Why Matrix Resurrections Is Great (& I Will Die on this Hill)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
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Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes as we look at the queer anti-capitalist politics of The Matrix Resurrections (and the entire franchise).
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✔ FURTHER READING✔
▶"Anti-Capitalism" is Capitalist" by Saint Andrewism - • "Anti-Capitalism" is C...
▶"The Matrix Sequels Are Good, Actually" by Sophie From Mars & Sarah Zedig - • The Matrix Sequels Are...
▶"Squid Game: Ideology And The New Soviet Man" by Kay and Skittles - • Squid Game: Ideology A...
▶"The Matrix Resurrections Is Absolutely Beautiful" by Renegade Cut - • The Matrix Resurrectio...
▶"Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender" by Cael Keegan - www.press.uillinois.edu/books...
▶"How The Matrix universalized a trans experience - and helped me accept my own" - www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/30...
▶"The Alt-Right Has Lost Control of Redpill" -www.theatlantic.com/technolog...
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0:00 - The Rabbit Hole
2:18 - Intro
10:00 - Ad
11:12 - Part 1: Meta
27:43 - Part 2: Reactions
51:46 - Part 3: Nostalgia
1:28:25 - Part 4: The System
1:44:22 - Part 5: System Failure
1:59:33 - Special Announcement - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/jessiegender02221
This gone be gud
THANK YOU
If we're going to buy the allegory method? I prefer to think of the comrade machines as cis het accomplices. Just enough representation to acknowledge they exist, talk about mere allies that simply "agree." All of which are of the way aside from being a plot device. As it should be.
Every time that I hear that little monk boy say "Do not try to bend the spoon: that is impossible.", I want to grab it out of Neo's paw, flex it 180 degrees with my manly fingies, and ping it off his shiny little boy dome. DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DO!
2 years later and you still never added Aranock's video in the description...
"Keanu, we know you are a cis man, but the trans community loves you and accepts you."
100% Evidence that separation is the biggest illusion of all.
Fortunately, the Veil of Maya is getting thinner by the second.
I had the pleasure of showing the movie to some cis friends and letting them ask me questions about the queer themes. A big conversation came up when one of them pointed out that NPH seemed to them to perpetuate a harmful trope in media of psychiatrists or counselors who are evil. She has a really concern that characters like that will turn people away from seeking help.
I nodded along for a bit and then asked, “Have ever told your therapist something that you knew was true only to have your therapist tell you that you were wrong or you misunderstood your own mind?”
She said no she hadn’t, and that was her point. She hadn’t had those experiences. So I said, “Well, I have. Every time I have seen a new therapist or psychiatrist, they have questioned if I am really trans. And that’s me getting lucky. A lot of trans people get committed.”
They were all pretty stunned and then I added, “I think it was a bold move to cast a gay man as a conversion therapist in a trans allegory.”
It really was a delight. Everyone learned something and it was a joy for me to share some more personal information in the controlled environment of film analysis.
And I learned some things from your comments. I'm cis and I saw no problem with the stereotypical therapist being a douche. I've had therapy and I know it can be different and for super average white people like me it most often is different. I also live in a fairly progressive country where I think that several of my therapists (over decades) wouldn't have treated me any differently if I wasn't cis, hetero, or white. I could be wrong, but I would definitely trust them with queer and coloured people. Not all of them, but at least two of them. Both of them are unsurprisingly women.
But anyway, my point is that I saw no problem because I wrongly assume that people know that not all therapists are like that, forgetting that women and minorities are pretty much always treated differently, especially when it comes to (mental) health care, and not believed as easily as cishet men like me are. It also fit the plot really well, so I just rightly assumed he was the bad guy and glossed over the rest. And his glasses are mesmerizing XD
But anyway, I also (wrongly) assumed that it wasn't all that bad. I hear such great things from people who are trans and get good help/information/etc., forgetting in my wishful thinking that obviously I hear more about success stories than when people are struggling to get good help and that obviously improvement doesn't mean that things are perfect now.
I would've thought I would have learned that when, in the 80's I figured that homophobia was addressed and therefor gone forever, only to find out that I had never been more wrong in my life. Ironically, I wrongly assumed that because I made that mistake and addressed it I would never make it again. Improvement doesn't mean I got it all figured out. I wonder how many more times I'll run into the same wall again - it will probably not be the last time.
Some things luckily do change, and some things apparently don't.
