What was wrong with the Matrix sequels?

[DiggitCamara]

@Little_Nemo

I agree: humans as batteries is bad science. But the Enterprise and the Millenium Falcon and Doc Brown’s DeLorean are all bad science too.

Movies aren’t about science, they’re about stories. And humans as batteries worked for the story. It gave the machines a reason to physically preserve humans while keeping them mentally enslaved. If the machines hadn’t needed humans as an energy source, there was no logical reason for the machines to have not eliminated the human race centuries earlier and then there wouldn’t have been any movie.

Besides people are missing the point. The Matrix wasn’t a science fiction movie. It was a fantasy movie dressed up in science fiction clothing. The Matrix was about wizards fighting magical battles against demons for human souls.

Well, they could have changed that part into something like “we’re preserving the humans for their computational power”.

Still, I agree: it’s really a McGuffin. The Cinderella-kiss at the end of the first movie made less sense to me.

[Tanbarkie]

@Simplicio

I’m not sure you can blame the Matrix sequals on “Marketing”, the Wakowski Siblings seem to have been given a lot of control. Indeed, if the Studio had told them to scrub the original script and come back with something that made sense it might’ve been a lot better. I agree that they made the mistake of just taking what people liked about the first film and just layering it on the sequels without much thought, though.

…

You think “Marketing” told George Lucas what to put int the Star Wars prequels? The world would be a better place if this were true, but Lucas is famous for not taking other peoples good advice about his films, and he’s certainly got the money to make the movies he wants without having to listen to any suits.

In the cases of “The Matrix” and “Star Wars,” you can safely assume that the Wachowskis/ Lucas themselves are the marketing geniuses to which I am referring.

[Nobody]

@Steve_MB

It would be easy to forgive if it were merely silly. The problem is that it’s insulting – it’s obvious that the writers either didn’t know what they’re talking about or cyncially used the first handwave that came to mind because they assumed that the audience wouldn’t know any better. It only gets worse when you find out what really happened – the writers originally used a rationale that actually makes sense only to have it replaced with dumbed-down nonsense – and discover that the insult was deliberate.

I’m not an electrician, or a biologist, or any sort of scientist, but when I heard the explanation that humans were being used as batteries my reaction was that there was no way in hell that could work. And I was so glad when I saw people on the board who knew what they were talking about saying the same thing.