The Matrix (R)



Just like last year, I was putting a lot of my free time into the Deltarune/Grant Morrison thing. So much so that the only piece of media I went through this month was the one movie I watched to research for it.

Back in 1999 The Matrix rocked the scene with its philosophical themes and action scenes, but I have problems watching it in the Year of our Lord 2026 and not just because I have to wonder if the Resistance entering the Matrix through phones is a Doom Patrol thing because the Wachowskis saying The Invisibles wasn't an influence on The Matrix is as much a load of bullshit as Kitase saying Star Wars wasn't an influence on Final Fantasy XII. First and foremost it's only the first third of the story, a story I haven't seen the rest of but everyone says goes downhill from this point on. So yeah, it ends on a sequel hook with its themes only set up, not really explored.

Second, I can't help but be extremely cynical with the themes of the movie. The machines that have enslaved humans are obviously meant represent the government, or corporations, or lizard people from Mars, or whatever force controls our lives, and we all need to "wake up" and break free of it. Hey, Matrix, ever hear of Animal Farm? Yeah, throw off those shackles just so you can be a slave to somebody else. It's also kind of funny for this movie to bang on about "being free" when it pulls so much from Grant Morrison, and a major theme of Morrison's works from Animal Man to All-Star Superman is how we don't have control over our own lives (but try telling that to the smarty-pants teenagers who walked out of this movie thinking they knew how the world really worked). But who knows, maybe Reloaded and Revolution acknowledge this.

In 1999 it may have been groundbreaking and anarchic, but these days it's just kind of up its own ass.

Rating: