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martinjost · 10 months

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On the State of "The Matrix"

[translation of:]

We weren't entirely sure if this new "Matrix" film really existed or if we had dreamed it. It came to theaters during the peculiar dream-like time called The Pandemic and is, of course, available on home video by now. In the public consciousness, it hasn't left as significant an impact as the "Matrix" trilogy from 1999 onwards. The original film is 24 years old. Back then, it felt like it had propelled us more than a quarter of a century into the future, but today, Part One seems more like an artifact of its time. So, what about this latest sequel? Is it from the present, is it nostalgic, or does it give us a glimpse of the future?

There's a structural difference between the latest installment of "The Matrix" from 2021 and the old trilogy (1999 �� 2003) that feels subtle but sets the mood of the film: In the fourth "Matrix" film, "Resurrections," unexpected allies keep appearing, where previously surprising saboteurs provided tension. In "The Matrix," Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) betrays Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and his crew to the enemy machines at the most inconvenient moment. In "Resurrections," there's a ceasefire, and some machines have joined the humans. It may happen that an intelligent machine appears at the right moment to help humans out of a dangerous situation.

If self-irony were sugar, we'd have heartburn now.

The color scheme subtly contributes to the feeling that we're in a more optimistic Matrix. Warm light and sunset ambiance replace the previously dominant gray, pallid clouds, and pale faces glowing from computer screens. "The Matrix Resurrections" is in every way more joyful, optimistic, and confident than its predecessors – one might even say it's almost silly. If self-irony were sugar, we'd have heartburn now.

At the beginning of the film, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is back where he was at the beginning of the first part: working as a programmer. His experiences as a freedom fighter against the machines in the real world were mere delusions, he believes. He processed them into a successful video game series called "The Matrix Trilogy." The plot initially follows the same path as the first part, but this time with meta-commentary and fan jubilation from the sidelines. It's a younger generation led by Captain Bugs (Jessica Henwick) who seeks Neo in the real world and frees him from the Matrix. To them, Neo is legendary.

And for us, he is too. The film is a class reunion for Millennials. We'd like to know if someone who has only seen "Resurrections" and no other "Matrix" film can make sense of the fourth installment. The dialogue consists almost entirely of inside jokes. The rest is made up of quotes. Often, we can even directly compare the scenes, as fragments from the original films are constantly present – either as flashbacks or as films within the film. When the characters watch excerpts from the previous parts, the sequences in diegesis are taken from Neo's blockbuster video game, which they've all binged.

Déjà vu

This time too, Neo needs two attempts before swallowing the red pill and deciding to escape from the virtual reality. The meeting with Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) takes place in an old cinema. On the torn screen, the same scene from the first "Matrix" is shown, in which the old Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) lets Neo choose between the red pill and the blue pill. Did we say above that the echoes of the past were subtle? Scratch 'subtle.' By the way, the soundtrack is also very familiar to us, having watched "Matrix" 1 to 3 more than once.

Neil Patrick Harris (Barney from "How I Met Your Mother") plays Neo's psychotherapist. Later, we discover that he is responsible for much more than gaslighting Neo. The analyst's glasses glow blue, just like the pills he prescribes to his patient for his "hallucinations." He has a black cat named Déjà vu. Did we say above that the echoes of the past were subtle? Scratch 'subtle.'

Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is called Tiffany in this version of the Matrix. She is a mother and wife and spends her remaining time on her hobby: motorcycles. She has also played the "Matrix" trilogy computer gane and felt oddly familiar with the story. The character Trinity in the video game looked remarkably similar to her as well.

Neo's Eleven

The second half of "Resurrections" falls into the genre of a heist movie. Like in "Ocean's Eleven," the free people from the city I/O and the crew of the Mnemosyne plan a heist. They don't want to rob a bank but rather free Trinity from a high-security tower. However, she must first want to break free from the Matrix herself.