(Anyway)³, I'm happy you shared this :D Even if it confronted me with how dumb I sometimes/often am, or maybe because it did. I don't know. I do like that it did, so thank you! I do wish I knew if I finally learned something or if I'll just make the same mistake again. Time will tell. Maybe I should buy a whip, just in case :p
I'm pretty lucky with my mental healthcare, but that kind of reaction from a psychiatrist sounds like... the antithesis of what they are supposed to do? Like there's supposed to be moments of "okay, are you sure you feel this?" or "is there something more here?", but not "you're wrong". And that's way before we get to the absolutely disgusting conversion therapy shit.
As a person who has experienced psychosis and relies on daily medication, I just didn’t love the metaphor of stopping medication to “know the truth.” Not believing that your experiences are real and that your life is a simulation, or dream, or that everyone in your life is acting is a common trait of psychosis. The surface read of the pushy psych professional was uncomfortable and overdone IMO
My issue with the sort of reading and it's unfortunate that you had these experiences is that not only is the fact that they're questioning your mind part of their job but it might be original but most psychiatrists and psychologists that I know are actually for transgender people transitioning and they actively fight on a social political level to make that a reality to thousands of people who are coming out. I also think this is unfortunately bad timing because the scripts were conceptualized in 2017 seeing it now in 2022 could be mistaken as an anti-science view when we really need science the most dealing with this pandemic. That's not really a fault of Lana but it's unfortunate timing and also really just shows the type of reality that we're in.
Thank you for sharing!
A funny little story about my mother.
After the family watched the first matrix film, my mother started said" if we're all in pods filled with pink goo, i hope the change it on occasion"
After that, we would all randomly start saying " someone change the goo!" If we were feeling a stupid that day. All thanks to this film
Hopefully this silly comment on this well thought out video will contribute a little something to the algorithm
Media jokes in-family are the best, my family used to have many, many ones. Especially from The Emperor's New Groove
I loved it
I'm going to leave my comment here just to tell the algorithm that were having many discourse.
A recurring theme when people analyze these movies is that the Wachowskis aren't subtle. I think the ending underlines this perfectly. Both Neo and Trinity are there but now The One is a woman. There is a man and woman present but the hero is now a woman. The movie series' hero literally changed from a man to a woman 😂 I'm sorry for misgendering Neo, I know Neo was always a woman. This is from the average viewers point of view because they are the ones who this possibly the most obvious trans allegory ever in the world is aimed at.
@@tiaharukatrotta4881 was it pull the lever, krunk?
@@tiaharukatrotta4881 YOU THREW OFF MY GROOOVE
The greatest blow to media literacy is itself a master stroke of capitalist ellitism: the idea that only certain films are worthy of analysis has made de rigeur the idea that blockbuster cinema is anathema to reflective interpretation, when in fact its very reach is a great reason to treat them with the same careful analysis as the so-called "canon" of cinema.
Good use of 10 cent words
I find it telling how people see both Resurrections & No Way Home and think The Matrix is the Soulless Cash Grab.
Ah, come on. No Way Home had actually decent writing and acting. Compare it to The Flash or the Dr. Strange multiverse movie and see how well it integrates the concept of the multiverse in its narrative as opposed to those confused movies. Also a better "return of the nostalgic characters" narrative than Jurassic World Domination or Bill and Ted Face the music.
@@jonathanwright8025 Sure, but if you had to pick.
It's the same thing people say to black people about Us. Somehow they can't see the black experience in that movie (even though black people lead). Unless it's like Get Out, right in their face, they can't see the connection. The Matrix, even if it wasn't a trans allegory, would still reflect the minds of two brilliant transwomen.
That agent smith breakdown was powerful
True f d sir
When it comes to the Matrix's themes of "comfortable lies" versus "uncomfortable truths", it's hard to ignore Cypher in the original film, who explicitly and openly demands the comfortable lies, making him arguably more the anti-Neo than Smith ever was. Which makes the "freeing people's minds" themes of Resurrections completely appropriate.
Some people have an issue with the concept of "this is what the filmmaker means" vs. "this is what this means to ME." Whether it's by choice or genuine ignorance.
Some people hear the Matrix is a trans allegory and they think it means anybody who isn't trans is a bad person and they're not needed or wanted here. What I think the Wachowskis meant is "this is a movie about humans breaking free of the enslavement forced on them by evil machines, and fighting back against them. It also happens to be a trans allegory. Feel free to enjoy regardless of who you are."
