From: Paul Hughes (paul@i2.to)
Date: Fri Apr 09 1999 - 20:02:00 MDT
Jsn@concentric.net wrote:
> The dumb science problems you mention in your spoilers
are, in my opinion, not too important to the film. They're
mentioned in detail for all of about 30 seconds. The
'serious' thrust of the movie, such as was there, was about
the nature of reality. Everything else was a
set-up.
I agree. After all this is the art of film, with its own
inherent time and structure limitations imposed on it by it
being a '2 hour visual format'. Within the medium of film,
the Matrix does an amazing job of conveying many of the
more fantastic ideas that we've discussed on these lists for
years. Frankly, its the only film to fully convey the
disturbing and exhilarating feeling of having *reality
turned inside out*. Alice returns from Wonderland to her
normal reality as if it was just a dream - the impact isn't
the same. Are we currently being run in a far-future
uploaded simulation? Are we in fact archived versions of
our older, less evolved selves being re-run for amusement by
our far-future selves? The Matrix is the only film to
address the issue as radically as it does and with such
tremendous visual and emotional impact. When Neo awoke in
the vat of fluid, I was just blown away and left completely
speechless! In 32 years, I have never felt as impacted as
from that scene.
> But beyond that, it was just plain fun. Seeing Ted
Theodore Logan copping all those advanced martial arts
poses was a scream...
The martial arts were the best I've seen yet - all the more
enjoyable when one realizes it is actually Keanu and
Lawrence Fishburn actually doing the fighting.
> Must the artificial intelligences _always_ be the bad
guys?
> I made up for that by assuming that the Oracle was a
rogue, and
> therefore friendly to us, AI.
Yes, the film remains ambiguous enough, that my mind is
still reaming with possibilities over a week after seeing
the film. All I can say is "wow"!
Paul Hughes
http://www.i2.to/
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