Just watched The Matrix for the first time in a very long time, probably 15-20 years. Still an utterly fantastic film. Everything still holds up very well imo
Loved the very end. Something I never noticed before; Neo is leaving his answerphone message about living in a world without rules or boundaries, as the camera zooms in on the words SYSTEM FAILURE until just the letters M F are visible on screen. Love the Wachowskis
@COMPU73E I watched it again a few years ago when they showed it in the cinema for its 30 anniversary (same cinema where I watched Ghost in the Shell a few weeks ago), and it was just perfect. It's just... chef kiss
@hk@COMPU73E I assume it was the 25th anniversary, right? I'm old, but not that old. 😅
Actually...the babysitter we had for a while didn't know the movie. 😬 She was born in 2001. 🤯
He's literally saying "Anything is possible" as the letters M F fly towards the camera. This would've meant fuck all to the audience at the time, but now 🤯
I'm gonna reassess the two sequels too. I picked up the Blu-ray box set from CEX recently for the outrageous price of £6. I didn't like Reloaded or Revolutions much at the time, but I wonder if my opinion will have changed if I watch them again
@COMPU73E I think both Matrix Reloaded and Revelations are better if you don't have any expectations.
I didn't like them much when they came out, because they just could not compare to the first movie. But they do explore interesting ideas and I liked them much better when I rewatched them recently. 🙂
I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts about them.
Well I watched Reloaded, and... it's not as bad as I remembered! Pretty good in fact. The action scenes are great, particularly the extended car chase sequence.
I dunno about the plot though, it kinda makes sense but I kept having to rewind bits here and there to make sure I got the dialog right, and the bit near the end when Neo meets The Architect was where it all fell apart for me, and I stopped caring at that point
@COMPU73E I kinda liked the twist, that "the one" isn't an anomaly, but something the machines know about and tolerate. It just happens every now and then. 🤯
I just finished Revolutions... and it's as terrible as I remember. Worse even. A couple of good action sequences and some of the special effects are still great, but my god that film is a turd. It's so far removed from the first film it might as well be a different series entirely
In 3 movies they went from achingly cool millennial cyberpunk, to a 2+ hour teal-and-orange superhero movie. Why did they choose to do that. Take everything that was great about the first film and just... throw it out
@COMPU73E it's still the worst movie in the trilogy, but I feel a bit different about it.
I absolutely hated it when it came out, but I've grown to accept it and I actually think it's trying something cool, even if it doesn't fully work.
For what it's worth, to me the first movie feels more like a Superhero origin story, whereas Revolutions is the hero at rock bottom. Neo isn't much of a superhero at the end of the movie, he's just barely holding together until it's done. 🙂
@mforester I can see that, I'm just confused as to why "superhero movie" was the direction they chose to go in. I wanted more cyberpunk hacking, phones ringing and all of a sudden there's 5 people in the room, Neo doing impossible things with his power to warp the reality of the Matrix, things like that
The choice to focus on the "real world" battle for Zion was a huge mistake imo. They should've tried to free more people inside the Matrix and start a revolution in there or something
@mforester I also hoped they would do more with the "Agent Smith is somehow possessing a person in the real world" plotline. Have him be an infiltrator, like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, and get inside Zion to sabotage them from the inside
@COMPU73E agreed on both points. The real world fight for Zion is the least interesting part of the Trilogy for me, even if it comes with the highest stakes. 😅
Smith really is a single issue voter. He'll drop everything once he sees Neo. The idea with him infiltrating the real world is amazing, but you're right that it boils down to a wet fart. 😩
@mforester another cool thing they could've done, is have Neo realise that while he may be a god inside the Matrix, in the real world he's just another guy, and decide that he wants to stay inside the simulation where he'll be more help
Then have them protecting his body while he's jacked in, or something. Would've made more sense than him somehow being able to use his powers in the real world, like at the end of the second film (did they actually explain that and I wasn't paying attention?)
@COMPU73E my best guess is that "something" happened when Agent Smith tried to infect Neo and that's why Neo can see/feel machinery even when blind and influence machines in the real world.
I did absolutely zero research on that, though. 🤣
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