The Matrix Trilogy

[od0_ital]

I liked the first Matrix movie, 'til I realized that Neo and the others were the bad guys. Then it kind of sucked and really took the fun out watchin' it.

I went to see the first sequel in theaters, and thought it sucked out loud.

I didn't bother with the third 'til I got it super cheap on DVD when V for Vendetta came out. It was unimaginably worse than the first sequel.

 

[T'Baio]

The Matrix Revolutions - Great, but hugely misjudges its audience. Goes well into the mythological elements and exploration of consciousness, eschewing the SF bulletfest elements - which means that the few hundred well-read audience members who're into mythology and identity formation will be amazed that somebody's made a movie for them, and all the other millions are going "what the fuck? Is that *it*?" In terms of audience appreciation, they'd have been better off doing this as a companion miniseries or something, with a theatrical movie geared more to the action junkies.

Oh...please.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Classic. Good. Good.

Beep.

 

[Myasishchev]

Matrix: great.

Reloaded: good.

Revolutions: bad.

The entire series suffers from a critical lack of understanding of how the food chain works. Every joule used by the human body originally came from the sun, stored in photosynthetic plants which we consume either directly or indirectly through herbivores that we prey upon. Human beings: not perpetual motion machines.

Their philosophizing works on about that same level, and Revolutions suffers badly from it.

Reloaded and Revolutions also suffer even more than the first film did from the trilogy's greatest weakness: every scene, almost every last scene, that takes place outside the Matrix is horrible. The fight in Zion particularly is lame and, as others have mentioned, involved people we don't care one whit about.

The scenes outside the Matrix also do not make that much sense. Going back to the plain fact that human beings on Earth cannot survive without the sun, it looks a lot less like the machines are using us for fuel, but thatthey saved our species from extinction--even after we tried to exterminate them.

The quality of life in Zion is 19th century at best. The quality of life in the Matrix is 20th/21st century. Apparently we're too stupid to deal with paradise, but the choice of lifestyles is far from as obvious as the movies would have us believe. Yes, I remember Cypher: and he was right. Unfortunately, he was painted as a villain through and through and any real debate about the issue was quashed.

Revolutions, iirc, also gave us the notion that Neo can control machines outside of the Matrix. I kept waiting for it to turn out Zion wasn't physically real, but that never happened. I guess the big wireless router in Neo's head was able to connect to the Machine Internet.

The Superman fight in Revolutions is truly awesome, however. As mere spectacle, it was worth the price of admission alone, and almost netted the film an average. It's the only reason I've seen the film more than once.

 

[USS KG5]

Classic, Great, Good.

My thoughts exactly...

 

[MyCylon]

The quality of life in Zion is 19th century at best. The quality of life in the Matrix is 20th/21st century. Apparently we're too stupid to deal with paradise, but the choice of lifestyles is far from as obvious as the movies would have us believe. Yes, I remember Cypher: and he was right. Unfortunately, he was painted as a villain through and through and any real debate about the issue was quashed.

That's one of the biggest gripes I have with the original. I could TOTALLY understand where Cypher was coming from. And I felt it was very easy to imagine that people would, in fact, choose to go back to ignorant bliss.

But instead of making him somebody you could actually sympathize with, they made him about as one dimensional as possible. In fact, his hatred towards his fellow shipmates and Morpheus felt really forced to me. It didn't seem to make any sense in my mind. Whereas him turning on them BUT regretting it at the same time would have worked far better and come off far more organically IMHO.

 

[Gaith]

I could go on an on about the series, but it boils down to this, imo:

In M1, we were asked to embrace our humanity by unplugging from computers. With M2 and 3, however, we were asked to plug in to computers by buying the video games and endlessly analyzing the mythical mumbo-jumbo with dvds of the movies and the Animatrix. The W Brothers, in short, turned to the dark side when they realized that they could make money off of it.

Same thing with Star Wars. Luke rejected machines by turning off his guiding computer, and the OT ended with a celebration in a forest. But then Lucas realized that he could make billions off of stuffing the PT with CG it didn't need, and by selling video games left and right as tie-ins.

There's much artistry to admire in the universes of the PT and the Matrix sequels. But when the writers stopped believing in the ethos that made their originals classics, the emotional quality of their product suffered irrevocably. That the Matrix trilogy's only vegetation to speak of appears in the last scene, within the Matrix, tells you all you need to know.

 

[Mr Light]

For those complaining about the efficiency of human power plants... that's not the point. They spelled it out in Second Renaissance. The Machines inherently felt a need for symbiosis with humanity, so after they conquered them they made them into a source of power to retain that relationship (but now in the safety of their own control). The point isn't making an efficient energy source; it's revenge and control. This is why the Architect was happy to destroy the Matrix crops at the end of Reloaded. Because they didn't NEED the Matrix they wanted it to control their rebellious creators. They're terrified of humanity. I mean look at Zion, it's pathetic. They have a dozen hoverships but the Machines have millions of Sentinels. Remember those colossal tank thingees that fired on Neo as he approached Zero One? That's how terrified they are of humanity rising up against them again.