We can be pleased that the dialogues about the theory of the Matrix are as concise and pointed as in the first part, even though we miss Hugo Weaving as Smith and Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus. The new "Architect" of the Matrix understands human nature even better than his predecessors. In a monologue, he explains how to more efficiently harness human bodies for energy generation: one must engage their minds with emotions, contradiction, and anger, then the yields increase year after year. This moment corresponds to a scene in the first part where Smith explains to Morpheus that enslaved humans would rebel against a paradisiacal golden cage and only function correctly when their lives are a gloomy struggle.

In both the latest and the first part, the irony lies in the fact that the machines understand and exploit human nature excellently for their purposes. The machines' view of humanity has been adapted to themes like fake news, attention as currency, and political trench warfare. The question of whether AI (artificial intelligence) will take over the world has become even more acute since 1999. Despite all the nostalgia, "Matrix: Resurrections" has caught up thematically and is a film of today. [translated with ChatGPT.]

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"The Matrix Resurrections"

USA, Germany 2021

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Director: Lana Wachowski. Screenplay: Lana Wachowski, Aleksandar Hemon, David Mitchell. Production: Lana Wachowski, Grant Hill, James McTeigue. Music: Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer. Cinematography: John Toll, Daniele Massaccesi. Editing: Joseph Jett Sally.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lambert Wilson, Christina Ricci, Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Brian J. Smith, Eréndira Ibarra, Telma Hopkins, Chad Stahelski, Julian Grey, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, Ellen Hollman, Freema Agyeman.

#Besprechung #Film #Filmkritik #Matrix #matrix trilogy #Resurrections #Review #The Matrix #01060 #international martin tribune #review #translation #ai #artificial intelligence #film review #movie review #criticism #Youtube

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tapwrites · 4 days

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Theme through Exposition (Matrix Reloaded, Revolutions & Resurrections)

This is part 2 of a series looking at the Matrix films. You can read the first part before continuing.

Which brings us to the sequels, Reloaded, and Revolutions. These were made at the same time, and function as two halves of the same story. So I'll look at them as one block. Though in less detail... And I've tagged on a bit about Resurrections at the end to round out the series.

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First, the reviews:

I enjoyed Reloaded and Revolutions a fair bit less than the first film. Of course, there wasn't that gut-punch of a brand new concept to my psyche--that's to be expected. But something about it was qualitatively different to me.

Compared to the small-scale, big-concept of The Matrix... these sequels were all about the big-scale, high-concept. Giant fights (utilising a lot of pure-CGI), in giant places (the dock, and the entire Matrix). While the concepts are less "big," more just... "high."

There was always some philosophy stuff floating around in the Matrix, but the focus was on the Matrix as a concept--rather than discussions on the definition of a word and the abstract impact that definition has on existence itself. Which basically stops the momentum of the story because really nothing is happening.

The bigger scale of the battles and fights is fine by itself. There's a lot of fun sequences in there. But compared to the tighter story-driven fight scenes in the first film, it often felt a bit "and now there's going to be a fight/battle scene." It was easy to get lost regarding why the heroes were doing what they were doing, and what their goal was.

Why is Neo fighting all those Agents if he can just fly away? Why do they need the Key Maker? Where are they trying to get to? What's the stakes?

Interestingly, the film actually comments on that. With the Merovingian telling the heroes they don't know why they are doing things. And the Oracle telling Neo his job isn't to make a choice, but to understand the future choice he's already made. (More on that later.)

Which... okay, that could happen in a story I guess--characters doing what they can but not really knowing what to do. But it means the viewer doesn't understand the motivation of the characters, because the characters don't understand their own motivations... which in turn means it's easy to just not really care about what's going on.

And then the more recent Resurrections. Which, to sum up, is a mess.

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Half Matrix-inspired saturday morning cartoon with a load of colourful one-dimensional characters that do almost nothing (reminded me a lot of some of the Transformers movies in that way). And half meta commentary on the circumstances of making the film, what they thought about the Matrix series and about the suits at Warner Brothers who demanded it be made.

