from "The Onion": list of new and exciting things in Reloaded:
"Through the magic of computers, Keanu Reeves appears to 'act'"
Ok, that said, I watched the original movie this weekend, and I remembered about my first Matrix experience.
Before I had seen the movie, even with everyone I knew so excited about it, I thought "Well gee, it's probably just an action movie done really well." I didn't believe how much it was talked up. Then I saw it
I was blown away. They HAD thought about it. They actually took time to write it. I was impressed. I saw it a couple more times.
Then I heard Jeffe's comments about pseudo-intellectuals telling their dates that we could really be in the Matrix
and it got me to thinking. So when I skipped church sunday (and yes, I *was* legitimately sick) I watched it again. And I wasn't all that impressed.
Yeah, it's a fun movie. I'll even say it's a GOOD movie. One worth watching multiple times. But I don't think it's as genius as I original did. As my co-worker puts it, it's just an intelligent action flick.
It really doesn't explore too many ideas or go too in depth. It asks one main question and then a secondary question. The main question is "what of all that you experience is real?" Which is incredibly helpful for the plot, but because of that they ask it ad nauseum, and doens't ever even attempt to answer it, which makes it kind of suck as a philosophical work. If you want to make it philosophy, it does posit that there is a higher, possibly transcendant reality (even if that reality is even worse than the one you think you live) but doesn't say anything helpful about what that reality is or how to access it or even if anyone does have access to it.
The secondary question is epistemological. "how do you know what you know?" to which you could even say "How do you know what you know is true?" But again, it doesn't say anything helpful toward an answer, and I can think of half a dozen Renaissance works that ask the same question more interestingly and with applications that fit our lives better.
Just my thought. I've finally decided i'm not that excited about seeing Reloaded. If you think what i'm saying is crap, then you probably will like Reloaded from what I hear. However, I'm hearing the same things said about Reloaded as I did about the original, but on the whole less vehemently or frequently, so I kind of expect the same sort of thing. And I don't need to go see an R movie to see an action flick, even a very well done and fairly intelligent one. I'll wait till i can get an edited version and for cheap.