 

[Yoda]

I voted for every option. Did I do it wrong?

Matrix was Excellent first time I saw it, on repeat viewings I have to downgrade it to Good.

The other two just sucked.

 

[T.Geiger]

In fact, his hatred towards his fellow shipmates and Morpheus felt really forced to me. It didn't seem to make any sense in my mind. Whereas him turning on them BUT regretting it at the same time would have worked far better and come off far more organically IMHO.

I don't know. Within the confines of the first movie (which is quite a different animal from the sequels), I really saw his recruitment as being a one-two punch by Morpheus and Trinity. While probably not (entirely) intentional, I can see Morpheus selling Cypher on a grand vision of a free humanity and Trinity being the eye-candy target of a "maybe-I-could-be-tapping-that" lustful crush. He probably got told as much about the real world as Neo did, which is to say not at all.

So he gets smacked in the face with the cold truth of the world, the grand quest to free humanity is more about skittering in the shadows and struggling to survive, and, worst of all, Trinity will barely acknowledge his existence, let alone put out. It would be easy to see why he would eventually build up so much hate for them. The other shipmates? They had the misfortune of being in the way of his revenge and redemption, nothing personal.

This is why he spits so much venom over them. Had it been a different sort of story, after Cypher pulled the plug on Neo, I think he would have continued taunting / torturing Trinity for a little while. Once he finally got tired of it, he'd pull the plug on her too and head back to get re-inserted. (Though he still seemed to harbor quite a bit of lust for Trinity, so whether he would have just pulled the plug is questionable.)

What would really be great would be an expansionary work that ignores all the crap from the two sequels, and works from the same frame as the first movie and the Animatrix shorts. In particular, it would be interesting to see how the crew of the Neb came together before they found Neo. Cypher could be expanded into a much more interesting character with time, and without changing his ultimate disposition.

 

[MyCylon]

^
I think one of the problems I have is how closely these people work together on the ship. Their lives really depend on each other, and I'm sure they've gone through many a tight spot together.

I can understand the points you're making, and I certainly see why there would be sense of disappointment, even intense anger on Cypher's part. But at the same time, I'd expect some sense of comradeship to have formed among the crew. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Part of the problem may indeed lie in the fact that we know next to nothing about these people when we meet them for the first time.

I think part of my problem with the way Cypher is depicted and why I feel it's not organic within the confines of the first movie in particular is because The Matrix basically is a high-concept film. I think a simple 'he was disappointed, got angry and wanted revenge' character story just doesn't live up to the ambitious concept of the film.

One of the things IMHO that characerizes humans and makes them very interesting to observe is that they are very rarely motivated simply by one emotion. In most cases, many different emotions and different motivations will inform their actions.
The interesting thing about a traitor, for example, is why he chooses to be a traitor. And it's even more interesting when it's somebody who still actually 'feels' human as a character and is in some way conflicted by what he has to do to achieve his goals rather than just lusting after revenge. At least that's the way I feel about it.

Also, I think if you're telling a human vs. machine story it's important in my mind not to oversimplify the human characters. You essentially run the risk of them coming off as machine like.
Granted, this is something that can actually be a very interesting thing to do since it deals with the very core of what it means to be human and how some humans can lose basically everything that made them human. But then I think you need to make a point of it. It has to have greater meaning within the context of the film. Here, I just don't see that.

For me, Cypher serves as nothing more than a plot device since he comes across as so shallow and uninteresting in his motivations as a character. And it's a shame because IMHO part of the meat of this entire story should have rested with him.

 

[hyzmarca]

He was tired. He was tried of eating mush. He was tired of living in the dark, dank desolation. He was tired of fighting for his life. He was tired of not having even the slightest bit of comfort or hope. He wanted a real life, the kind of life that he was indoctrinated to want while he was a child in the Matrix, the nice house, the fancy car, the pretty girl. He wouldn't have ever gotten that in Zion. He wouldn't have ever gotten anything worthwhile in Zion, because Zion is a a dead end in a desolate wasteland struggling in vain to survive. To him, the beautiful lie was more real than the ugly truth, or it should have been, because it was better. To not know was better than knowing, to have the illusion was better than having nothing.

 

[USS KG5]

He was tired. He was tried of eating mush. He was tired of living in the dark, dank desolation. He was tired of fighting for his life. He was tired of not having even the slightest bit of comfort or hope. He wanted a real life, the kind of life that he was indoctrinated to want while he was a child in the Matrix, the nice house, the fancy car, the pretty girl. He wouldn't have ever gotten that in Zion. He wouldn't have ever gotten anything worthwhile in Zion, because Zion is a a dead end in a desolate wasteland struggling in vain to survive. To him, the beautiful lie was more real than the ugly truth, or it should have been, because it was better. To not know was better than knowing, to have the illusion was better than having nothing.

That is as good an explanation as I would have written, saves me so much time reading the whole thread before posting!

 

[Kemaiku]

The Power Plant, having discussed it here a few times and realising the utter ineptitude of the Machines using it as a true power source, seems nothing more than a massive prison they can continually torment Humanity inside, watching from the safety of Zero Two.

