h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well I have had a "DVD" night.

Started with watching "Ghostbusters" (Bill Murray at his finest if you ask me.

Then I watched the end of "Speced Series 2" and drunk some wine.

Followed up with the matrix.

Which got me thinking about the sequels.

No don't get me wrong, the matrix is a sci fi masterpeice, but the sequels...

I was hoping for "Godfather part two" or "Empire stikes back"....

Unfortunatly what I got was "Police Acadamy: Misson to Moscow" what a massive dissapointment.

watched the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 and I quite enjoyed it. Full of cliches and yet I didn't mind, possibly because the set pieces were well done and Laurence Fishburne's acting was excellent

Watched Death to Smoochy at the weekend... Children's TV doesn't seem quite the same now.

Ah yes Death To Smoochy. I just wished they'd kept it dark at the end.

Also the Matrix, I sat down to that too the other day. I spent ages trying to work out where the sequels had departed from the original so much and it sort of hit me that the first movie tells the story from the inside out, Neo plucked from 'the matrix world' and deposited into 'the real world' The sequels barely treat the matrix as anythign other than an amusing side-show. The people trapped in it are barely given another passing thought.

The sequels appear to have abandonned all pretense that because the world of the matrix is not real it affects people who can become sensitive to it, but cannot shake the delusion they are part of and therefore accept it. (Otherwise, why would Trinty tell Neo that she knew the question was driving him or Morpheus describe the feeling as the splinter in Neo's mind, driving him mad?)

The matrix was a stable prison("zoo, reality whatever you want to call it."), the agents, in affect blended in (I mean I love the opening scene where Smith asks the lieutenant why he disobeyeed a direct order (presumably from the matrix itself that loaded the sequence of the police seige in order to catch Trinity) and his unconscious self starts back with that "juris-my-diction crap" and Smith seems happy that the lieutenant is reacting as expected:
"The orders where for your protection."

However, why do the agents arrive by car and parade around like the FBI? In order to retain the pretence that their are faceless figures of authority - they do not just port around, hoping in and out of people's bodies like they do in the close of the film. A measure I think of their desparation to catch Neo. It is not the norm.

The same sense of the matrix as passably real is not retained in the sequels - how else do you explain the Agents leaping onto the bonnets of moving cars or commandering two articulated trucks to smash into each other? Or neo dragging behind him a wall of flame after he leaves the Architecht's cell and flies to stop Trinity falling to her death? It makes no sense outside of "ooh flashy special effect."

Of course the other thing to be said for the original matrix is there isn't one shot of a computer generated Keanu Reeves kicking Smith's butt, they just did it for real.

That said the Sequels do cannily address one outstanding flaw of the story from the original matrix - namely who was it Morpheus describes in his monologue to Neo: "there was a man born inside who could shape the matrix to his will. It was he who freed the first of us."

Obviously we now know Morpheus is not referring just to his personal savior but one of the original 'One's' who were the product of the inherent conflict in the equation devised by the Architecht to eradicate choice from the system - choice of course personified by the oracle (what'll really back your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't of said anything?") and expressed by Neo in his love for Trinity rather than a generalised affection for humanity as a whole.

Unfortunately the second Matrix movie (I haven't seen the third) didn't address the flaw in the first one that it just wasn't very good. As an action movie it was average at best, as sci-fi it was derivative and boring and as a serious piece the philosophy is hotchpotch and flawed. The bad script, ham acting and the infantile directing didn't help.

In short, the original was overblown fanboy pants and its sequel was the worst movie I've ever witnessed. I'm at least glad I stayed for the preview of the third one at the end, as that did save me the six quid I might have wasted going to see it.

Oh, if you hated the second one, the third one would have killed you. I actually liked the first one a lot, but it did go downhill pretty steeply after that.

SPOILER (for those who care)

Neo doing the Jesus Christ thing was a text book case of movie makers' thinking: Hey, an allusion to the Bible - this is soooo exciting and has NEVER been done before.


SPOILER OVER

Y.

"The original was overblown fanboy pants"

Perhaps

but it displayed an intelligence that had vanished from movies for a while .(it opended I think in the fortnight before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.) Now speaking of dodgy sequels...

