevitability with which the human spirit will rebel against emasculation.

What is astonishing is that I will be able to see this more than 13 hours ahead of the folks who live in the Wachowskis' old stomping grounds, Chicago, Illinois. 13 hours is right about how far ahead we are, as the world turns, in terms of time.

That international and US release dates have become separated by mere days or hours (if at all), is a response to the tragedy of international video piracy. A bootleg can be up on the internet very quickly, or more typically coded to master and massively recopied in VCD and DVD format within a day of obtaining a working original or bootleg.

It seems strange, that the very region that is the source of so much video piracy should be rewarded with first dibs on the cinematic experience of this film.

I do realize that this region, and others like it outside the US are precisely where the studios lose the most money. Hence the need to compete with bootlegs directly, via the superior cinematic experience.

We'll be driving through 90 degree heat and 90% rel. humidity, walking for a bit through the same mugginess, and then sitting in a theatre notoriously cold enough to freeze my testicles off, for the sake of seeing this film early. Gratuitious fight scenes and other eye-candy aside, we're both very interested in what the Wachowskis really have to say.

I am both an anarchist and a humanist at heart, because I feel humanity is ever more enslaved to the ones in power. This film trilogy seems deliciously subversive --by it, one of the most potent drugs that are used to keep us drones compliant and distracted is now the very platform for revealing our chains to us.
Or is it? The height of perversion would be for a true testament to be the means of our continued delirium and complacency.

Are we truly free?
Or, are we merely distracted by the expensive, tiring pursuit of things we are told will define our worth, all the while filling the coffers of those in control, as we crave their falsehoods?

'Message' aside, this trilogy looks to be one heck of a fun ride.

Be a Drone.
Relax.
Go see a Movie.

 

[ShirleyM]

Trevor bought tickets 3 days aga and will see it at 10:00 tonight...

 

[Alice]

Be a Drone.
Relax.
Go see a movie.

Nawww, I think I'll just stay in. I can't...seem...to get away...from.... the TV.



We're looking forward to this movie!

 

[thefatman]

i'm seeing it first thing tommorrow, if all goes well. i've been waiting forever!!


btw: dark horge... being that you are an anarchist and a humanist by nature... have you seen "equilibrium" ?

it came out on dvd yesterday and i watched it last night. it's not matrix, and certainly wont win any awards, but it was a great movie. the fight scenes, well ,they rival the matrix. they were that good. and brace yourself, it even hada good plot!

it reminds me of somehting Ayn Rand would have written. no doubt her books had some influence ove the writer.
(stars: christian bale - american psycho, and tay diggs)

anyway, back to reloaded.. tell me ALLLLLL about it, as soon as you get back from the theater!!!

 

[cath]

Whew! I did watch Matrix and liked it, though it's not my favorite kind of film.

BUT I think my hair parted and maybe even straightened a bit by your scintillating commentary, Horge! You may have talked me into it. Are you really a modern day Pied Piper?

 

[aquaticsdeptleader]

interesting that people would so happly give up there time and money to see vivdly portrayed in stunneing color what expresses bitterness of our lives, i think this movie puts those two brothers in the false club

cant wait to see it

jim

 

[grazhopr]

Subversive? Definitively....To me, is one of the best movies in years. These guys have an admirable imagination to come up with such story and keep you at the edge of the seat for almost two hours. The message is appealing indeed, and makes you think about yourself.
I can't wait to see the second chapter.

 

[dark horge]

For a little under US$2.00, we got to watch it several hours ago, followed by good food and a lot of discussion. My back hurts, and so do my knees (too much uric acid in the Peking Duck, perhaps), but I definitely got my money's worth when I paid for tickets to

The Matrix: Reloaded

Minor spoilers may be included below, but not intentionally.

First, the film itself as entertainment:
The movie gets off to a rocky start.
In the first installment, we could more easily identify with Neo (Keanu Reeves), in his voyage of discovery (or undiscovery, as the case may be) regarding reality and the Matrix. In this second film, there is none of that endearing, wide-eyed, self-doubt and wonderment to connect to.

I certainly could have done without one of probably the most expensive dance-club footage in recent memory. The fight sequences are as expected, deliciously piling stylized superlative upon stylized superlative, but there's again, a lack of personal audience involvement in it, since we know Neo's abilities at this point. Without that involvement, the fight sequences can seem both overlong and gratuitious to begin with. Whenever Neo is out of the equation, it's no surprise that the battles are so much more riveting.

What saves the movie is neither the improved special FX, nor the more complex action sequences, nor even this latest impending doom over humankind --it is the gradual unveiling of the natures of the Matrix. What some critics had dismissed as excessively 'talky' segments, I found to be mostly necessary to set up the stage for the third movie. A lot gets said, circuitiously, and (from the Architect) at a rapid pace, so some people may not grasp everything in one viewing --but even the Architect gets pretty redundant on the theme of choice and programmed fate so we cannot really miss it.

Definite Spoiler Warning!
If you have not seen the film, please do NOT read further!

The confirmation that everything that happens, happens for a reason should not be surprising, given that it's been Morpheus' and (more importantly) the Oracle's standpoint from the very first film.