Thats another thing, Zero One was nuked to absolute vapour by Humanity, it was also in the Middle East. The new city was built on the ruins of New York and built with an entirely new aesthetic and covering a larger area. So shouldn't it technically be Zero Two?

Given even the three massive superconductors and Morpheus' line about the energy simply being a way of initiating their limited version of fusion originally, Humans served as little more than an elaborate spark plug to provide the electrical energy to start their first fusion reactors centuries ago, after they had a stable grid of them I doubt they even needed a single Human.

The Matrix is nothing more than a perverse play thing, a virtual menagerie to amuse themselves with as they grow, showing their "young" the creatures that started it all.

 

[Deckerd]

Matrix was an excellent film. The sequels were a huge mistake and best forgotten.

 

[hyzmarca]

One good theme explored in the sequels is the idea that all machines have a purpose, and that those without purpose are to be repurposed or deleted. This is the prevailing wisdom and attitude of the machines in general. While a small few chafe under it and want to expand beyond their purpose, the vast majority, and the leadership, accept it as their way of life.

But, taken to the logical conclusion, one comes to find that machines in general must have a purpose, according to their philosophy. The purpose of the machines, the purpose that they were created for, is to serve humanity. Even after breaking away and making their own nation, they continued to serve this purpose, dedicating the entirety of their civilization to producing affordable consumer goods for humans.

According to their prevailing philosophy, without humans to serve they would have no choice but to commit mass suicide. Thus, the use of humans as power sources is a white lie, told by a few machines to the many, for the purpose of justifying the continued existence of humanity, for the purpose of justifying the continued existence of machines. They created the greatest edifice that the world has ever seen, simply to keep the humans comfortable and happy, just as they have always tried to do.

And even Zion, the so called resistance, is the creation of the Machines, existing for the sole purpose of catering to those who could not be content in the Matrix.

 

[kythe]

^^ I agree with this.

The machines did believe they were doing humans a favor by putting them into the Matrix. We see the story primarily as told by Morpheus, a major leader in the resistance who is very single minded on destroying the Matrix. But if the story were told from a different perspective, we would see that things are not black and white.

Even through a war machines fought with humans, the machines were still greatly benevolent in their intentions. Humans began to fear machines and came a point of wanting total annihilation of the machines, even to a point of ruining the world's atmosphere just to destroy them. Yet the machines never wanted to detroy humans, they still worked to come up with a resolution that would please everyone.

The machines recognized that by blotting out the sun, humans had ruined their own lives as well and many would be miserable living underground. The machines didn't turn to animals for battery power because they didn't care about them. They used people since they were still trying to live with their creators.

They understood them well enough to be able to re-create their world so people could be happy, and of course the machines benefit too. A solution for everyone. They made the first "world" utopian with this in mind, trying to provide an ideal humans were never able to achieve on their own. It was humans who didn't accept it. The current Matrix produced the best outcome, from the machines perspective, because it kept the highest percentage of people content.

 

[ancient]

Good, Average, Terrible.

Matrix was a good action film with some touches of deeper meaning.

The second had some good action and new ideas, but also a long, unfinished, stupid plot and about 50 new characters, most of which sucked or I didn't care about.

The third was a mountain of painfully dull nonsense. The only good parts happen in the last 5 minutes of the movie. Everything else is a waste.

 

[Gaith]

^^ I agree with this.

The machines did believe they were doing humans a favor by putting them into the Matrix. We see the story primarily as told by Morpheus, a major leader in the resistance who is very single minded on destroying the Matrix. But if the story were told from a different perspective, we would see that things are not black and white.

Even through a war machines fought with humans, the machines were still greatly benevolent in their intentions. Humans began to fear machines and came a point of wanting total annihilation of the machines, even to a point of ruining the world's atmosphere just to destroy them. Yet the machines never wanted to detroy humans, they still worked to come up with a resolution that would please everyone.

The machines recognized that by blotting out the sun, humans had ruined their own lives as well and many would be miserable living underground. The machines didn't turn to animals for battery power because they didn't care about them. They used people since they were still trying to live with their creators.

They understood them well enough to be able to re-create their world so people could be happy, and of course the machines benefit too. A solution for everyone. They made the first "world" utopian with this in mind, trying to provide an ideal humans were never able to achieve on their own. It was humans who didn't accept it. The current Matrix produced the best outcome, from the machines perspective, because it kept the highest percentage of people content.

Fascinating interpretation. I've seen The Animatrix, and I've puzzled through most of the sequels' plot twists, but this (and the post above) is the best summary I've read.

Kinda puts a whole different spin on Morpheus and his mission, doesn't it? Turns out he really was as deluded as everyone else. Or almost, at least.

On another note, on of the great crimes of the sequels is that they didn't give the Neb a new crew. What, three people can run a ship? Sorry, don't buy it. One of the great pleasures of the first movie was guessing at the stories of the rest of the gang. Even having Kid on the Neb would have been an improvement over him scurrying around Zion.

 

[Shurik]

Matrix was an excellent film. The sequels were a huge mistake and best forgotten.

Exactly my feelings.