I'm not going to go down the rabbit-hole of the meta stuff about production in this article. You can look into that stuff elsewhere. But watching it with this stuff in mind, and it being so obvious in the subtext (and text) of the movie... it felt like I was watching a mental breakdown as expressed through the medium of film.

But anyway... theme!

The theme of M2 & M3 is Choice... but instead of how "Belief is choice," it's about how "Purpose is choice."

This concept is explored primarily through conversations.

The Oracle tells Neo, "You're not here to make a choice. You're here to understand why you made the choice." [M2 0:45:40] So yes, fate and predestination is real, there is no such thing as real choice. Purpose is a choice already made. Neo should focus on figuring out what his purpose is, not about making free choices.

Which goes against the whole concept of "free your mind" and Neo's free choices being the crux of the whole thing, of being the One in the first place.

Without a lot of work on the viewer's part to untangle the philosophy of it all, it feels very incongruous to the reason they are watching this film... because the loved the first film.

The Merovingian says it is the "why" that has the power. And the gang does not know why they are doing any of this. They are choosing to do what they're told, without understanding why they are choosing to do it. [M2 1:05:22]

Which is totally true. The Oracle said "jump," and they said "how high?"

This is part of why it's not so enjoyable to watch. The viewer doesn't have any idea why they're doing what they're doing either; the characters have no motivation beyond "Oracle told me to do it." That's not an interesting motivation for a character to have.

When they have 3 ships and 3 missions, Morpheus says: "I do not see coincidence, I see providence. I see purpose." [M2 1:41:42]

Though in reality, one of those ships does nothing at all... beyond maybe making the others believe there's purpose and this is the right plan.

There's a lot of chat going on here, interleaved with carrying out the plan. The plan itself isn't that interesting. And we keep cutting back to Morpheus trying to make it all sound grander than it is. There's a lot of bouncing around in time, there's something about the timing of power dropping and when things blow up and when the door disappears and... it's all very confusing. Especially on first-viewing.

The Architect tells Neo why he exists in the first place, and therefore what his purpose is--why he chose to come here. To decide to let Zion die, make a new Zion with new people from the Matrix, and let the loop keep on looping. [M2 1:54:56]

This is actually quite a cool revelation, but is confusing as all get-out because it's written like an academic paper. It took me a fair bit of studying this scene to figure out what he was actually saying at any point in time.

And it actually turns out none of it was relevant because Neo just decides that's not his purpose, and takes the door no One before him ever took so he could save Trinity. ...Which also doesn't seem to affect anything but the decision in that moment.

The Oracle has changed bodies, because she made a choice. "Since the test of any choice is to make it again, knowing full well what it might cost, I guess I feel pretty good about that choice. Because here I am, at it again." [M3 0:05:38]

This doesn't really fit in with the whole "purpose" idea. It's just more philosophical dialogue.

Morpheus has a crisis of faith, finding out that the prophecy was a lie. He asks the Oracle, "After everything that has happened, how can you expect me to believe you?" Who replies, "I don't. I expect just what I've always expected. For you to make up your own [darn] mind. Believe me or don't." [M3 0:07:00]

She told Neo this in the park, too. And it does fit with M1. Though all the other stuff she told Neo and everything the films are about goes against this idea So... it's just not very cohesive at all, and if you try to figure this stuff out, it comes out as pretty confusing just by itself.

Rama-Kandra speaks to Neo in the station. He's a program who controls recycling at the power plant. "It is my karma. A way of saying 'what I am here to do.' I do not resent my karma. I am grateful for it. Grateful for my wonderful wife, for my beautiful daughter." [M3 0:12:19]

But really his job had nothing to do with those things. He has a purpose. But also some amount of freedom to choose--to have relationships, to create new programs like Sati.

