I’m Asking Alice about the Matrix Movies

I was reading something recently that dumped all over The Matrix (1999), the movie that gave us  the term “red-pilled.”

It’s pretty gnostic, but I liked it. I did not see the second two in the series.

But now there is a new one coming at Christmas, and John Morehead posted the trailer at TheoFantastique. It’s on YouTube, so I lifted that. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Plnkett Smith will be back.

Meanwhile, are Matrix, Reloaded and Revolutions worth watching? Is there more there than CGI and explosions?

The sound track for the trailer is “White Rabbit” which rock historians know was released in 1967. That song has legs! (Insert Energizer Bunny joke here.)

4 thoughts on “I’m Asking Alice about the Matrix Movies

  1. Reloaded might perhaps be worth watching if you don’t expect too much. I don’t remember there being anything of philosophical interest, but there’s an freeway fight seen that’s a pretty great piece of action filmmaking. Might want to fast forward through the gratuitous 20-minute party seen towards the beginning, though. Revolutions was utter trash, if you like that sort of thing you might as well just play a video game. All that said, I may be willing to give the new one a chance. Perspective from a generation further on might produce interesting results. We’ll see.

    White Rabbit absolutely has legs. That’s one of the songs I think of to remind me that I do actually like good rock music.

  2. Pitch313

    Dinosaur from pop (oc)culture that I am, I’d say watch #2 and # 3 of The Matrix franchise. But probably at home, while multitasking. Because to my way of thinking, creative acts and arts are best experienced and known as whole works. (The middle ten minutes of a spiral dance wouldn’t be the dance…or the ritual)

    Growing up in the midst of the San Francisco rock revolution and as as lifelong fan of Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit can and might change somebody’s world view. Or their living in and through Wonderland. Plus, sex, drugs, rock n roll.

  3. Chris Vermeers

    There are some complex scenes that are basically philosophy infodumps, which is part of the reason that the films flopped as hard as they did (which wasn’t really that hard, after all, certainly no Heaven’s Gate or Ishtar level of failure). The more important such scene, in many ways the climax of the trilogy, is delivered in rapid-fire dialog, leaving most viewers in difficulty trying to assimilate what is being said and digest the ideas expressed. That there is really no action in that scene to attract the attention of those viewers who need that, but there is action in the intercut scene to distract attention, doesn’t really help matters.

    The rave at Zion is pretty dull, though, and it’s clear that the filmmakers want it to be understood as important. Unfortunately, it’s just stylized (moving) images of people dancing and fucking, presented at such a distance that it’s difficult to grab onto emotionally. As a result, it probably outstays its welcome for most viewers. On the other hand, it was good practice for that ending of Sense8, so in the end it worked out.

Comments are closed.