The broader canvas of the matrix sequels are I suppose testament to the fact that the ideas behind the story were a bit naff to begin with. However I have grown more fond of the Architecht the more I've channel-hopped onto that scene. As for derivative and boring - can't really argue against that either - all of it's themes are derivations of archetypes too. I think as much as anything it just arrived at an apposite moment.

Indeed the combination of flesh and technology in the matrix hasn't really been bested since Cronenberg, but it was refreshing to have the biomechanics of the matrix in the first film up on screen - something that was also entirely missing from the sequels, sadly.

Ham Acting - Keanu "Okkee Dokeey" Reeves? Never!

You watched the 10 minutes of credits? Crikey!

Clive.

I'll defend the original movie (with the pinch of salt as I hoped I've demonstrated above) and it is miles better than the two sequels.

Oh yes the Christ thing - stoppit already.

It really does feel like they lost the plot... I couldn't help thinking when watching the two sequels that either the stories hadn't even been thought out yet at the making of the first movie, or else someone with a big eraser had gone through and said taken out anything that actually made sense.

I've only watched the Matrix once (on video no less - remember them?) Din't bother with the sequels at all. Another Special Effects Movie. Give us a plot any day of the week.

Did any of you ever see 'Legend of 1900'? Now there is a good film (although it's very much of the 'nothing really amazing happens, it's just a nice gentle film' that I and Psychochicken are preferring more and more)

Zantic

Grosse Pointe Blank.

A very underrated movie, in my HO.

RF

Back to the Futures 1 + 2.

3 is *ahem*... in the future. ()

Great Scott! etc

I'm not sure Grosse Point Blank is underrated - everyone I know thinks it's great (myself included!)

Well, that's 2 of us!

I don't recall it getting a very big UK release - maybe it was overshadowed by other films at the time. I first came across it on Sky rather than the cinema. But yes, it is mighty fine.

RF

I am not sure that the origional Matrix has been done justice here.

for my it was an ass-kicking action movie that not only revolutionised the genre but also introduced the western audience to the brilliance of far-eastern cinema (can any of you really imagine "Hero" topping the US box office charts pre Matrix?).

But it also asked it users to engage the brain a bit. Heck the whole matrix thing (being enslaved to a coporate world we cannot escape) is pretty allegorical to so many of our lives. I think it is fabbo, probably not quite as good as occasionally made out by us fanboys" but I cannot remember the last time before matrix an action film made my jaw drop.

Matrix did.

Damn good too.

Plus it had "Rob Dougan" and "The Propellorheads" in the soundtrack. F*cking Ace!!!!!

The Matrix is basically fan-boy pants, and once all the fuss has died down will be seen as such. Having said that, I enjoyed it in a sort of brainless way. At best it exemplifies the increasing tendency of Hollywood to be seen wearing the Emperors New Clothes. Beautifully tailored your majesty, but in certain lights, looks a little...thin.

As to introducing western auduiences to Far Eastern cinema, well, . I think Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Ringo Lam, Bruce Lee, Ang Lee, John Woo, Sammo Hung and Quentin Tarantino are waiting outside to get a little...kung fu on yo' arse.

Admittedly you did have to engage your brain whilst watching the Matrix - you had to do something with it while it wasn't being engaged by the move.....



Agree on the soundtrack though...

Three of us ReddyFreddy! GPB is a brilliant film to be watched again and again. Along with High Fidelity and pretty much any film John and Joan are in.

Zantic

I thought Grosse Point Blank was an excellent film. The Cusacks are great, Minnie Driver is very cute and Dan Akroyd returns to actually being funny.


As for the Matrix, i enjoyed the first and the second one, and i never saw the third. They're good action movies, but it shows the state of main stream cinema, when it is considered by some to be a deeply intellectual movie series.
I think the Wachoskis f**ked it up though they could of had something on par with the orignal star wars trilogy, but instead its more on par with the new star wars trilogy.

Though i enjoyed some of the animatrix stuff, especially the 'Beyond' one, with the house that glitching and the kids messing around with the weird effects it causes.

Yeah funny that. One of the better thign to emerge from The Matrix was the Animatrix where a freer reign to experiemnt with the ideas that The Matrix generated was excercised. Such a pity that the promised trilogy is so lacklustre.