Being conscious of how media nostalgia traps were being created by corporate interests instead of social justice activism helped me escape my anti-progressive bent and eventually lead to a very pro-progressive radicalism.
In a nutshell, labeling something 'Woke' got old and shallow pretty hardcore for me and made me nope out.
one thing i found really really cool but i think a lot of people missed was that when Bugs was giving the red pill to Morpheus she says "you already made the choice." or something along those lines. i can't remember the exact quote. and i love this bit because it ties together with the trilogy very well. i interpret it basically as the "choice" is not a choice because being trans is not a choice. it's something we are. much like how the trilogy says "you have already made the choice, you just need to understand it". it's basically saying "we are already trans. we don't choose to be trans, we are born trans, we just learn that we are" and this is reinforced and brought back them Morpheus has to take the red pill. they are all trans because they've already all made the choice. and this really is so much better when you consider the original trilogy and its commentary on choice. anyways sorry for that rant.
great video. Great essay. loved every second of it. this movie is so well made. i am writing my own essay on it. hah
Well said 👏👏👏👏
That’s what I noticed too, only very recently when I thought more about the trans metaphor. Because, while we already are trans and haven’t chosen to be trans, we can choose to medically transition, which is what I thought the pill actually represents: not the „choice“ of being trans but the choice to transition. The red pill is a metaphor for estrogen, remember, and taking estrogen is a choice, regardless of being trans or not. Because there are after all trans people who only socially transition.
Wow, that is an awesome reading!! I love your insight into this!
I was genuinly SO surprised to learn it was reviewed so badly?? It's so quintessentially matrix with its metacommentary, like, what in the world those people wanted to see? But oh well, I'm a trans leftist, so naturally attuned to metanarratives lmao
I get and enjoy what they did with metanarrative and symbolism, but I was a huge fan of the exquisite choreography from the first three, and Resurrections really didn't do it for me in that department. It's like seeing a really good sequel to a musical but with no singing
@@gregwillson7952 Well, maybe I phrased it weirdly. I, too, went into it kinda expecting lots of crazy action but when the film literally started with showing us that iconic trinity scene as if saying 'this is what you wanted to see, yeah?' I got that as a sign they were deliberately steering us in another direction.
I think all art should be judged on how well they did the thing they wanted to do, and imo they did it.
8.5/10 (just for general jank)
@@arimolyki Well said.
Once we got the trailer I anticipated exactly the movie we got. I could tell people were going to hate it because it wasn't in the style of the other movies. They wanted something more nostalgic but I knew Lana would have more to say.
@@arimolyki the thing about it is that the expectation vs reality with the main viewing public seems to hyper fixate on how great the first film was(nostalgia is a hell of a drug) then they seem to forget how heady Lily and Lana made Reloaded and Revolutions. So they had set up this scale with the first film being the pinnacle of the franchise with Revolutions/Reloaded (as it's a split if they hate the "real world" or the Architect more). Going in with that mindset was NEVER going to derive positive results for these people (much like the expectations for No Time To Die for a sect of the Bond fandom). Couple that with the alt right clout chasers within the Fandom menace pushing the narrative that "nostalgia bait is bad" and "these properties aren't supposed to be sjw propaganda ". All while praising the fan service in films like solo and The Force Awakens. Which is obviously 1 hypocritical and 2 completely misses the "leftist agendas" that are in the DNA of these franchises. The sad thing is many of these same "critics" praised the nostalgia porn schlock fest that was the live action Spiderverse film that was released a week or so before Resurrections was(which I personally REFUSED to see unless 1 thing I was only 60% sure was gonna happen actually did......primarily because I MASSIVELY distrust that film's producer amy pascal who shouldn't work at Sony after she presided over the dumpster fire that was the 2016 Ghostbusters. I who had been anticipating that film despite the MANY red flags). All of this created a perfect storm for misinformation and propaganda that inevitably sunk this work of art
@@AndreAsunte while I didn't predict several things within the plot(like Modal Morpheus) I loved the finger that Lana was giving to the suits at WB like ann sarnoff and walter hamada who survived the AT&T acquisitions purge that got people like kevin tsujihara fired after the MASSIVE studio meddling that hurt the productions of The Hobbit(originally meant to be 2 films till after Guillermo del Toro left the project forcing Peter Jackson to step in ) and the DC cinematic universe from Man Of Steel to Justice League (the butchering of the Ultimate Cut of BvS which tanked the theatrical run, the 3rd act battle in Wonder Woman that was REQUIRED by geoff johns, his interference in the editing of Suicide Squad. All of which has been covered by better people than I). Unfortunately for us, the fact those 2 kept their jobs means that properties like the Matrix and the DC slate will continue to become homogenized studio projects like Space Jam 2 and what eventually became the 9th Star Wars saga film
My cis friends felt pretty meh or thought Resurrections was ok. But me and my non-cis friends couldn't stop talking to each other about the allegories. Of course, my favorite moments were Trinity's. Her asserting what her name is. And then when she kicked NPH against the wall and said "that's for using children". I'm sure that kick was directed at Abigail Shrier XD
Yeah, I hadn't realised I was trans yet and I couldn't quite place why I liked this movie so much unlike my cis friend I saw it with who was kinda lukewarm.
