3 ms·

Hot take: I was a huge fan of the original matrix trilogy and the animatrix, and while it wasn't what I expected, I enjoyed the film. In the late 90s, we had th

Hot take: I was a huge fan of the original matrix trilogy and the animatrix, and while it wasn't what I expected, I enjoyed the film. In the late 90s, we had this whole thing of the corporate drone. That's sort of dead now. Instead we have millennials and zoomers with their spunk and crippling anxiety and standups and fair trade and breaking of fourth walls, and meta, etc, etc. It just feels like the original trilogy were movies that matched the late 90s and early 00s, and this movie matches the 2020s. It is impossible to take the sincere authenticity of the first three films and transplant them into the 2020s without having an identity crisis. This is just the shit timeline we're living in. Movie was on point. Was delighted to see none other than NPH as the central villain. Would have been much worse without him, imo.

geenew 5y ago
I like this take. I actually really enjoyed the first ~half of the movie, even laughed out loud a couple of times (esp the 'warner bros will make the game with or without us so we'd better just take on the job'). The second half of action-soup was, for me at least, boring and as far as I can tell nonsensical. I think the movie would have done a lot better without trying to redo any of the gunplay/holodeck-type fantasy, and instead stuck to the more grounded storyline from the first half. At this point we need commentary in the popular culture on reboots, there is enough grist in that mill for 2 hours at least.
- sam0x17 5y ago
  I should add, though, I did like the interesting tidbits on what happened with Zion, how the machines went to war with _each other_, and how a new Zion (I forget the name) was formed, but instead allying with exiled machines. I was fascinated and wanted to know more about that "blue" faction and the "red" faction of robots that are seen briefly fighting each other. That glimpse into the lore was worth it for me. This is also just a really good evolution from the central conflict of the first three films which is basically like "technology = bad, but we need it". This film shows us "technology can be bad, but we can work together with it to build something beautiful and brighter". Really good evolution there. I think what ultimately sank the movie for a lot of fans was the Agent Smith actor was replaced. Too bad.
  - geenew 5y ago
    Agreed, the robots fighting each other aspect was interesting, I perked up at that. In retrospect, it's a sensible prediction of how artificial consciousnesses would behave given resource constraints. It's a question that's ignored in the single-hive-mind view from so many other dystopian techno-futures.
XorNot 5y ago
Since the 90s the concept of the corporate drone has only increased. Swap out Neo in a cubicle for Amazon warehouse worker, and you've got "the Matrix is keeping you on a tighter leash now". I find it very odd that people swear the themes wouldn't work today.
- redisman 5y ago
  The thing that wouldn’t work is to try to do something sincere instead of everything dripping in ever so hilarious irony. I honestly can’t wait for gen Z to do something different please. It’s been like 20 years since someone made art that was not ironic
  - XorNot 5y ago
    The Wachowski's are Gen X'ers (not that I disagree with your comment otherwise).
  - sam0x17 5y ago
    Unfortunately Gen Z only deals in irony, more so than any generation. One of their central tenants is that nothing can be truly sincere. Maybe in another decade or two we'll see a generation that takes this to the next logical evolution -- "everything is sincere"
- sam0x17 5y ago
  I'm not saying things aren't worse, I'm saying they are worse in a different way. The suit wearing corporate drone software developer in a cubicle isn't a thing anymore. Now it's a t-shirt wearing bearded fair-trade coffee lover attending daily standups, writing articles on medium, and inventing yet another frontend javascript framework in their free time. The corporate drone thing was specifically a reference to what life was like _for software developers_ in the late 90s. This looks a lot different now than it did then. For the average person, sure, your quip about amazon workers is quite apt. My point though is now we have all the same issues, but with a fake sort of "culture" icing pasted on top that makes a lot of things seem substantiative, real, and anti-corporate, when they in fact are not. Things are much subtler now. It also shows a lot of what we've lost -- "hacker" culture used to be integral to being a developer, hence Neo's "double life" as a software developer and a hacker. These days people barely even pirate things anymore. There has been a mass acceptance of the status quo that is pervasive, dangerous, and wasn't present in the previous era. So while people wore suits back in the day, back in the day was also the wild west of tech. That has largely ended. Another way of looking at it: in the 90s and early 00s, there was lots of sub-culture and counter-culture present, especially in the tech and "hacker" communities. These days, our corporate overlords have co-opted the term "hacker" and try to sound edgy and "counter-culture" by simply occupying the spaces legitimate counter-culture movements used to occupy (corporate sponsored hackathons, bug bounties, a lot of marketing stuff, etc). So this new matrix movie, for me, partially demonstrates the death of counter-culture, as it was in the late 90s and early 00s. These days you can be the equivalent of the old-school corporate drone by doing a bunch of seemingly edgy "counter-culture" things, and the corporations want it that way. They want you to feel edgy, while staying well within the parameters they designed.

