The Matrix

This is the Zodiac speaking...
Last night I went on a marathon viewing session that started with the Matrix, and many smoke breaks later, ended with the Matrix Revolutions.

 I might have a problem.

I was still in High School when the first movie came out and I remember a certain clique of pre-hipster kids getting all excited for it. I, like always, waited for it to come out on video and have to say, I was impressed. I mean, fuck man, BULLET TIME!! The first movie combined a perfect mix of action, disbelief, dogma, and board like acting from Keanu Reeves. Then it somehow went horribly wrong.

 

One of these things stared in Bill and Ted, after that, he lost all human emotions.

 

Now before I start getting reamed by all of you people and your fancy minor degrees in philosophy, let me say that was the part of the movie I enjoyed. I get that parts were supposed to be vague, the whole "we cannot see past our decisions that we don't understand," and "the Merovingian can make cake that will make you cum." I just can't help but feel a little cheated on the mythos because we had to fit so many fight scenes in.

  "I would've put in more explosions"

 

Let's go through them shall we: Reloaded: Trinity fights the people at the power station; Neo fights the agents, unprovoked temple dancing, while not a fight, completely unnecessary; Neo fights Seraph; Neo fights the Smiths; Neo versus the Merovingian's henchmen; Trinity and Morpheous against the Twins and Agents on the Freeway; Everyone taking out the power grid; Neo and Morpheous against more Smiths; Trinity at the power station, again, then against an Agent; Neo blows up the sentinels; and that is just one film. Revolutions isn't much better, in fact, it's worse. To not bore the shit out of you I won't go into it here.

Shit, I lost you didn't I?

 

All I'm saying is that if you are going to create some deep philosophical story, then stick to it. I realize the need for fighting and action in this action film, and don't need to be reminded how awesome bullet time is. The Matrix was a classic allegory, and the sequels opened the door to something much bigger, much deeper, only in cliffs notes version because no one had thrown a punch in five minutes.

  This would've required less fast forwarding.