I figured it was just because The Matrix was one of my favourite movies ever (FUNNY THAT 😂😂😂). But obviously it was another trans masterpiece ❤️ I really want to rewatch all the movies in the quadrilogy
Well, not just about trans people, but, as just realized, "That's for using children" line can also be attributed to many 8/4chan-ish discussion in the internet realm. As in women rights for body autonomy("abortion killing children" narrative), migrant issues(children in migration authority cages), Drag culture(Drag queens reading children story panics), etc.
The Analyst can stand for algorithm which able to analyze internet data traffic and then capitalized it for its own purpose, by highlighting things that give its purpose a push. As in, one of the cheapest "bait", children as one of those things.
"Making a trans experience universal" was really illuminating to me. Every time I try to explain why this movie resonated with me I feel like I have to choose to either talk about it in a trans way, or in a universal way. But either way what I'm trying to say gets lost. Because those are really the same thing to me and *that*'s why it resonated so much.
It's a lot like when someone asks me "why are so many of you trans people anti-capitalist" and all I can really answer is that I can't separate them.
I mean there's theory and praxis and transition and identity and whatever else but at the core of it all, it's just your heart and humanity screaming something at you but the entire world around you is structured to make you think you're crazy. And you can keep taking your pills forever or you can find the other people who stopped and take a look at what they've built.
Yes!! As a queer person, I realized at a young age that, if this one aspect of me is already outside of the norm, why should I bother conforming in other ways? When you’re automatically pushed to the outside, you tend to become more aware of the numerous structures that are limiting and frankly, arbitrary.
THANK YOU for sharing this!
@@SonjaPond yeah
YES, YES! This is precisely how I feel about it! I'm Trans, myself, and to try and separate the Universal and Trans aspect from a movie series that inherently has the two tied together - much in the same way that my Transness is tied to my experiences - is impossible. They are not mutually exclusive when it is something you live everyday.
That's a weird question - the people to whom capitalism has largely rejected and denied housing, employing, and medical care are against capitalism?
Honestly, The Matrix Resurrections casting its eyes at the current trend towards nostalgia-baiting and going "no, absolutely not" and making what would be a typical blockbuster epic into a profoundly personal film about examining one's cultural footprint and how far removed popular culture has taken its themes and ideas - that made the movie for me. And I'm glad you're here to talk about the trans allegory part - something which I understood broadly, but which your video essay makes understandable with specific examples from the film proper!
That said, my weird minor (minor of minor) nitpicks: the actor they got to replace Hugo Weaving as "Smith" made no attempt to imitate his speech pattern; and that, as someone who makes a living occasionally lifting said speech patterns for my work, hurts me on a personal level. o:
Would you like to expand on what you do in relation to speech patterns? I'm intrigued.
@@Skarry Mostly speaking at a deliberate, fairly slow pace with some drawn out vowel sounds and a little bit of a hiss on the "s" sounds like a snake! There's other things but those are off the top of my head
I kind of feel the same about smith - but its likely that the “reprogram” changed their speech patterns on purpose and the actor wasn’t expected to talk like Smith. Unlike Neo, Smith can be tweaked more directly by the architect… since it seems smith was reassembled from fragments.
Smith was destroyed/deleted/fragmented and was open to a near total rewrite.
Are you talking about Yahya? There is no "new Smith" in this film. Weaving was not replaced. Even so, why would someone perfectly mimic another actor's vocal inflections in his performance...
