Welcome back to the work week and if you're observing it - Happy Valentine's Day. To alleviate what is no doubt a total overload of hearts and chocolate today's post is not relevant to the holiday at all.
You may remember this column I wrote a few weeks ago about my love for fan edits and how they can give a fresh take on familiar territory. I mentioned toward the end of it that I had just picked up the entire Matrix series on Blu Ray and would be offering my thoughts on how it had aged and what it was like in light of the edit. What I found was about what I expected, although there were a few surprises as well.
I was bonkers for the series as soon as it unfolded. I remember being so excited upon receiving a VHS of the first movie as a Christmas gift. I relished seeing the sequels in the theater, controversial reception or not. What was fun about this recent viewing of the series was the novelty of a new format and a renewed interest in the movies, as almost ten years had passed. It turns out The Matrix still holds up incredibly well - even after it has been endlessly parodied and ripped-off by every diluted iteration of science fiction and action movies. In fact a great deal of the first installment is so intelligent and well made that I don't think the Wachowski brothers had any idea they would have the impact they did. Not unlike Red Letter Media's side-splitting take on the Star Wars saga (that George Lucas' own hubris was his own downfall, essentially) the underdog status of The Matrix and it's out-of-left-field success are what brought such critical acclaim. It was almost inevitable that the sequels would turn out to be so transparently indulgent and over the top - you have a runaway, unexpected success and you follow it up by further indulging what you assume to be the best instincts that got you there in the first place. Again, my Apologist nature for defending flawed media rears its head.
But I digress.
What I found to be of particular highlight was watching the movie through a new format. Home viewing in the late 90s was a different beast, especially when I went off to college. I never saw the first movie in a theater. For me The Matrix was a private, basement movie that was only seen on VHS and TV screens only slightly larger than today's pc monitors. Perfectly satisfactory for the time but not ideal for really appreciating what you were seeing. Furthermore, having owned it on VHS right before DVD became the norm defeated the possibility of double dipping. So I waited for the right time. The transition, then, to the hi-definition of Blu Ray on a great, big, wide-screen TV was astounding. It honestly felt like I was watching a new movie. Details I had never seen jumped out, tones and movements were totally fresh - the energy and detail was amazing. This movie was so smart and well done that I wondered how I had gone so long with out watching it just for kicks. I guess it becomes like living in a tourist city - you're around a thing so much that it becomes humdrum. Everyone parodied it and copied the aesthetic that it stole the essence of what was already a pastiche or homage. Watching it ten years later with renewed clarity gave the movie a chance to breathe. I would definitely watch it again, if my Netflix cue wasn't overflowing.
The sequels...they're more of a curiosity. My article on fan edits definitely was prescient to the movies at hand. As I stated earlier, the two movies (Reloaded and Revolutions) were filmed back to back and the story they tell is a single, overstuffed tale of multiple developments and confusing twists. I thoroughly enjoyed them in the theater but hadn't really gone back to watch them in earnest in quite a while. This lack of motivation to revisit them may have been the first sign they weren't as engrossing as their predecessor. Seeing the fan edit that removed most of the 'fluff' of the movies (all of the material outside the titular matrix) significantly warped my recollection. Seeing them now, unadulterated in glorious hi-def really made the differences apparent. While I was still engaged by the philosophical concepts put to good use (which greatly expand on the original's themes of identity, self, karma and reality) I was much more aware of how massively fleshed out and drawn out the movies became. Some sequences, to be candid, absolutley killed the momentum. I wanted to see these movies for heady mind trips and visually astounding kung-fu and gun fights, not political discourse on how to defend a drab colony of unhappy people from flying robots. That has too be one of the most unusual sentences I've typed in a half-hearted defense of a guilty pleasure.
