Vice: "The Matrix is Dated and Embarrasing."
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sixteen-bit
Member
Matrix was certainly a product of its time, but I don't feel it's particularly dated.
Interfectum
Member
The Matrix hasn't aged well at all and it's shitty sequels didn't do it any favors.
Freedom = $1.05
Banned
It was kinda hokey even back then. It's ghost in the shell meets star wars, only at least both of those movies hold up.
Napoleonthechimp
Member
LanceVance
Member
Vice has gone downhill in the past few months.
Go back to your nitty gritty news reporting vice please
Not this shit
Go back to your nitty gritty news reporting vice please
Not this shit
turnbuckle
Member
yup. their docs are great. facebook newsfeed is cluttered with this kind of garbage from them though.
Neuromancer
Member
For the record I never cared for it. It really was 'cyberpunk-lite' with a heavy emphasis of style over substance. I never did bother to watch the sequels.
I know I'm in the minority but I always thought it was a profoundly overrated film (and for reference I was 18 when it came out). It was about that time when I first started to notice plot cliches and tropes and The Matrix was filled with them in rather predictable ways. For example I just knew somehow that the Oracle was an older black woman. Really though it was the pseudo intellectualism that turned me off from it. Finally bullet time is really stupid.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy watching it - it was very enjoyable - I just don't think it's this great work a lot of others do.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy watching it - it was very enjoyable - I just don't think it's this great work a lot of others do.
http://youtu.be/71DIStv4MPA
20 Buckle Minimum.
Matrix is still good I think. The second movie is still my favourite. Maybe not as much of an impact as the first but the action and chase scenes are so good. The third movie is just garbage though. All the neo vs. smith fights are stupid and the ugly ass mecha inside Zion are just as bad.
20 Buckle Minimum.
Matrix is still good I think. The second movie is still my favourite. Maybe not as much of an impact as the first but the action and chase scenes are so good. The third movie is just garbage though. All the neo vs. smith fights are stupid and the ugly ass mecha inside Zion are just as bad.
This is the worst post. Ever.
OrangeJulius
Member
That entire article just reads like a typical "your favorite thing sucks and here are my flimsy and subjective reasons why" schlock fest.
The entire concept of dated vs. product of it's time is completely lost on him.
The entire concept of dated vs. product of it's time is completely lost on him.
hbkajshdvfbkjhvgkahsgdfka
Member
Dark City is better.
anotherVegan
Member
I tried to watch this with my wife last year. She couldn't get past the corny dialog and demanded we stop watching.
So, ex-wife?
OrangeJulius
Member
The movie is cheesy though. It's part of it's charm. The Matrix came out when I was about 17, and even at that young an age I realized that it wasn't trying to be some uber serious film for the ages.
I feel like the people that approach it as this mega serious flick will likely be turned off, it's not meant to be taken nearly as seriously as some did.
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Blade Runner isn't even all that good, so these guys have lost it. They also don't seem to understand scifi or cyberpunk, at all, so it's embarrassing of them to post this. Matrix might have more relevance now than it did in 1999, tbh, regarding the relationship between the government and its people, and the decayed state of people's freedoms in society.
It's still one of the best cyberpunk films and easily beats Blade Runner (as do quite a few others) imho.....
.....altho Blade Runner is nice and all...
ADDENDUM: Wonder how these guys would feel about Fight Club, then. It's practically Matrix minus the hacking, Andersons (Tyler is an Anderson in a way tho), and many of the scifi elements, but still provides a lot of the same meta-commentary on a dystopian society. Which, again, is more relevant now than it was back then when you factor the political and socio-economical factors in today's society (let alone the "terrorism" agenda).
It's still one of the best cyberpunk films and easily beats Blade Runner (as do quite a few others) imho.....
.....altho Blade Runner is nice and all...
ADDENDUM: Wonder how these guys would feel about Fight Club, then. It's practically Matrix minus the hacking, Andersons (Tyler is an Anderson in a way tho), and many of the scifi elements, but still provides a lot of the same meta-commentary on a dystopian society. Which, again, is more relevant now than it was back then when you factor the political and socio-economical factors in today's society (let alone the "terrorism" agenda).
TheWarrior
Banned
All of these movies are still great
anotherVegan
Member
LOL, no. She is great.
I've always known it wasn't supposed to be taken too seriously. But she just couldn't get into it for some reason. One day we'll try again, and not watch the sequels...
Hell I still like some of Linkin Park. I think the bigger source of embarrassment for people is not the music but how they participated in the culture around those bands and realized they looked like tools.
Vice is crazy, this is clickbait. Matrix holds up pretty well and it's central conceit means that even it's anachronisms won't feel as bad in the future (although I imagine the next generation to watch it will have a different experience since it's not describing 'our world' in the Matrix.)
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Just because time moves on doesn't mean everything new is better.
