Harry Potter with Guns

kauff writes "Slate has recently released a somewhat-inspired article about what the Matrix was. You have to read it for yourself. Good way to hype yourself up before Reloaded on May 15th."

Comments

dystopic utopia

[deathcloset]

Good point made about this dark future. While on the surface the matrix is a prison, it is a prison in which you can fly, dodge bullets and jump into the chests of your enemies (without all the trouble that comes with your run of the mill prison made psychedelics).
all I want to know is, if there are hovering robots and a computer reality, is there no space capability? I mean, why don't the machines just purge the faulty human batteries and move into space? plenty of solar power, plenty of room. Besides, regardless of the number of humans you have powering your MMOR (Massive Multiplayer Online Reality) I cannot help but speculate that a nuclear reactor has a great deal more potential for raw power than small to mid-sized mammals...But what kind of a movie is that right?

Is this really that supprising?

[Gyorg_Lavode]

About 2 months ago a very anti-technology professor of mine pointed out that the reason the matrix is popular is because it tells nerds what they want to hear, that they can still be cool and powerful even if where they are right now is a small room, by themselves, spending 14 hours a day stairing at a computer screen.

Re:Is this really that supprising?

[tempest303]

I have two words for your professor.

Linus. Torvalds.

In essence, Linus is a computer nerd that spent a whole bunch of time in front of his computer, and is now considered a very powerful person indeed. The software project he started is now turning whole economies upside-down. If that's not power, what is?

Now, it's important to note that Linus is a relatively unique story, but it does go to demonstrate that with enough effort and critical thinking (good timing helps, too), yes, one person can start to change the world - that's power for you.

yup (was: I disagree completely)

[dorfsmay]

I agree. I personally do not care for for special effects, but I need a good story, and the Matrix was a very good story. Something very original, not your typical clever, good looking, young lawyer that beats the big bad guy. Not as predictible as the average movie either, and the "standard american set of morales" is not necessarely respected, contrary to 90% of movies coming out of Hollywood.

I have met Christians who saw the matrix as a metaphor for God, I personally think it was a modern version of a lot of the Tibetan Budhism teachings (an no I am not a Budhist, but interrested in the different perception of realities both in eastern and western culture).

In the movie, when the hero (Neo ?) is sitting in an armchair, and wonder if everything is fake, and the other hero asked him "what is reality ? Is it waht your senses tell it is to your brain ?" - this is a very "budhist question" (not only Tibettan, but accross the differnt form of budhism), and definitely a very valid question !!

Re:I disagree completely.

[lidocaineus]

I'll have to say that the movie was good, but the storyline wasn't too hot, and anyone who thinks the dialogue was any good should go read a book. Or better yet, watch the first Wachowski brothers movie, Bound. Now *there* was an excellent movie - tension, humor, drama, awesome cinematography and far better dialogue than The Matrix, all on a shoestring budget on a very limited set. As for watching movies to watch movies instead of reading into them, well, the directors DID want you to read into The Matrix. Did that fly over your head? The problem is, while there is something there, there's not a whole lot of it. See, the storyline was just a mishmash of practically every single piece of popular sci-fi (lit or movie) previously, with a muddy undertone of religious and philsophical musings. While highly entertaining and even groundbreaking in certain considerations, imo, I consider The Matrix to be just short of being among the best. Good scifi is all about the human condition, which The Matrix touches upon, but never really goes into much depth with. It's basically the brain equivalent of eye candy; fun, makes you think a bit, but in the end, you want something real to chew on. Examples of good scifi: Blade Runner (duh), Solaris (original Russian version), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and anything but Stanislaw Lem or Jorge Borges.

