I thought that the “humans as batteries” thing was silly, too, but at least that was easy to ignore. Just pretend that they said “processor power”, or “to study us”, or whatever your favorite explanation is, and get on with the movie. My biggest gripe is one that gobear mentioned: The characters weren’t nearly creative enough. What set it off for me was the scene in the staging area, before the rescue. Neo’s gone through training roughly equivalent to several battallions each of Navy Seals and Green Berets. He’s about to embark on a dangerous and important mission, and can choose any equipment he wants, even some stuff that can’t be found in the real world (or perhaps especially stuff that can’t be found in the real world: It’s a lot easier for a computer system to deal with a massless, unbreakable rope than a real one). What does he ask for? “Guns. Lots of guns.”.
It’s great eye candy, but as for the plot… Well, it’s great eye candy.
I really wished Morpheus would have gone on in more detail about exactly how it’s combined with a form of fusion, instead of just saying it. Of course, the average person doesn’t care about that stuff, but I would.
As for the lobby shooting spree, Neo should have picked up a BFG or something to use in The Matrix. That could have explained the slow motion scenes quite well. “Oh no! I fired the BFG! The Matrix must have a 386! I’m going at 3 frames per second! Arrgh!”
I had to see it in theatres at least five times, maybe six. I will never again in my life watch it.
I enjoyed it the first time, the second time I was, literally, mouthing along the lines with the characters with shocking accuracy and recollection. It wasn’t a complex movie in this regard.
The rest of the viewings I just woke up in time for the good action scenes.
Like I said, I enjoyed it the first time. It had a thought in its head. It wasn’t a deep thought, by any means, but it was certainly a thought. And that’s something that Hollywood doesn’t put out often.
A slight hijack… has anyone here seen POSSIBLE WORLDS? I don’t want to say too much about it, but if you were disappointed at the MATRIX you must watch this. It’s everything that the Matrix tried to be.
Well, I was really entertained by it. I don’t have much else to say about that; it’s just a fun movie and I enjoy it because of that.
And if we’re talking about things it ripped off, then you don’t have to look much further than William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I don’t just mean the concepts of “hacking into the system” with the port in the back of your neck, or things like that. I mean even stuff like names and characters (the two black spaceship pilots from Zion, the artifical intelligence named “The Matrix”). At first I though they had made The Matrix with the idea of making a sequel to Gibson’s book in mind.
I still enjoyed the movie, though.
LateComer – you have grasped my point exactly. The “depth” was so heavyhanded that you kept wanting them to get on with things. That’s what I meant by boring (and the movie, despite its intentions, had no more depth than a dry wading pool). I really feel sorry for anyone who actually thought there were important philosophical issues involved.
You can assume anything you want. But if the movie doesn’t show something happening, then there’s no reason to assume it should. There was no sign of Neo being careful. Why not assume Morpheus teleported to Venus in the interim? We didn’t see it, so we can assume it happened, right?
Spoofe
But Neo couldn’t jump across buildings. He didn’t have that control until later.
And you bring up another plot hole – if Morpheus could jump half a mile in one simulation, why can’t he do it when he needs to in the Matrix? Because the directors assumed their audience was too stupid to notice the inconsistency.
Not the good ones. I’m thinking of things like “12 Monkeys,” “Dark City” (which is very similar in concept to the Matrix, so much so that it’s possible), or even “Gattaca” (which was badly, though more subtly, flawed, too, but at least had something to say).
The directors obviously confused him with Pat Morita in “The Karate Kid,” but the Morita character was much more interesting.
Nothing was creative enough (other than the effects). The entire plot was derivitive rehash of cliches. I’ve counted rip-offs of Heinlein’s “Universe,” Aldiss’s “Non-Stop” (person discovers his universe is not what he thought it was – a very old trope in science fiction), “Tron” (A computer world where anything can happen), Star Trek (“Specter of the Gun” and, horror of horrors, “Spock’s Brain”), “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Karate Kid” (Wise old warrior counsels young man), and, of course, “Dark City” (Reality is not what it seems). In addition, there were the hoary old cliches of villains wearing dark sunglasses and suits (so old that “Men in Black” was created to kid the concept), and the traitor in the midst.
Compare it to a very similar film, “Dark City.” (The makers of the Matrix were certainly aware of it when they were shooting, since they used the leftover sets.) The villians are much more original, even down to their names (Mr. Hand, Mr. Wall, Mr. Book, Mr. Rain in DC vs. Smith, Brown, and Jones in Matrix. There is a weirdness to DC, but total lack of imagination in the Matrix.) “Dark City” was much more imaginative visually in its fantasy world (“The Matrix” showed straight 1999 images). The main flaw in “Dark City” – the narration at the beginning that assumes the audience is a bunch of idiots and can’t figure anything out – becomes the raison d’etre for half the scenes in “The Matrix.” The directors took it for granted they were making a filme for morons, so the had to explain everything very carefully and slowly, like to an idiot child.
The movie should have been shortened in that middle section. Cut out the scene where they’re eating breakfast (“How did the machines know what cereal tastes like?” Wow! Let’s sit around, smoke dope, and stare at our lava lights while we discuss the issue.) Eliminate the scene where the traitor eats the steak (it eliminates the surprise of his betrayal, and gives no suspense in return). Cut out the explanation of the squids and what the electromagnetic pulse was (Oops, forgot to add “Broken Arrow” to the list of ripoffs). Shoot the visit to the oracle so it runs about half the time it did. Make cuts to reduce the running time to under two hours. It wouldn’t fix the plot holes, but it would cut the boredom.
You’re kidding, right, RealityChuck? Using Dark City as an example of the right way to put philosophy in a movie? Any given five minutes of that movie does a pretty good job of sending a philosophical message… Except that no two of the messages seem to be consistent. Did the aliens discover what the human “soul” is, or not? If not, then what’s so special about the girl he loves… Isn’t she just another lie? Why is the main character so happy about the aliens winning in the end? Even The Matrix was more consistent than that.
Grant Morrison blasted the Wachowskis for ripping off the Invisibles and if you read the first volume, you do see a lot of similarities. That’s one more to the list.
As for 12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam did a pretty good job, but when you compare it to La Jetee he really Hollywoodized (meaning fouled up) a great idea.
