Monday, May 26
So, how about a review of The Matrix Reloaded?
I'm a big fan of science fiction literature--Philip K. Dick, Alfred Bester, Stanislaw Lem, Dan Simmons, Greg Bear, Olaf Stapledon... There are so many interesting science fiction novels out there that I've only scratched the surface. But what all of these novels have in common is their dedication to one simple principle: putting the ideas first. That is, science fiction, unlike other genres, is about ideas above and beyond characters, narratives, or all the stuff that most literature prizes. If you have a good science fiction idea, you can write a good science fiction novel. Yes, this leads to some shoddy writing at times, but what genre can't admit that 75% of its output is crap? The good science fiction writers will always create an interesting, engaging story or interesting, engaging characters to fill out their clever idea. So the tendency many have to link SF with refuse is just not accurate.
Now, back to that idea thing. The problem with most science fiction films is simply that the science fiction ideas, while present, generally serve the formulaic plots and stereotype characters, rather than letting the idea dominate and let the plots and characters feed off that idea. Take Star Wars. It was a good movie, right? So was The Empire Strikes Back. These movies were good because they were founded on an idea: the force. The stories and characters in those films developed out from that basic idea. Ah, but think about Jedi or Episodes I and II. These stories were not about an idea; they were about Luke or Leia or Annakin or Jar-Jar or the clone war. Yes, the force was in all these stories, but that force idea was only part of the scenery. Pushing the focus away from the idea of the force and onto the stories and characters that were created out of the first two films ruined the later movies.
What made the first Matrix film so interesting and so successful was the simple fact that the center of the film was the idea of matrix itself. We didn't need to know or care about Neo or Morpheus or even the Oracle in order to appreciate and become engaged with the concept of humanity living in pods and dreaming reality.
Of course, the ideas of virtual reality and machines enslaving humanity are not new; heck, the machine idea goes back to HG Wells or Lang's Metropolis. A friend of mine--a SF junkie--criticized The Matrix when it came out because it was not based on an original idea. Well, he was correct in saying this. However, what he missed was the obvious: the idea in question had never really been fully developed in a film (lame attempts like The Lawnmower Man nothwithstanding). The idea of the matrix was a revelation to millions who had never read Neuromancer or Stapledon. That the film was also a technical marvel also contributed to the film's success, but the filmmakers were smart enough to let those special effects serve the larger purpose of examining the idea of the matrix itself.
So what about Reloaded? Well, the good news is that the idea is still at the heart of the film. We learn more about the characters--especially Morpheus--and we see a lot of things that were only referenced in the first film (Zion, in particular). But character development and scenery always serve the main goal: revealing more and more of the matrix. In fact, the very point of the film is not Neo seizing control of the matrix and freeing humanity but Neo discovering that the matrix, the thing he thought he understood and could control at will, turns out to be far more complicated than he ever realized.
The film's not perfect. The fight scenes go on about 20 minutes too long. And, frankly, that whole scene with the hundreds of Agent Smiths was simply pointless. At the end, he escapes by flying away; why couldn't Neo just do that when he saw the FIRST Agent Smith? Also, some of the character development that shows up in the film--the triangle involving Morpheus and the Jada Pinkett-Smith character, the weird French program and his melancholy girlfriend--were unnecessary. But, all in all, I have to say that Reloaded is as good as the first film, perhaps even better, simply because it sticks to that matrix idea and examines it to the bitter end. On top of that, it does a stellar job demystifying the whole "the one" idea by putting it in concrete (rather than metaphysical) terms that actually fit within the logic of the matrix itself (rather than being an offshoot of religious hogwash).
I'm a big fan of science fiction literature--Philip K. Dick, Alfred Bester, Stanislaw Lem, Dan Simmons, Greg Bear, Olaf Stapledon... There are so many interesting science fiction novels out there that I've only scratched the surface. But what all of these novels have in common is their dedication to one simple principle: putting the ideas first. That is, science fiction, unlike other genres, is about ideas above and beyond characters, narratives, or all the stuff that most literature prizes. If you have a good science fiction idea, you can write a good science fiction novel. Yes, this leads to some shoddy writing at times, but what genre can't admit that 75% of its output is crap? The good science fiction writers will always create an interesting, engaging story or interesting, engaging characters to fill out their clever idea. So the tendency many have to link SF with refuse is just not accurate.
Now, back to that idea thing. The problem with most science fiction films is simply that the science fiction ideas, while present, generally serve the formulaic plots and stereotype characters, rather than letting the idea dominate and let the plots and characters feed off that idea. Take Star Wars. It was a good movie, right? So was The Empire Strikes Back. These movies were good because they were founded on an idea: the force. The stories and characters in those films developed out from that basic idea. Ah, but think about Jedi or Episodes I and II. These stories were not about an idea; they were about Luke or Leia or Annakin or Jar-Jar or the clone war. Yes, the force was in all these stories, but that force idea was only part of the scenery. Pushing the focus away from the idea of the force and onto the stories and characters that were created out of the first two films ruined the later movies.
What made the first Matrix film so interesting and so successful was the simple fact that the center of the film was the idea of matrix itself. We didn't need to know or care about Neo or Morpheus or even the Oracle in order to appreciate and become engaged with the concept of humanity living in pods and dreaming reality.
Of course, the ideas of virtual reality and machines enslaving humanity are not new; heck, the machine idea goes back to HG Wells or Lang's Metropolis. A friend of mine--a SF junkie--criticized The Matrix when it came out because it was not based on an original idea. Well, he was correct in saying this. However, what he missed was the obvious: the idea in question had never really been fully developed in a film (lame attempts like The Lawnmower Man nothwithstanding). The idea of the matrix was a revelation to millions who had never read Neuromancer or Stapledon. That the film was also a technical marvel also contributed to the film's success, but the filmmakers were smart enough to let those special effects serve the larger purpose of examining the idea of the matrix itself.
So what about Reloaded? Well, the good news is that the idea is still at the heart of the film. We learn more about the characters--especially Morpheus--and we see a lot of things that were only referenced in the first film (Zion, in particular). But character development and scenery always serve the main goal: revealing more and more of the matrix. In fact, the very point of the film is not Neo seizing control of the matrix and freeing humanity but Neo discovering that the matrix, the thing he thought he understood and could control at will, turns out to be far more complicated than he ever realized.
The film's not perfect. The fight scenes go on about 20 minutes too long. And, frankly, that whole scene with the hundreds of Agent Smiths was simply pointless. At the end, he escapes by flying away; why couldn't Neo just do that when he saw the FIRST Agent Smith? Also, some of the character development that shows up in the film--the triangle involving Morpheus and the Jada Pinkett-Smith character, the weird French program and his melancholy girlfriend--were unnecessary. But, all in all, I have to say that Reloaded is as good as the first film, perhaps even better, simply because it sticks to that matrix idea and examines it to the bitter end. On top of that, it does a stellar job demystifying the whole "the one" idea by putting it in concrete (rather than metaphysical) terms that actually fit within the logic of the matrix itself (rather than being an offshoot of religious hogwash).