Though programs created for no real reason, like Sati, have no purpose. They exist purely to do whatever they feel like. To make choices. To use their free-will, you could say.

Though the Machines don't like anything to exist that has no purpose. It's just sub-optimal. They want to delete such programs. Which is why Sati is being sent to the Matrix, where such programs can hide from the Machines.

This is cool worldbuilding. Though it's not really explored as part of the story. These facts, and Sati herself, have no effect on what happens. Just more dialogue-only exploration of ideas.

Speaking of whatever he did to the Oracle, Merv says, "Where others see coincidence, I see consequence. Where others see chance, I see cost." What he did to her was business, economics. [M3 0:21:52]

This mirrors what Morpheus said in M2. Though he doesn't see the grandiose purpose and providence, but the mundane consequence and cost--economics in place of fate.

Choice doesn't factor into either of these. Morpheus doesn't believe choice factors in because it's already been decided--similar to how the Oracle thinks. Merv is just cranking the wheel of give and take.

During the finale battle, Smith says "the purpose of life is to end." [M3 1:44:53] Namely by being taken over by him. He aims to take over everything, because he's a virus. And that's a big problem for the Machines.

Thematically, this doesn't really do much. Though it kind of fits into how the fight ends.

Neo gives up and lets Smith take him over. Which allows the Machines to... do... something through Neo I guess? To destroy all of the Smiths? Somehow? [M3 1:52:50]

This could be the choice he didn't understand maybe. Though potentially it could've been the choice he made at the Architect's room--to not create a new Zion, and seemingly allow all of humankind to die.

Apparently he was seeing the door of light in a prophetic dream, though we never saw that so it didn't really have any impact.

Anyway, one of these were this was the choice he didn't understand, that he was destined to make according to the Oracle. Though at the time, it was just pure confusion for the audience.

That's really the problem here, thematically. It was pretty much all talk about the theme, but we saw very little to demonstrate any of it.

There were a lot of "let's sit down and chat" scenes in these films. Technically, the exploration of theme in M1 were also conversations--but those conversations happened because of the story. They were directly related to the story unfolding, they came naturally as a result of what came before. They were direct and relevant.

In M2 & M3, these conversations did not come from what came before. They were not particularly relevant to what was happening. They often meandered and jumped from topic to somewhat unrelated topic--awkwardly setting up aspects that would come into play, but with nothing motivating it being brought up.

One speaker would say something cryptic and the other would understand exactly what they meant and say it--because just a monologue would be too obviously an infodump. Or one speaker would change the subject at random and the other would carry on as if nothing weird just happened.

While there were thematic threads linking to the events--well, pretty much the very final events perhaps--the viewer wasn't in on that. And the conversations were mainly used to worldbuild, exposit at the viewers, talk about philosophical concepts.

Just as in M1, the same concepts were revisited over and over, from different angles. But not in a subtle way that was worked into the story; it felt more like the characters were saying to each other:

ORACLE/ARCHITECT/MERV: Hey, you know how the theme of this movie is fate, or purpose or something? NEO: Yeah? SMITH/MORPHEUS: Isn't it cool? NEO: Uhuh.

The visions didn't really do anything but give the writers an excuse to lead Neo by the nose. We care about Trinity potentially dying, and that piques our interest at the start--that's fine. But it has absolutely no impact on the story whatsoever. She doesn't die, and life carries on.

Or is the idea that the only reason Neo chose not to go along with the "new Zion" door is because he had to save Trinity immediately? If Trinity wasn't falling, he would have left her to die by the Machines instead? I don't buy that, personally. It just doesn't all fit together.

This doesn't mean those chats should all just be ripped out. Imagine if this was done with the finesse of the first film...

For example, we could see the choice Neo would make that was incomprehensible. In the dreams, we see him giving up and dying--something anathema to who he is as the One. We see him taking a door that means the end of all humankind. We see him full-on snogging Persephone.