Granted I tried to watch the sequels as close together as possible, to further the notion that it's actually one 4.5 hour sequel, which would be draining and too long regardless of content. I can't watch the original trilogy of Star Wars straight through, let alone what are already view as flawed, if niche, films. Still, seeing them in their entirety in this eye-catching format was refreshing. The distinction between theatrical experience and home viewing is eroding with every passing upgrade and I have to admit I am quite enamored with watching a movie at home where I can - 1. pause when I please 2. have a cocktail 3. wear some quality headphones (I live in a condo) 4. not be interrupted by other people in the theater. I probably sound like I'm fussy and you're probably right for thinking that. But with these concessions in mind, the experience, though wearing towards the end, was still enjoyable and worthwhile. I'm still happy I shelled out for the whole set, especially for the bargain they go for now.
I'm sure from the mixed signals I'm sending in this post it doesn't really come across as the strongest endorsement of the trilogy. I haven't even touched on all the crazy bonus features or the phenomenal universe-expanding Animatrix. I suppose the driving point of today's post is that, while the sequels are definitely flawed films, I still love this whole series, warts and all. From the groundbreaking first installment to the satisfying and insightful climax that sees the concepts through to their logical conclusions, it still is a heady, intelligent set of movies. Even the fact that the third installment spends a fair amount of time dwelling on men yelling as they fire machine guns at CGI robots (my nerd self questions my own skepticism here), I find myself enjoying it all the way through. My inner nerd still obsesses about the philosophical implications put forth - man's relationship to machines, whether love exists solely as a concept or as a word, does agape love mean more than society. I love that the commentary tracks for these movies have both critics who disliked them and philosophers that loved them, to allow you to create your own triangulated take on what unfolds. It's this sprawling amount of extras that still reels me in.
See all that? That's my Apologist side coming out again. I'll let the movies speak for themselves. At this point you either love them or hate them. Either way, I'd say take another look, just to see what they look like now.
You may remember this column I wrote a few weeks ago about my love for fan edits and how they can give a fresh take on familiar territory. I mentioned toward the end of it that I had just picked up the entire Matrix series on Blu Ray and would be offering my thoughts on how it had aged and what it was like in light of the edit. What I found was about what I expected, although there were a few surprises as well.
But I digress.
What I found to be of particular highlight was watching the movie through a new format. Home viewing in the late 90s was a different beast, especially when I went off to college. I never saw the first movie in a theater. For me The Matrix was a private, basement movie that was only seen on VHS and TV screens only slightly larger than today's pc monitors. Perfectly satisfactory for the time but not ideal for really appreciating what you were seeing. Furthermore, having owned it on VHS right before DVD became the norm defeated the possibility of double dipping. So I waited for the right time. The transition, then, to the hi-definition of Blu Ray on a great, big, wide-screen TV was astounding. It honestly felt like I was watching a new movie. Details I had never seen jumped out, tones and movements were totally fresh - the energy and detail was amazing. This movie was so smart and well done that I wondered how I had gone so long with out watching it just for kicks. I guess it becomes like living in a tourist city - you're around a thing so much that it becomes humdrum. Everyone parodied it and copied the aesthetic that it stole the essence of what was already a pastiche or homage. Watching it ten years later with renewed clarity gave the movie a chance to breathe. I would definitely watch it again, if my Netflix cue wasn't overflowing.
Granted I tried to watch the sequels as close together as possible, to further the notion that it's actually one 4.5 hour sequel, which would be draining and too long regardless of content. I can't watch the original trilogy of Star Wars straight through, let alone what are already view as flawed, if niche, films. Still, seeing them in their entirety in this eye-catching format was refreshing. The distinction between theatrical experience and home viewing is eroding with every passing upgrade and I have to admit I am quite enamored with watching a movie at home where I can - 1. pause when I please 2. have a cocktail 3. wear some quality headphones (I live in a condo) 4. not be interrupted by other people in the theater. I probably sound like I'm fussy and you're probably right for thinking that. But with these concessions in mind, the experience, though wearing towards the end, was still enjoyable and worthwhile. I'm still happy I shelled out for the whole set, especially for the bargain they go for now.
See all that? That's my Apologist side coming out again. I'll let the movies speak for themselves. At this point you either love them or hate them. Either way, I'd say take another look, just to see what they look like now.