Philosophy and Mythology are always appealing

[philipx]

I think that in terms of movies, there are only a couple that have generated as much attention and fandom and Star Wars, The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter have generated (LOTR & HP are also bestsellers in books as well). So what do they have in common?
I would dare to angry anybody and say Star Wars is Lord of the Rings a couple of millennia into the future. Same for The Matrix being Harry Potter. But in terms of movies, I think the reverse is equally true. I think LOTR has to be thankful to Star Wars for part of its success, the same way Harry Potter has to be thankful to The Matrix opening the gates to the Magic Hero trail.
However, ancient and future heroes, battle of good and evil, greek, roman, chinese mythology have been part of a zillion good movies. I mean, good vs evil is THE subject of all modern movies. So why doesn't Sixth Sense, Toy Story and Austin Powers generate such an impressive fandom?
Let me wobble over a couple of reasons I think stand behind such a tremendous success as these four movies have inspired:

• Tickle the imagination. I mean, this is a no-brainer. See the success of the James Bond series. However, the battles and forces the heroes have to face in any of these movies are exceedingly large and victory seems to be against all odds. Death Star, Mordor, The Matrix and Valdemort are perpetuous threatening presences no one else can really win in a battle agains them.
• Bildungsroman and neverending battles. Frodo and Aragorn, Neo, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker are red-threads through the entire story, characters that don't stall, but rather learn and evolve in a continuous manner, all of them led by a human yet higher, more esoteric force: Gandalf, Morpheus/Oracle, Dumbledore and Obi-Wan/Yoda. That's the bildungsroman part. In the never ending battle, I'd like you to recall that in any of these movies, in any of the parts, evil is defeated, but not extincted. Now, obviously some could argue that this is part of the Hollywood plot to allow more income from sequels :). But honestly now, how many times have you fixed something so that it will never go bad again in any condition?!. Evil is a character, and people can identify it. If Batman keeps changing enemies and Double-Oh-Seven keeps blowing them up, the bad guys are no longer an identifiable part, one that the viewers can relate to and can create their own mental plots/dreams about destroying it in wars of their own. Evil never dies, right? Make a good juicy character out of it!
• Subtle mythology - OK, Harry Potter and LOTR have mythology written all over them (Greek and Celtic/Norse), but what about Star Wars and The Matrix? Matrix is quite easy, the mythology is mostly Christian (devil sending its messengers), although some aspects of Greek mythology is present (think Hydra). Star Wars is not as easy; being similary to LOTR, one could argue about its Celtic roots, but I think it's the aliens in SW that make us think of fabulous creatures, and if there is anything in the old books greater number than heroes, that is the fantastic creatures, ranging from tiny and funny to large and kind, from little and wicked to big and evil. All of us, as kids, had some exposure to mythology, and I think that is a strong identifiable emblem in a movie. You may not be able to put the finger on it and tell exactly what it is, but at least it spurs a shadow of deja-vu in your mind and that is enough to make you feel comfortable with the characters and the whole plot.
• Philosophy. I've left philosophy at the end, because that is the most difficult and esoteric part. Anyone who read Tao Teh Ching has found The Matrix to be an living illustration of it. While I'm not going to mull through what is philosophical in each of the movies, I think adding this touch to a movie gives it an extra kick, and makes possible for one to argue that it really has depth, that it really goes into exploring those dark corners of the human mind. We all love to imagine a

Isn't the Matrix about Christianity?

[StephenLegge]

I only saw the Matrix once when it came out on DVD, but I always thought it was sci-fi metaphor for Christianity.

Anderson (which means "Son of Man") is the messiah/Christ who is going to save humanity from the illusion that life on earth is all there is.

In the Matrix (just as in Chrsitianity's teachings) there are good angels and bad angels in our world who are in a constant battle for our everlasting lives.

Some guy came to Keanu's apartment early on and said something like "you're my savior, man"; and later Neo was resurrected by "Trinity" (Father/Son/HolySpirit), reinforcing Neo as the Christ character.

There are plenty of other references like the name of the ship Nebecanezzer (sp) who was the king in the book of Daniel who wanted his dreams interpreted. The traiter's name was "Cipher" (ie. Lucifer). And there's probably a lot more that I have since forgotten.

The most poignent moment in the film for me was when Fishbourne was tied to the chair and the "bad angel" was saying something about how he hates people, that he hates their smell -- and he equates them to a virus. To me, this sounded like something a "fallen angel" or Satan would say to a real person in the same situation.

Anyway, just one guy's opinion. I spotted references to some web sites in the article, "Messiah in Matrix" and knowthematrix.com -- maybe I'll check them out.

Stephen Legge