New Matrix trailer

[ShinHakkaider]

Oddly enough, I am a martial artist and I agree with you. The way martial arts is usually portrayed in movies makes me sick. For instance I freaking HATED Crouching Tiger, Squating Dog. If you are going to fly around like idiots, at least give me a REASON why I should accept it as possible.

Then you know as a martial artist (I don't know what style you study) that a fight in real life is a lot less entertaining than a well cheorographed fight in a movie. Things that you might do in real fight arent flashy enough for ENTERTAINMENT purposes.

As for the wirework it's almost a genre convention for a certain type of Martial arts movie. When it shows up you know "oh it's that type of movie". Now this is coming from someone who really doesnt like wirework either but understands why it's there and if used properly can be very effective.

Blasting a genre convention is like complaining about the fact that in the STAR WARS movies things shouldnt burn is space because there is no air or that there should be no sound in space because there is a vaccum or that using lightsabers to fight is unrealistic because someone should have cut their own head off with one long ago. It's genre convention if you dont like it that's understandable, I don't either but not because it's unrealistic but because it just doenst look right to me most of the time.

Hell, unrealistic is one guy fighting like twelve guys at a time and coming out on top. I dont care what kind of martial art you know, it's pretty damn difficult to keep a large number of people from overrruning you, pinning you to the ground and pounding you into paste.

 

[kkoie]

Oddly enough, I am a martial artist and I agree with you. The way martial arts is usually portrayed in movies makes me sick. For instance I freaking HATED Crouching Tiger, Squating Dog. If you are going to fly around like idiots, at least give me a REASON why I should accept it as possible.

It is called suspension of disbelief. That type of martial art in film, has been around for ages.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

It is called suspension of disbelief. That type of martial art in film, has been around for ages.

I'm not saying there was really anything wrong with the movie. I just didn't care for it myself and this probably stems from my real life knowledge of the martial arts. I had a real hard time suspending disbelief with CTHD. They didn't give me any reason to do so.

The Matrix, for example, gave me a reason to suspend disbelief.

CTHD didn't do so.

Don't get me wrong, I love wire work and cool martial arts based special effects. This is one of the reasons I loved The Matrix.

However, it has to have a place and fit within a good context. This is one of the reasons I hated CTHD.

Originally posted by ShinHakkaider
Then you know as a martial artist (I don't know what style you study) that a fight in real life is a lot less entertaining than a well cheorographed fight in a movie. Things that you might do in real fight arent flashy enough for ENTERTAINMENT purposes.

I agree 100%. If martial arts is going to be glamorized and be the reason a person has "kewl powerz" there had better be a good reason. The Matrix did this. CTHD did not. This is just a personal thing I'm sure, but without a reason, it is very hard for me to suspend disbelief.

 

[RangerWickett]

In Wuxia films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, learning martial arts can indeed give you remarkable powers such as balancing on tree branches, or flying around a room. Heck, in real life, a well-trained martial artist can do pretty amazing stuff like break bricks or run up a wall, or cross a very squeaky floor without making a noise. It's part of the mythos of martial arts cultures that with enough training and inner control, the human body can do almost anything.

In CTHD, the main hero was a well-trained martial artist, and had reached enough inner enlightenment that he could move with remarkable grace and lightness. The woman with the Green Destiny was precocious and skilled, but not truly enlightened. She had been trained, but lacked harmony, which explains why she wasn't quite as good as the main hero. And at the end of the movie, she attains such a balance, and thus can fly. It's just the way those things work.

In a hacker movie, would you have to suspend your disbelief much if a computer whiz developed a program that could track all the phone conversations that go through cellular phone networks looking for instances of one particular word? That'd be pretty amazing, but it's within the realm of possibility for a highly-skilled and resourceful programmer. In martial arts movies, the same possible levels of ability are available to those with good enough training and focus.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

This is just a personal thing I'm sure, but without a reason, it is very hard for me to suspend disbelief.

Of course. Not meaning to argue the point, I just wanted to clarify where you are coming from.

I'd been watching martial arts movies since I was 6 starting with Bruce Lee and Jackie chan, I'm 31 now so I've seen a hell of a lot of martial arts movies. I just got used to the fact that when a moive like THE SWORDSMAN comes on it's like "OK thier flying in this one" as opposed to say PRODIGAL SON where it's just straight fisticuffs. Personally I prefer straight fighting anyday over wire work, but there have been a few movies where theyve blended pretty well. For example DRUNKEN MASTER 2 and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA I & II. For the ladder fight in OUATIC I it's pretty obvious but it meshes in with the sequence, in DM II you almost dont notice it in the final fight scenes between Jackie and his bodyguard Ken Lo, but it's there as well as in a few other sequences in the climax.

 

[Elemental]

That's is creepy, man. That was my lone problem with Dark City as well, but it has been tempered with mulitple viewings as I couldn't really come up with anything better.

The Invisibles comic series--the second collection-- has a great example of psychic combat. It's represented through a rapidly changing series of memories being used as defences against the interrogator, as well as his being forced to relive painful memories of his own when he lets his guard down.

 

[Shadowdancer]

And at the end of the movie, she attains such a balance, and thus can fly. It's just the way those things work.

I think you need to go watch the movie again. Attained balance and now can fly? No. She just committed suicide. She rejected the world she would be forced to live in, a world in which she would have to do what others wanted of her, instead of a world where she would be free to pursue the achievement of balance. A world dominated by men. Same ending as "Thelma and Louise."

 

[WizarDru]

Well, I enjoyed the heck out of The Matrix, and I expect to be equally entertained by its sequels. I like WuXia fight sequences, I enjoyed the f/x of the original movie, and found no problems with its editing. Clearly others didn't enjoy the films as much as I did...although I suspect Barsoomcore came to the movie with a set of eyes that couldn't stop being critical because he's so close to that kind of work (i.e. as an animator, he sees things he would have done differently from a professional standpoint, and they tend to distract and irritate him in a manner that would not for me).

I wouldn't pretend that it's a profound movie, though it has more intelligence to it than many staples of the genre. Compare it with, say, the afore-mentioned Eraser, for example. I would say it had style OVER substance, but NOT style WITHOUT substance. YMMV.

 

[RangerWickett]

I think you need to go watch the movie again. Attained balance and now can fly? No. She just committed suicide. She rejected the world she would be forced to live in, a world in which she would have to do what others wanted of her, instead of a world where she would be free to pursue the achievement of balance. A world dominated by men. Same ending as "Thelma and Louise."

See, this is what happens when you miss out on the theatrical release, and so you're forced to end up watching the movie with a bunch of rowdy friends who think the movie's over as soon as the last fight scene ends. You tend to miss a few things over the din.

 

[Welverin]

That description is exactly what the movie was. But by looking at the first half of the movie, it could have been more. Much more.

No, it could have been something different. To do as you suggest would have made it a different style of movie which is clearly not what they were trying to do.