Maybe just flashes at the start--Neo calmly allowing Smith to attack--to keep some suspense. And as his mind returns to it, the flashes lengthen--we see Smith's black goop ooze over him. Stuff like that.

He's worried. He has self-doubts. He's meant to be this all-powerful thing within the Matrix, this saviour all of Zion has been waiting for. Nothing can stop him. But... is he really going to give up?

We're confused by the dream too, identifying with Neo's response to it. We've got something to think about that we actually care about, that will actually have dramatic impact later on.

Now he has something to talk about, with the dream. Oracle tells him they are choices he will make. That he needs to understand the choice. Now it has meaning, weight. The conversation is now relevant to the story, because the story starts with those visions.

There's the hint of the Machines being this sort of strict dictatorship where if you have no purpose, or become obsolete, you will be killed. And there's an "underground railroad" type of thing going on with the Trainman and the Merovingian.

But that's also purely there to spout theme. It doesn't come into play through the story in any meaningful way.

What if Neo actually helped an escaping program--another thing he couldn't understand the choice to do, perhaps. Running from agents or whatever. Some concrete reason why this is happening more now. Perhaps word of a virus sweeping the Machine City--which turns out to be Smith. We sympathise with "the other side" in this war. If only there was some way for both sides to co-exist. ...Which of course sets up the very end.

There are several indications that the Matrix was intended to be about "the future," a future of humans and machines learning to coexist.

But while it's said at the end of Revolutions that's what happens... I certainly didn't buy it. There's too many questions about how that could possibly work, why the Machines would agree to it--especially as Neo said nothing about it when talking to the nanobot-baby.

That ending felt a lot more like a "blue sky" ending, one where you're not meant to think too hard about it, but just accept the happy ending and move on with your life.

The main issue though is that it wasn't set up in the story. It felt bolted-on. If I was properly prepared by the story for this to be a thing, I could've accepted it as a satisfying and earned conclusion.

And lastly, Resurrections. (sigh)

There's a whole lot going on in this film. A lot of meta themes, a lot of themes about society, random themes thrown in from time to time and never mentioned again...

To save my sanity, I'm just going to focus on the one with the through-line to the Matrix series itself: "You call this a choice?" As in, that's not much of a choice.

Which is linked to the themes and subtext of M1, I think. But with this darker, more twisted tone. Instead of the surface-reading being "Neo is helped by people showing him the truth, and he's going to be the One, yay!" it's "Neo is trapped in a hell no one else can see and there's nothing he can do about it."

"You call this a choice?" and variants of it, is said throughout the film by various characters...

Smith/Morpheus says the choice between a blue pill and a red pill isn't much of a choice. [M4 0:11:22] Bugs agrees, but says it's just an illusion because everyone who is offered the choice is going to pick the red pill. It's offered because the person offering the pills knows what they will pick.

The red pill is there to give the feeling that you are making some sort of choice. But really, as the Oracle put it in M2, "you've already made the choice." In M1, Neo had "already made the choice" to escape the Matrix, by seeking out Morpheus in the first place.

...And then after he was freed, Neo was taught what the Matrix actually is, and so "understood the choice." That's why he went to Morpheus; to understand his "choice" or motivation to "exit" the world. It's a little mind-bendy, but if you squint it sorta works.

Later, Neo, in Thomas-form, is told by Smith, in Boss-form (yeah I knew this was going to be confusing)... that Warner Brothers has offered the choice of make the sequel or watch them make it. [M4 0:19:43] Thomas doesn't want to lose control over something he's worked so hard to make, so they must choose to make that sequel.

This parallels the apparent situation Warner Brothers put the Wachowskis in regarding this movie, in fact. I have no idea how this whole thing made it into Resurrections, to be honest. But there' a lot of meta nods about this in the film.

Neo is locked up by old-curmudgeon-Niobe for reasons, and Morph (what I like to call the slightly odd cartoon-character version of Morpheus in this movie) talks about breaking out.