And I'm an optimist/non-nostalgic.
they've always had clickbait articles for money
see any number of incendiary hipster bullshit articles they've put up
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
That always looked horrible to me. Wasn't that around the time Motorola Razr came out? That phone was the bomb!
Freedom = $1.05
Banned
Sure, if you grew up on Billy Madison and Wayne's World. But good movies tend to not really age poorly. The matrix was a so-so movie even when it came out and that certainly doesn't help its case.
Just look at other movies that are still well regarded that came out the same year: Fight Club, Toy Story 2, Being John Malkovich, The Iron Giant, Boys Don't Cry, The Insider, Election, etc.
The matrix doesn't hold up as well because it's really not a great movie. It's an ok scifi fantasy movie that came out during a time where the only other film that was even remotely similar was Episode 1.
Sethtimus Prime
Neo Member
Gonna have to say no.
brotherbean
Member
Sure there are some easy targets in the Matrix, but I think it holds up. I still watch it regularly, though I've been a fan since it was released so I'm obviously biased.
The real cringe-worthy techno-garbage is more prominent in the sequels.
The real cringe-worthy techno-garbage is more prominent in the sequels.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Ghost in the Shell does NOT hold up...
Great movie, i watched it last year and that mobile phone is dated as shit now. i remember it looked so cool back then, everyone wanted one.. and i remember taking a bunch of mushrooms before going to the cinema to watch it.. ah, to be young, dumb and full of psilocybin, good times.
Why do people get hung up on the phone thing? isn't The Matrix is set in 1999? the software that is.
crazygambit
Member
Great movie, i watched it last year and that mobile phone is dated as shit now. i remember it looked so cool back then, everyone wanted one.. and i remember taking a bunch of mushrooms before going to the cinema to watch it.. ah, to be young, dumb and full of psilocybin, good times.
The phone is obviously super dated, but I would argue it's still cool. Imagine the same scene, but he instead takes out an iPhone and slides on the screen to answer. That would be terribly lame IMO.
Anyhow I've never seen an article be more wrong. The Matrix is top tier even today.
Starwolf_UK
Member
By dated I was expecting things like how on the blu-ray you can see the imperfections in the effects like being able to make out the roof of the warehouse a certain scene was filmed in (don't recall specifics).
Why not?
As for the Matrix, the concept is as interesting today as it was then I think. Only the first movies manages to stay somewhat focused however. There's still so much you can do with those sort of themes, so it is by no means a closed book.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
OrangeJulius
Member
What's truly sad about this article is that the guy who wrote it gets paid for it. I've seen better and more convincing arguments against pop culture on GAF for goodness and the person on GAF is writing it for free.
Crimson-Death
Member
phillipgessert
Member
It actually seemed a lot more palatable to me when I saw it for the first time a couple years ago than it did when it came out. I guess it seemed to try-hard to me at the time, but I liked it a lot in 2011 or so. Maybe because enough time had passed that it kinda made the very 'cool' parts seem more abstract.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
The funny part about the Matrix being "cheesy" and "pseudo intellectual" is I seem to recall an interview with the Wachowskis back then. They basically said on one hand you have super-serious philosophical films that are supposed to be prestigious and dignified. And on the other you have mindless action and adventure films that believe the viewer doesn't want to think about anything. Why can't you combine the two? Take some of the piss out of intellectual movies, and smarten up action movies with something a little intellectual.
The style of the Matrix, even its sequels, is to have all the characters be po-faced as they stand and look overly stylish and perfectly posed, spouting intentionally convoluted monologues that have tongue planted in cheek. (With a healthy side of deadpan humor.) But they're not entirely without a point, as there is a sincere thought or two underneath.
Really it's the same formula they used with Speed Racer except in that film it was blazingly obvious which parts where purely for fun and which parts were serious character moments.
The style of the Matrix, even its sequels, is to have all the characters be po-faced as they stand and look overly stylish and perfectly posed, spouting intentionally convoluted monologues that have tongue planted in cheek. (With a healthy side of deadpan humor.) But they're not entirely without a point, as there is a sincere thought or two underneath.
Really it's the same formula they used with Speed Racer except in that film it was blazingly obvious which parts where purely for fun and which parts were serious character moments.
Lightning4Ever
Banned
Some of the effects in the movie are somewhat dated but that's to be expected.
I still think the whole trilogy is great though.
I still think the whole trilogy is great though.
It's weird that to this day the effects still hold up to me. Especially the camera effects.
Then again I'm a sucker for simplistic effects rather than cgi.
Lightning4Ever
Banned
A lot of it still looks good, but some of it definitely looks bad. The green screen when trinity is jumping across buildings at the beginning looks horrible.
The first time i noticed this was this year, when someone at GAF pointed out.
I watched this movie one billion times, never noticed
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