"There are no words." Such has been my reaction after watching trailers for the new Matrix films over the past several months. Nevertheless, I will now attempt to distill the essence of my obsession into words. How's that for a fanatical introduction?
Though Prince Arts reviews are ostensibly objective and detached, I cannot resist expressing my excitement at the continuation of a saga which has singlehandedly revolutionized the special effects industry and spoken profoundly to an entire generation. This is a combined feat which has not been repeated since the original Star Wars trilogy.
My fixation on the Matrix films has distracted me from completing my thesis and has seriously tried the patience of friends. There are few other things about which I can make such a statement.
Though I may sound like a compensated endorser writing this, the mix of science-fiction, philosophy, religion, drama and kung-fu action in the films makes them both eye candy and brain food, a statement which again can be made about few other things.
Furthermore, call me Fox Mulder, but it blows my mind that there seems to be no compelling argument that we are definitely not living in something like the Matrix right now — going about our business, "oblivious" as Agent Smith remarks in the first film.
In short, there are no words, but here goes anyway:
A recent issue of Newsweek named 2003 "The Year of the Matrix" due to this year's multimedia blitz of two films, a video game ("Enter the Matrix"), and a series of animated short films (the "Animatrix"). The film's website (www.thematrix.com) even has a series of essays on the philosophical issues raised in the films, a collection to which Philosophy Professor James Pryor has contributed. (See the Feb. 6 Arts section.)
The second film, "The Matrix Reloaded" which opens in theaters May 15th, takes place after the first film and after many more individuals have been "unplugged" from the massive computer-generated world of the Matrix.
Details of the plot are sketchy at best, but trailers on the film's website seem to suggest some sort of epic confrontation. It will undoubtedly involve lots of seemingly impossible, though definitely insane, acrobatics.
Like the first film, the second involves Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The Oracle is again played by Gloria Foster, who recently passed away.
New characters include Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Persephone (Monica Bellucci), The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim) and "The Twins" (Adrian Rayment and Neil Rayment). Cornel West GS '80, Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion and African-American Studies also has a cameo role as "Counselor West."
Visual effects technology has progressed considerably since the first Matrix film of 1999, when a technique known as "bullet time" was state-of-the-art. Bullet time involves positioning multiple cameras to film a scene from many angles, then combining the footage to produce a slow motion, all-around shot like the ones in Trinity's opening brawl with the police or Neo's famous bullet-dodging scene — scenes in the first film. These scenes and the filming technique have inspired a number of parodies and imitations.
John Gaeta, the film's senior visual effects supervisor, has played an active role in developing the new technology. It has given the directors the ability to create scenes on a computer that are indistinguishable from real footage, but which would be difficult or impossible to shoot using real actors and cameras.
As a recent article in Wired magazine suggests, this ability to mold reality via computer eerily mirrors the notion of the Matrix itself. Indeed, the article notes that in order to meet the demands of the film, Gaeta "would have to build the Matrix."
Gaeta has done so, and he even wrote a letter to former President Clinton warning him of the potential for misuse of such technology for fraud or mass deception. One wonders whether Gaeta's letter will turn out to be similar to Einstein's famous letter to President Roosevelt regarding the feasibility of nuclear weapons.
Whether such technology indeed lays the foundation for the world depicted the films remains to be seen. Only time, or being unplugged, will tell.
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