geenew 5y ago

I like this take. I actually really enjoyed the first ~half of the movie, even laughed out loud a couple of times (esp the 'warner bros will make the game with or without us so we'd better just take on the job'). The second half of action-soup was, for me at least, boring and as far as I can tell nonsensical. I think the movie would have done a lot better without trying to redo any of the gunplay/holodeck-type fantasy, and instead stuck to the more grounded storyline from the first half. At this point we need commentary in the popular culture on reboots, there is enough grist in that mill for 2 hours at least.

sam0x17 5y ago
I should add, though, I did like the interesting tidbits on what happened with Zion, how the machines went to war with _each other_, and how a new Zion (I forget the name) was formed, but instead allying with exiled machines. I was fascinated and wanted to know more about that "blue" faction and the "red" faction of robots that are seen briefly fighting each other. That glimpse into the lore was worth it for me. This is also just a really good evolution from the central conflict of the first three films which is basically like "technology = bad, but we need it". This film shows us "technology can be bad, but we can work together with it to build something beautiful and brighter". Really good evolution there. I think what ultimately sank the movie for a lot of fans was the Agent Smith actor was replaced. Too bad.
- geenew 5y ago
  Agreed, the robots fighting each other aspect was interesting, I perked up at that. In retrospect, it's a sensible prediction of how artificial consciousnesses would behave given resource constraints. It's a question that's ignored in the single-hive-mind view from so many other dystopian techno-futures.

XorNot 5y ago

Since the 90s the concept of the corporate drone has only increased. Swap out Neo in a cubicle for Amazon warehouse worker, and you've got "the Matrix is keeping you on a tighter leash now". I find it very odd that people swear the themes wouldn't work today.

redisman 5y ago
The thing that wouldn’t work is to try to do something sincere instead of everything dripping in ever so hilarious irony. I honestly can’t wait for gen Z to do something different please. It’s been like 20 years since someone made art that was not ironic
- XorNot 5y ago
  The Wachowski's are Gen X'ers (not that I disagree with your comment otherwise).
- sam0x17 5y ago
  Unfortunately Gen Z only deals in irony, more so than any generation. One of their central tenants is that nothing can be truly sincere. Maybe in another decade or two we'll see a generation that takes this to the next logical evolution -- "everything is sincere"
sam0x17 5y ago
I'm not saying things aren't worse, I'm saying they are worse in a different way. The suit wearing corporate drone software developer in a cubicle isn't a thing anymore. Now it's a t-shirt wearing bearded fair-trade coffee lover attending daily standups, writing articles on medium, and inventing yet another frontend javascript framework in their free time. The corporate drone thing was specifically a reference to what life was like _for software developers_ in the late 90s. This looks a lot different now than it did then. For the average person, sure, your quip about amazon workers is quite apt. My point though is now we have all the same issues, but with a fake sort of "culture" icing pasted on top that makes a lot of things seem substantiative, real, and anti-corporate, when they in fact are not. Things are much subtler now. It also shows a lot of what we've lost -- "hacker" culture used to be integral to being a developer, hence Neo's "double life" as a software developer and a hacker. These days people barely even pirate things anymore. There has been a mass acceptance of the status quo that is pervasive, dangerous, and wasn't present in the previous era. So while people wore suits back in the day, back in the day was also the wild west of tech. That has largely ended. Another way of looking at it: in the 90s and early 00s, there was lots of sub-culture and counter-culture present, especially in the tech and "hacker" communities. These days, our corporate overlords have co-opted the term "hacker" and try to sound edgy and "counter-culture" by simply occupying the spaces legitimate counter-culture movements used to occupy (corporate sponsored hackathons, bug bounties, a lot of marketing stuff, etc). So this new matrix movie, for me, partially demonstrates the death of counter-culture, as it was in the late 90s and early 00s. These days you can be the equivalent of the old-school corporate drone by doing a bunch of seemingly edgy "counter-culture" things, and the corporations want it that way. They want you to feel edgy, while staying well within the parameters they designed.