What the heck is The Matrix?

[sageb1]

I am placing this in the Rant Room because this is more of the start of a social commentary of our post-millennial world, rather than a Matrix review.


http://members.shaw.ca/shkawamoto/whatisthematrix.html



With The Matrix Revolutions trailer soon to be out in a new movie based on Stephen King's Dreamcatcher coming in March 2003, it remains to be determined if the Matrix series is a social commentary on the Western view of reality, a commentary on corporations or something completely revolutionary.

The philosophy brought to the surface by deep thinkers of America in response to the Matrix is interesting and thought-provoking. Brilliant minds speculate and add their thoughts on the Matrix. Having seen the first movie, The Matrix, whatever these thinkers say will only confirm my suspicions about reality.

Matrix Revolutions' plot is summed up as Neo faces the consequences of a decision he made in The Matrix Reloaded.

I feel the Matrix, like Starship Troopers and other recent science fiction movies including Star Trek: Nemesis are marketing a cultural mindset involving guns, violence and adversarial warfare supposedly to take the audience's minds off imminent war. Instead, it creates a passive acceptance toward violence and allows one to accept warfare as necessary. Thus, the whole purpose of such movies is to mold minds into buying more popcorn and drinking more beverages while watching supposedly entertaining movies that also sell violence as an acceptable form of conflict resolution.

In contrast, Starship Troopers was influenced by the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, but was made without the blessings of Heinlein's estate. The movie's overtly fascist overtones do not reflect Heinlein at all. Indeed, most of the novels he wrote were cautionary tales.

Despite the philosophical discussions reflecting upon The Matrix, these films tend to show conflict resolution through the use of big guns and threatened violence. Whatever the Matrix is about, it might be deeper than that first impression of breath-taking beauty and ugly violence - but I'd rather read about The Matrix Reloaded first before I go see the movie on DVD.

As for The Matrix Revolutions, I'll wait for it on DVD, too.

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The above commentary was originally written February 17, 2003.

In December, 2003 I saw The Matrix: Revolutions in Vernon. It still confirms my view of the use of Hollywood to manufacture consent about the "war on terrorism."

I also remember seeing Dreamcatcher on DVD...

Then I wrote The Matrix Revisited on September 23, 2003...
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http://members.shaw.ca/shkawamoto/Wh...rix%20fan.html

The Matrix Revisited

I'm a fan of the Matrix psychobabble i.e. explaining Matrix as a parody of capitalist, corporatist dynamic system rather than the static entity that the protestors are fighting against.

Although they may employ the leftist rhetoric of "fighting back against the State/the system/the Establishment", the post-Millennial Left is actually exposing the flaws of the myth of institutions of civilization as entities unto themselves rather than promoting the dynamic systems that such institutions actually are.

In The Matrix this seems to be the case since you do see hints of brand naming going on, from the Japanese text flowing downwards at the beginning of every movie in the series, to the computers partially hidden, to the suits, the guns, the ties, the fake leather briefcases, the generic telephone booth, the faint reminder of Clark Kent changing into Superman, the threat of death from an accidental fall in the cyberspace of consensual reality called The Matrix.

All of it markets the product called the Matrix serial movies, from the Matrix to Matrix Reloaded to Matrix Revolutions to the Matrix manga series online.

They're even marketing Matrix dolls of Neo et. al. including the loveable anti-heroes, the suits that are basically antivirus programs trying to delete the virus called freedom from the Matrix.

This series thus uses basically unaligned characters trying hard not to pick sides except that of liberation from the Matrix. For this threatens the energy needs of the machines, because everyone who hasn't woken up is basically an energy source being slowly drained of energy to keep the Matrix "alive."

Anyway, that's how deeply I am a Matrix fan.

Hopefully, I am free of the biases of culture, and liberated from the usual paradigms that limit how I see this movie.

Perhaps I didn't take either the red pill and wake up in the Matrix, nor did I take the blue pill and end up in Nirvana. :P Maybe I hid them both under my tongue and frenched the suits. >:P

[kitty]

I'm not sure I follow -- the generic-ness of the items in the Matrix (sunglasses, etc) being a brand unto itself?

[sageb1]

Yes, the brand is unique to the Matrix, given that the producers have blended various aspects of American culture.

Fans range from those who like the SFX to those who can articulate a sophisticated worldview using the Matrix as a starting point for discussion.

Anything in the Matrix that resembles real life is a subjective reflex of the fan.

Objectively, the three films so far have generated millions for its actors, producers and writers. The toy industry has also benefitted from the Matrix. There are dolls of the characters being sold. As well, there were contests with a beverage company and other tie-ins.

The Matrix may actually represent a new spin on the consumer lifestyle.

This generic-ness may be both a commentary and a sign of the times of the post-millennial age. Or not.

[kitty]

I dunno... that may have been an unconscious result of the movie's popularity. the genericness of the costumes were designed to represent the 'everyman' aspect of the rebels -- like agent smith is supposed to represent sameness.

remember, the movies were never expected to blow up like they did.