Enter the Matrix

Think Matriculated (the Peter Chung short!) did some interesting work on connecting humans outside the matrix with the machines

i love matriculated. i hated it when i was a kid bc i just didn’t aesthetically jibe with chung’s stuff at all but now i think it’s so gorgeous and sad

agreed that the animatrix is highly optional but the second renaissance aka the entire history of human/machine relations enriches the narrative a lot

Yeah it does, it’s great. I don’t mean it’s optional in a derisive way, just that the majority of the audience are never going to seek it out so a lot of that backstory gets lost.

Matriculated is really great, agreed.

i love that one short that’s just a bunch of kids playing with the gravity glitch in the matrix that they found

the horny cgi short at the end is really weird

This...is true.

holy shit the matrix resurrections end credits music is a ratm cover by the lady who peed on somebody onstage. neo is livin' his life it's golden

— Al Shipley (@alshipley) December 24, 2021

Also SF mayor London Breed is one of the Neo/Trinity support team at the end.

What my mom says she’s excited to watch🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️#TheMatrix #MatrixResurrections pic.twitter.com/h7ntEqrbLG

— Beyoncé Bloodlust (@NylaRoseBeast) December 24, 2021

Morpheus (showing neo 2 advils in the palms of his hands): these are for headaches

— Rajat Suresh (@rajat_suresh) December 23, 2021

Need to watch Animatrix. Underrated youtube account Stevem is going through all of that studio's projects atm.

kinda but he wouldn’t be successful at all without everyone else’s efforts in zion + the machines

I might be missing something here but isn't the whole conflict in Zion after Neo and Trinity take the one ship totally irrelevant to the success or failure of Neo's mission?

well they’re interlinked efforts imo, get the other ship to zion so the first wave of machines doesn’t completely destroy zion, while neo’s ambassadorial mission appealing to the machines’ own desire for survival ensures zion’s

neo would have nothing to save without the defense of the dock idk

Made it through maybe half of the mostly well-regarded "are we in a simulation" doc "A Glitch in the Matrix." It was pretty dumb.

^ that was probably logged somewhere if we're in a simulation.

fwiw if anyone is interested in the matrix comics, including the original batch that were on the movie’s website, they’re collected and still for sale on the wachowski’s publishing company website, at least as of a week ago. seemingly sold out through every other distribution chain

http://www.burlymanentertainment.com/

Need to watch Animatrix. Underrated youtube account Stevem is going through all of that studio's projects atm.

Huh, I briefly thought that this would be ex-ILXoR stevem, who is(was) I think the non-Brad Revolutions stan on ILX

xp thanks for the tip on stevem video reviews, i love studio 4c productions
if you like animatrix, there was a similar project with 6 anime shorts done by different studios including studio 4c: “batman: gotham knight”

Just went to see that new Keanu film ‘Matrix: Exposition.’

— Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) December 24, 2021

Replies to his tweet are gold.

Well, my Christmas present is apparently finding out that Sean Lennon is a bitcoiner

Huh, I briefly thought that this would be ex-ILXoR stevem

Haha, had the same reaction when I first discovered the channel!

what a beautifully incoherent mess A+

also funnier than expected

I'd probably go more for B+, but that's pretty much my take too. It was sad to see the fight scenes edited to within inches of their lives, the one big knock I'd put on this movie

more like the Metarix mirit lol i have not watched this movie

watched the original sequels for the first time this week & reloaded is so good! it's messy and flawed in a way that the first isn't, but once it gets going (after a pretty slow start) it's fantastic nearly the whole time, enough for me to rate it higher than the first despite its issues. really made me go 'this is absolutely the coolest shit ever' in a way the first didn't. if you tightened up the plot just the tiniest bit, cut down on the zion stuff (especially at the beginning), and gave neo's conversations with the oracle & the council head another pass (they're pretty clunky), it would be a perfect film, but it's great as is.

revolutions is mostly a dud though, it triples down on all of reloaded's issues (which were fairly minor there) until they take up nearly the entire movie. the battle for zion is a huge drag and not compelling at all. the final smith fight isn't bad but pales in comparison to what came before, and he's not really given enough time to be actually set up as a threat to the machines too either.

unfortunately probably not going to be able to watch resurrections anytime soon since it's not streaming here

I thought the rhythm to the section where they're fighting on the highway was so great.
Had to go and see the 3rd one in Leicester Square, think I must have missed it in Galway cos I was trying to sort out times with someone and it went before we managed to do so.

