'Matrix' Sequels In Trouble?

jopasm writes "The Matrix sequels may be in trouble. They've had one of the major actors pull out due to scheduling conflicts and Keanu is rumored to have broken his ankle while in training. Scifi.com is carrying the rumour/style. " Yes, Michelle Yeoh ^[?] (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) has pulled out - but the other part to remember is that SAG ^[?] will almost be certainly going on strike, delaying production in any case.

Comments

Re:The One still fights ?

[Tim Macinta]

BTW, if Keanu had become the One in Matrix1, I believe they had to invent something incredible if they still want him to fight in its sequel. Has he or not become a God which could just destroy his opponents in less than 2 seconds ?

He's only "The One" inside the Matrix. He's still very vulnerable in the real world - hence the whole rush at the end of the movie to get him out of the Matrix. Here's what I would do if I were the machine in charge of the Matrix and wanted to elimate Keanu:

• Wait until he enters the Matrix again (or lure him in, maybe by taking the Oracle hostage).
• Pull all of the agents out of the Matrix.
• Switch all of the phone lines within the Matrix to Verizon so that phone service goes down the toilet, thereby blocking all of the exits from the Matrix (they wouldn't be able to use the phone lines to get out at that point).
• Erect an OpenBSD firewall so that hacking another way out of the Matrix will be beyond even Keanu's abilities.
• Now the machines would be free to take their jolly old time hunting down Keanu in the real world. Once they find the ship they simply destroy it and eliminate the threat.

Have no fear....

[bdavenport]

in the day and age when first run stories cost upwards of $100mil and the original ranks in at #55 all-time with $177mil world wide, have no fear.

they will make this film - without Yeoh, with Keanu, and as quickly as possible (even if SAG strikes.)

what you SHOULD worry about is whether the Wachowski boys were a one hit wonder with the original or will they come through. sequels generally suck....

INHO, of course!

Re:It doesn't really matter these days so much.

[sql*kitten]

Because the Matrix isn't about plot or characterisation, its always been about making its audience slack-jawed with amazement at the quality of the effects, and has been very enjoyable for doing so.

I disagree. At the risk of offending assorted slashbots, if you make a film with lots of special effects without worrying about plot or characters, you get rubbish like The Phantom Menace. I went to the Premiere and left feeling I'd just sat through a 2 hours SGI showreel.

The Matrix, OTOH, was an intelligent film (I remember /. posts on how philosophy professors were impressed enough with it to mention it on their courses). It bears repeated watchings, and leaves the audience thinking.

The abscence of the actors is no big deal

Again, I disagree. Keanu isn't a great actor, but he was perfectly suited to the role of Neo. And the film wouldn't have been nearly as good without Morpheus' charisma, etc.

My main problem...

[barawn]

My main problem with the original is the same problem I have with all cyberspace-neuromancer type clones: why in the world would your brain kill your body if you 'thought' you died in some VR-type world? It makes no sense.

I mean, honestly, think about it. Most of your body which is devoted to survival is autonomic - heart, respiration, all take serious conscious effort to control, and quite a bit of training. It's extremely unlikely that your mind, thinking that you died, would cut off the *autonomic* response of breathing/heartbeat. That's idiotic. How does your brain know that you honestly died? All those bullets could've passed straight through, and not harmed anything.

Consider reality: several people wake up in hospitals thinking that they have died. If your body doesn't die if your brain thinks you died in reality, you wouldn't die from dying in VR!

Of course, the better analogy comes from dreams: if you die in a dream, do you die in reality? No... so why in the world does anyone think VR is any different?

Granted, the Matrix wouldn't exactly have any 'punch' if they didn't really die, but that's another example of Hollywood sacrificing common sense for theatrical effect. It'd be really nice to see someone who's very very smart come up with a good, scientifically sound plot that's still good cinema.

so we just have to wait a little longer

[msew]

Go Go gadget sensationalism! this is why I really hate the media. Everything is blown out of proportion. So what! An actor left before they even started filming. Keanu busted his ankle. Shoot the scenes that Keanu is not in. And if worse comes to worse we just have to wait a bit longer for them to come out. The title should be: Sequels Might be delayed a bit. Not this sensationalism crap that we have to put up with day in and day out. msew