Vice: "The Matrix is Dated and Embarrasing."

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Whoa.

The Matrix became a pop culture phenomenon that spawned video games, cartoons, merchandise... and two ignominious sequels we'd all pay money to forget. It was the ideal film for the society in which it was birthed. That's great in the moment, because it means The Matrix could dominate the zeitgeist that spawned it. There's an ugly side to that momentary relevance, and that's how a movie like the Wachowskis' magnum opus fares with later generations. The Matrix was perfect in 1999, but watching that movie in 2014 isn't much different from listening to a Limp Bizkit album in 2014—as in, I highly recommend not doing it.
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The Matrix isn't technically terrible, though. It's well-paced, suspenseful, clever in places, and visually stimulating. It's just that from the design all the way up to the basic plot, it's all trapped in the year 1999, just like Thomas Anderson before he became Goth Jesus. It's simply the recycled offspring of everything that preceded it.
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The Fifth Element, Judge Dredd, Dark City, The Crow, and just about every pre-Matrix comic book/sci-fi/fantasy movie from 1982 onward is a pale copy of Blade Runner's rainy, industrialized aesthetic nightmare. Blade Runner and Star Wars couldn't be any different in look, theme, pace, or tone. And yet the Wachowski siblings got them both drunk, made them screw, and nine months (or 20 years) later, they had a baby called The Matrix—a dark, ominous, rainy, bleak Christ allegory about the battle between good and evil. The only thing that truly separates The Matrix from its forebears is a bunch of annoying songs by horrible bands and bullet time. Imagine putting a Donna Summer song into the cantina scene in Star Wars.
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Da fuck....rewatching it recently and it really is one of the top 10 sci fi films ever.....its a move thats become outdated in only that its been copied and recopied for the passed 15years
 
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This is your first lesson in VICE's, 90's era Sega, "edgy," written content. Stick to their video content.
 
Any more different, you hack.

The 1999-isms are actually explained in universe. Fuck this piece.

The Matrix > Blade Runner > Ghost in the Shell > Dark City.
 
I'd say the most impressive thing about The Matrix is actually how relevant and not dated it feels even in 2014.

Still a fantastic movie that holds up even today.
 
The main problem with The Matrix now is that it's hard to separate the film from its descent into complete self-parody in the sequels.
 
The Matrix is fantastic. And it's setting is as relevant as ever again - even if it will end up falling on the wrong side of the history coin when all is said and done.
 
There are a few things that sit less well with me the more time goes by. Like all these computer nerds choosing to dress up in tight leather. What's that about. There are things that are dated and unpurposely cheesy since the movie takes itself dead serious.

It will always be an awesome action movie, and I hope for the day when I can watch it in HD without someone having puked green vomit all over the celluloid.
 
Branduil said:
The main problem with The Matrix now is that it's hard to separate the film from its descent into complete self-parody in the sequels.
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Yeah aside from the shit ass scripts another problem with the sequels was the excess of s&m design. It definitely veered into parody and the sequels are so much more dated than the god tier first film
 
I watched the trilogy last week. Holds up beautifully. Infact, while I was down on the sequels, I've come to like them now that I don't watch movies strictly for the action.
 
On the one hand, I've always thought the Matrix was overrated (the big gunfight is just them mowing down rent-a-cops in slow mo, compare that to anything from John Woo), on the other, I think the music of Star Wars did actually reflect its era.

Disco-versions of the Star Wars theme were a huge hit. And yet they weren't even that different, just a little more upbeat, because orchestras were huge in the disco era, just like electronic music was big when the Matrix came out.
 
Discotheque said:
Yeah aside from the shit ass scripts another problem with the sequels was the excess of s&m design. It definitely veered into parody and the sequels are so much more dated than the god tier first film
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I'd dig a reboot of this franchise. Still surprised that hasn't happened.
 
No way, I've rewatched it recently (along with The Fifth Element and The Crow) and it's still pretty goddamn awesome.
 
The more interconnected technology and society becomes and the more pervasive government surveillance becomes, the more relevant The Matrix becomes.

Their analysis is shallow and is little more than hyperbolic, contrarian clickbait. Claiming that the entire film is a Christ allegory misses the point of 90% of the film's imagery and themes and is the most surface-level interpretation you could have.
 
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