There are practically only three clever wrinkles that keep me guessing about the third film:

1. Agent Smith ---if his present behavior is part and parcel of a typical Matrix revolution, then the Architect is correct, and the proverbial trip to Hell in a handbasket is inevitable. How other agents interact with him doesn't quite dovetail with how he proactively involves himself in the subterranean woes befalling Zion.

2. Accumulation ---if the Architect is honest in noting that this Neo seems particularly quick on the uptake, then each Matrix revolution produces a cumulative gain for any real human rebellion. If it is not something programmed-for by the architect, then humanity has a chance.

3. Neo's unexpected ability to supernaturally affect the enemy in the 'real' world --- this raises the possibility that this is all fakery within fakery within fakery: If so, even the tunnels to Zion and Zion itself are part of the Matrix (a Matrix with a pseudo-Matrix within), and the illusion of a rebellion is precisely what the Oracle-program found to be needed to keep humans well-behaved: the illusion of choice and freedom.

Both the first movie and this one present that the earliest versions of the Matrix were rejected by human subjects, the earliest being too ideal --the implication being that humans need their misery. That we need our misery is quite true in that sense, for without negative consequence then any personal choice becomes superfluous ---what humans really need is the illusion of self-determination ---"choice" if you will. Miserable consequences merely make the illusion of choice seem more real. The illusion of a rebellion 'outside the Matrix' is possibly a mere support for the more crucial illusion of free choice.

I realize that a more conventional closure may be offered in the final movie, one with less of a 'matrioshka doll' take on the Matrix and reality... but i'll enjoy this air of alternate possibilities

....of 'choice' if you will, while it lasts.

 

[aquaticsdeptleader]

how about this for an ending

the humans orginal escaped from the matrix and begun to battle the machines and eventualy lost but managed to code in the next part of the matrix where zion exists in the hopes that other humans would escape and keep up the fight hence the reason why the machines put in the agents to try and prevent this.

but this really doesnt go along with the message how about this,

the humans escaped battled and defeated the machines takeing back earth, finding that unplugging all the humans would lead to deaths they left them plugged in and coded in what there orginal experince was creating the matrix that includfes zion in the hopes that other humans would awaken from the matrix and learn grow and then be able to leave the matrix all togther, some time passes and the orginal humans that escaped found that the avaiable power source provided by the humans in the matrix was too good to pass up and now have no desire for anyone to leave the matrix hence they created the agents to try to stop people from getting out the ultimate in slavery

jim

 

[dark horge]

Jim:

The flaw in your first scenario is that humans would have to get to the source to 'code in' a recurring and self-perpetuating zion-myth. Getting programming access to the source, and yet failing to win absolute control of the Matrix ---victory-- seems inconceivable.
Although Neo himself gets to the source and winds up obtaining nearly squat from the opportunity, it is implied that his getting to the source at all is part of the Matrix design: that each Matrix revolution, or cycle, is defined by a sort-of giant reset button, and Neo is just a convenient carrier for cached information vital for the new Matrix's acceptability. In the end, it does not, as you say go along with 'the message'.

Your second scenario presumes Zion really exists, and if so, it is apparently an expandable environment ---lookit all the newly-liberated, sweaty-dancing wet-cells-- that runs on power (core heat) independent of human batteries. There might thus be no desperate need to abuse fellow humans the way the machines did, using them as a mere power source.

Actually, I just find the two scenarios you presented too cheerful.


The scene where Neo is confronting the Architect is suggestive:
The way the viewer is dragged into the image on one of the many monitors showing a different Neo, which then becomes the pertinent 'reality' and all that. The Matrix may be running a multitude of parallel, alternate realities, each with multiple levels of perception ---a Matrix within a Matrix within a Matrix and so on for each reality.

Living in a tiny, tiny corner of such an infinite set of false realities would make you feel small, no? You and all your efforts would acount for little, and your worth really would be determined merely by what use the Matrix operators can squeeze out of you.

Denial is the first response, hehe.

 

[dark horge]

Jay,

I haven't seen Equilibrium.
I saw the trailers on E! quite awhile back, though.

It hasn't come out in theatres in this part of east Asia yet, and looks like it won't even bother. I can get a crystal-clear DVD copy of it for the equivalent of $1.10, but I'm just giving the movie half a year more to come out in theatres before I give up and buy a bootleg.

Lots of girls here watch the movie (Matrix:Reloaded) just for Keanu Reeves, and lots of guys are there for the action sequences (though I have to admit Monica Belucci is very, very easy on the eyes). I guess he greater number nevertheless DO appreciate the rather depressing view of so-called reality offered by the filmmakers.


It's 8:00am here, and...
I really have to get dressed for drone-work.


It's been fun, and I'll see you guys around from time to time

 

[thefatman]

i dont recall ever seeing equilibrium in theaters here, let alone advertisments for it

it was jsut on video the other day and i thought hmmm this looks intersting!!

i am so mad i didnt go see matrix today. perhaps this weekend....if can tear myself out of the garage from building the new stand