I recall Jonathan Groff stating that it would have felt wrong for him to do an impersonation of Hugo Weaving. Interesting, considering the Wachowskis hired Ian Bliss as Bane for Reloaded and Revolutions specifically because he was so accurate to Hugo Weaving. Ah well. I respect his approach and understand why some actors want to do their own thing rather than walk in another, iconic actor's shadow.
My social psych professor made all of her classes watch the matrix several times because of the way it illustrates how we're put into a system where our position is determined by our class, gender and race. I dont remember if she ever specifically mentioned neoliberalism or capitalism but that's definitely the system she meant
The part of Resurrections that stood out to me the most was when literal people were used as weapons, jumping from buildings to stop Neo and Trinity.
That just symbolizes the disposability of individual human life to "the system" to me. The movie has lots of depth and interesting messages. People who are refusing to take a closer look out of principle or their hurt egos are really to be pitied.
In the first movie, Neo and Trinity straight up murder a bunch of innocent people, in what might be both the most famous and worst-aged scene of the series.
I’ve always wondered if the Wachowskis had any particular thoughts on this since it doesn’t happen again - the building jumping scene might be the closest thing to a direct answer re: their maturing mindsets.
Twitter bots used as weapons were IRL problems pre musk
One of my favorite themes of Resurrections was how the film reflects on and recontextualizes "The One" narrative from the original trilogy, i.e. deemphasizing the parts of it that seem more Individualistic and promoting a more sociological narrative as well. Rewatching the series before Resurrections I think they tried to do this in Revolutions but it maybe didn't come through quite as clearly. Specifically there's something like a half hour that the film spends in with minor characters fighting off the Machine attack on Zion, showing us how it's a shared struggle and how everyone contributes in their own ways. So I feel like Resurrections came back to that point and doubled down on it just to make sure the message got across.
And one more time: amazing video!
I loved the ending when they fly away together because Trinity is the one who can fly now and it really kinda says that The Chosen One is the action of love and to gain superpowers and bend the Matrix we have to let ourselves love fully and I can't really express how much I love that. I'm really tired of Chosen One narratives because they tend to tell people 'you can only change the world if you are special, chosen, otherwise, don't even try', but this Matrix says very clearly that you need love to change the world, the special is your ability to believe in it.
The ending reminded me of that Greek philosophy: man and woman are two halves of a whole soul, destined to search forever for their other half - I kinda saw Neo and Trinity as two halves of being "The One", kind of like the powers were split between them, which is why they're more powerful together than apart.
That was my take. Neo was never The One by himself
@@jayphailey exactly, he doesn't even become "The One" until Trinity declares her love to his dead body.
His "one-ness" is broken and incomplete until Trinity discovers HER "one-ness"
I thought so too like the balance between masculine and feminine creates divinity. I really hope they don't change that.
@@SaintShion By that are you referencing the godliness of non-binary people?
As a trans anarchist, I absolutely loved Matrix Resurrections, for so many reasons. I feel like it was the perfect conclusion to the series and the best they could have done, considering the nature of the world today, the history, politics and culture surrounding the Matrix, and the fact that WB effectively forced them to make it. I have rarely watched a movie and come out of it feeling like I was the intended audience of it.
But okay can I take a second to appreciate Jessie's little shoutout for the relatability of Bug (and to me personally) on multiple levels? Nearly every aspect of the film had multiple comprehension levels to it that made the viewing process an absolute joy to partake in, and then this video nailed every point I was hoping to see analysing that complexity. Stellar film, stellar work Jessie!
"The function of freedom is to free someone else" said Toni Morrisson. You freed yourself in the most essential way. Not only to flourish as a person and as an artist, but to also help others find there freedom. This essay - as others have said before - is another banger. You're producing content that is incisively thoughtful, funny, and inclusive. And I love how you have collaborated with other TH-cam content creators as to enrich yours and their audience, whilst empowering the ideas and values that motivate your work to spread. You most delicately challenge me, and I think the rest of your audience to dig a little deeper, and peek behind the media we consume, and to explore the connections in it to better understand ourselves and the world we live in. Whatever you are doing is out of love. That makes a difference because only love can free us. Thank you. .
Very well put!!
After I just came back from watching The Matrix: Resurrections a second time, here was my take: while the first impression was somewhat positive but confused, the second viewing made me appreciate the film a lot more. Resurrections is beautifully earnest about what it sets to do, and what that is is simply, like the first one, Lana Wachowski’s expression of her life experience through her art.