I keep seeing the alien craft as being some kind of tribute to H.P.Lovecraft. Is that widespread?

I listened to teh Bechdel Cast podcast on the first film this week. They were talking about a trans subtext I hadn't been aware of before. Think it is totally outside of the fact taht the directors stopped being brothers and started being sisters since the film came out. Probably a bit linked to really and possibly evidence of it being an idea looked at but standing on its own.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uRJ7GGGxErpSIhX85x1c7?si=df5071ea2f63484f

Still managed to miss the showing of the film this week cos i was watching 2 of the cast 20 years later in John Wick 3. So must have been Xmas day. Well hopefully have the dvd still , not looked at the state of it in an age. But got the box in the early 00ies.

the trans narrative is v real, the first film is about breaking out of the structures imposed by society and choosing your own name and family, reloaded and revolutions are about how even as you escape from these structures you still find other forms of control running beneath your every decision and how the only way to reconcile that is to love and believe in yourself and others hey

even if they weren’t conscious of it as they were making it (which, sure, most of these themes also seem to be saying something about the possibility and impossibility and (once again) possibility of political revolution) it’s so incredibly there

people talk and complain about the battle of zion but no one talks about niobe piloting the ship with the fat ass

I was reading trans people talk about the subtext on livejournal back in the noughties and it’s definitely been a discussed thing even before the sisters transitioned. Even at a super basic level, if you’re at all aware of the sisters, I don’t see how you ignore Smith constantly deadnaming Neo!

the zion battle’s shift in focus to extremely minor characters trying to survive and defend their home also reminds me of like, dfw's insistence that infinite jest is not about its main characters but is actually about everyone (except less racist and much better)

it's not a bad idea at all just the execution isn't really there

like most of revolutions really

I don’t see how you ignore Smith constantly deadnaming Neo!

Haven't seen the new one yet, but from what I read it starts with Keanu living in the matrix again under his old name. Per the above reading would that mean he effectively detransitioned?

i believe this is a theme in the new one (also haven’t seen it)

or at least i read a review that was like “most trans ppl detransition bc the world makes it too hard for them”

it's not a bad idea at all just the execution isn't really there

like most of revolutions really

― ufo, Tuesday, December 28, 2021 7:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk it’s there if you think of reloaded and revolutions as a single movie

admittedly i care about the rave orgy-oriented citizens of zion by default

and i love kid but he is very much assisted as a character by his animatrix short

wow i never made the connection. maybe i’ll like the movie character better now..

reloaded could have done a much better job at making me care about the zion residents than it did but even ignoring that the actual battle in revolutions is just such a drag with its endless scenes of mechs shooting at the machines.

new one is a cross between wes craven's new nightmare and rebuild of evangelion. doesn't have enough gremlins 2 (looney tunes character excepted)

I liked the first half much more than expected. Kind of wish they would have committed to the first three movies being a fantasy in sad Keanu's brain, or even Neo & Trinity only continuing to exist as computer programs would have been more poignant .

Biggest surprise was how good Keanu looks without that beard.

“This is Cybebe.”
[crowd goes apeshit. Just absolutely foaming at the mouth wild.]

— 🏜🔋, fka ☕️ (@coopercooperco) December 23, 2021

(Elliott smith needle in the hay voice) I know Kung fuuuuuuuuuuu pic.twitter.com/VgEVTcV44c

— Mister Goblin (@DrMisterGoblin) December 31, 2021

Matrix 4 best Matrix

I hope the end credits-roll has a blooper reel.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, December 16, 2021 4:01 PM (two weeks ago)

sshh

Dear God

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/nfl-covid-19-tracker-players-list-week-17/17xzodcji35bn1e2w5gnho3r3d

Lol wrong thread

ok i never finished my rewatch of the trilogy (the revolutions rave stopped me cold & i forgot to go back) (sorry brad ilu)

BUT

Resurrections was so good, like i am kind of flipped out by how much i loved it. i loved how it pulled so many things together but was like a seven-layer dip of new ideas and new feelings and reclaiming ideas & holy crap meta on meta on meta

yes i am very down

also this piece by Emily Van Der Werf is SPOILERS but well worth reading

https://www.vox.com/culture/22847558/the-matrix-resurrections-4-spoilers-review-neo-therapy-mental-health-trauma

the cave rave is the best sex scene of all time

matrix power rankings currently 2 4 1 3, watch this space for updates

finally saw resurrections, cried through the whole thing, 10/10