MORPH: Well, I could tell you that they're standing by, waiting for you to make the choice to remain meekly incarcerated... or bust the [heck] out of here and go and find Trinity. But that ain't a choice.

Which is a little tonally different, but if you're going to the trouble of using very similar phrasing throughout the script, then any instance of it is definitely on purpose.

Morph is telling Neo he has to bust out and save Trinity. Neo has kind of regressed. Both in the fact he's back stuck in the Matrix at the start... but also he's not making any decisions in this film, pretty much. He's just along for the ride.

Which is a shame, considering how far he'd come in M1.

Anyway, they run, do some fighting, and Neo chats to Trinity but comes back empty-handed. Back in the ship, Bugs gets a call from the german guy.

SHEPERD: Check your long-range scans. Squids are combing this area. ... You can stay here and die, or come back and face a court-martial. MORPH: And you call that a choice?

They're not going to choose death. So they must go back and get told off my Granny Niobe.

They go back again. (There's a lot of running back and forth between IO and the Matrix in this film isn't there? Seems pretty redundant.) And for no apparent reason Niobe decides to help them get Trinity out this time.

Sati from M3, now a grown up program, talks with Niobe and Neo. Admits that she knew Neo and Trinity were out there somewhere.

NIOBE: I'm sorry, you knew what happened to him? You knew that he and Trinity both were alive... and you didn't tell me? SATI: There were times I doubted my decision, Niobe. But I/O needed you. The city needed to be built, for your people as well as mine. If I would have told you everything, you would have had a very difficult choice to make. NIOBE: My friends let me make my own choices.

Again, the choice was made for her. She wasn't even offered a fake choice in this case.

In Resurrections, this is actually a step up from M2 & 3. The film has a lot of flaws, but there are no sit-down chats about what choice is as a concept, and what it means to have no choice.

The way the theme--or this theme at least--was written into the story worked just fine in Resurrections. It does make it clear what the theme is, by repeating it with similar phrasing each time. But at least it all fits with the story being told.

(The story being told, I didn't find to be that compelling for many other reasons. But let's not get side-tracked...)

In Reloaded and Revolutions, it was just too high-falutin and wordy. Too much philosophy-major, not enough writing-major (or something). I, and others I'm sure, got a bit bored during the wordy parts... but not because it wasn't 100% action, but because the conversations weren't connecting to the story and therefore we had no reason to be interested.

And the way the theme was used in the story--Neo searching for motivation--left the other parts of the story lacking. Because they literally had no motivation most of the time for Neo's storyline.

But I think the original, The Matrix, really is a shining example of how theme works.

It's not in your face. Could even be that the writers weren't thinking that hard about themes, and they just wrote the story as they saw it... and my analysis of it is just me making connections anyway. But if they did come up with the theme they wanted to explore and then build the story around it, they did such an amazing job that it seemed effortless!

On first viewing the theme went unnoticed to me. Even by the 20th viewing, I knew it was about choice in some abstract way--where Neo essentially "chose" for the bullets to stop, chose to live, chose to save Morpheus, etc. But analysing what's really going on, what's true and untrue, the undercurrent of manipulation--even if used for good--etc... really let me see the depths of the themes here.

As a side-note, just for me, there's a repeating motif the Wachowskis seem to like making in each sequel, which also rubbed me up the wrong way. I won't go in depth now, but progress just kept on being reset over and over again. Power creep and "oh look shiny new thing" slid the world around over time, making it all feel less solid... And worse, those who were really into the worldbuilding were let down by such changes, and by the writers ignoring what was set up in the previous stories, instead of being rewarded for their interest. Ugh.

Anyway... that's enough from me. Maybe I'll speak more on this series. There's a lot to talk about. Or maybe I'll move on to something else to learn from next!

#The Matrix #Reloaded #Resurrections #Revolutions #theme #story #exposition #dialogue #infodump

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