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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 835324" data-attributes="member: 812">"?"No, seriously, "?"I mean, I knew the first film was popular and all, but...There must be a Matrix gene that my parents never passed on to me. I have seen few films that I thought were worse than the original Matrix. I thought it assumed I was stupid and would willing sit and watch slow-motion bullet hits for minutes at a time.You know, when Sam Peckinpah did the The Wild Bunch he knew that slow-motion bullet hits only look cool if you have some sort of emotional investment in what they're hitting or missing. That was thirty years ago, and slow-motion bullet hits haven't gotten any cooler, nor has that requirement changed.I know, I know. Ooh, pretty colours. Shiny. People making important-sounding delarations while special effects distract you from how banal it all is.I have a theory (it's not a demon) that explains the popularity of The Matrix: I call it the Power Without Effort theory. The Matrix is a power fantasy, an extreme power fantasy in which a faceless, personality-free figure (I don't think it's fair to use the word character for this film) is gifted with absolute power -- at no cost to himself and without the slightest effort on his part. The fact that this character has no personality is kind of the point since he's not meant to engage our sympathy -- he's meant to provide a trouble-free point of identification. Keanu's role is more akin to the faceless killer of the Quake games than a story character -- he is meant to be us, and so is devoid of personality in order to keep him from possessing qualities that might distance him from us. Identification, not sympathy, is the goal. By watching these movies, we get to feel ourselves as powerful, absolutely powerful, and we get to dominate others at will.The Without Effort portion is likewise crucial. Neo never does anything to acquire his power, it's just gifted to him. Suddenly he can control the laws of physics. Again, this is simplistic wish-fulfillment and nothing more. Why work hard to acquire skill when you can just plug in and learn kung-fu? After all, you might fail. Better not to try, just wait and hope it happens to you, too.Both these qualities explain the massive popularity of these films -- the world is full of people who desire to feel powerful but are afraid to work for it. I don't mind it, and wish-fulfillment is a part of all sorts of stories, but I do wish people would stop pretending these movies possess some sort of intellectual content or artistic significance.I get especially tired of people touting the special effects. I don't see anything in these films I haven't seen in dozens of television commercials. "Bullet-Time" was used in Gap ads before it was used in The Matrix. And better, frankly, or at least with a sense of fun. Ooh, they scanned textures from clothing. Well, of course they did. That's how it's done. I work for a 3D rendering company and that's how it's done. When you're making your models, you scan the source materials to produce your textures. SOP. There's nothing special about any of this.I like plenty of bad movies myself, and I don't begrudge anyone a little popcorn fun however they get it. I just get tired of these films getting pimped for what they patently aren't -- smart, innovative and significant.</blockquote>

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