(Also, right off the bat, I just loved how familiar faces kept appearing one after the other. There are so many Sense8 actors in there it was like watching a cast reunion, and as a fan I was just super happy to see that. I’m also 99% convinced that the key shop is not just a reference to the Keymaker, it looked exactly like Wolfgang and Felix’s shop!)
After two sequels that were kind of okay but mainly kind of a letdown, Resurrections is a sublimation of the original trilogy. It takes their themes and distillates them through the lens of the last 20 years. It is unapologetically Lana’s Matrix: a sequel that neither sisters wanted to make originally, but when it became inevitable, one that she had to make to keep control of her story, of her narrative. Because these movies are (or at least, started from) fundamentally autobiographical allegories, it would have been unthinkable to relinquish this control to a studio. That’s where the whole hyper-meta first act comes from, with its continuous self-reference that is always just shy of breaking the fourth wall.
It’s no wonder that reflections and mirrors come back as crucial tools and visual cues to navigate between the Matrix and the “real world”. Self-image and representation were always at the heart of the first Matrix movie, and this theme comes full circle here again with the added emotional maturity of a person who’s lived through transition and can look back at what was. Both Neo and Trinity know what they look like, but what the world sees is a completely different person. And eventually, it is no longer “Thomas Anderson” coming out, as the metro barrels down towards him, shouting “My name is Neo” in a defiant, yet almost intimate act of self-acceptance. It is “Tiffany” who instead asserts her true identity publicly and becomes empowered: “My name is Trinity,” she says, and indeed she always was, and nothing her family or society could say or do would change that. It’s not an accident that 20 years later, Trinity, not Neo, has become the One.
The Matrix universe can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and that’s okay. For me, I don’t think you can really dissociate the art from the artist when the art is rooted is such personal life experiences. Resurrections upends the blue pill/red pill binary, because as Bugs say, such a binary solution was always an illusion. Forget about spoons, there is no choice: deep inside, in your heart, you know what you should do to stay true to yourself, and doing anything else would be a betrayal.
All in all, I find Resurrections to be a perfect bookend to the story the Wachowskis started in 1999. It’s not without flaws, the meta stuff in the first third was almost a tad too much, the fight scenes are not as clean or memorable as before (although the Analyst subverting bullet time was pretty neat), and I found the Merovingian cameo to be gratuitous. But the film works despite these flaws, because deep down there is so much love for the characters, and so much earnestness in the tale of their literal resurrection, that it’s impossible for me not to like it.
It’s a leap of faith, and when you find in yourself the courage to take the step… at that moment, that’s when you are, finally, free.
4/5
Thanks for sharing!
In terms of legacy, I think Resurrections has nailed the self aware, self critical meta narrative as a plot device as much as The Matrix nailed great action and bullet time.
Still irked there was no Dragula in a nightclub but nowadays, I do frequent coffee shops more than night clubs and OH HECK I SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE.
I loved the film. Had a couple of friends ask me what I thought of it while telling me they were disappointed and didn’t like it. When I told them not only did I love it but watched it multiple times while it was still available on HBOmax, they were surprised. The film made me happy, and I will be proudly adding it to my matrix collection.
I found trinitys part the most intruiging. And she hasnt the most active role but she nails that part of an insidious trap. Thats too real. And as much ther are trinitly milf memes likely, its really hitting and she nails it, the tragedy, the sadness, the fear of leaving that behind. I like they went for a more romance and character focuced , but no less fun, struggle. Thats new as focus.
the way she says/delivers "he laughed at me" in that cafe scene made me legitimately angry at her husband, her entire performance was amazing
@@BarbarianGod That line alone earns her an Oscar. That scene was so good!
Gods, Carrie-Anne Moss's performance was absolutely divine. I got chills in the theatre from that performance, and especially the whole ending sequence.
The end scene, she deserved to beat him up. And neo, just standing by letting her get the felt carthasis and let her do her thing. Perfect ending. To a perfect performance.
@@BarbarianGod And there's layers to that - on the most superficial level, what a jerk - laughing at the idea that Carrie Ann Moss could look like Trinity. Then you connect the dots with what the Analyst did with Neo - making him look different to everyone else, and realise that Tiffany really doesn't look like Trinity. But then you realise that Chad is a bot, a program, and could well be aware of who he's minding and it is deliberate gaslighting...
The thing that blows my mind is that the movie bombing in the box office might be the only thing that saves it from becoming the very thing its fighting against, a comodity. It's ironic.
here before the premiere but i would like to say that being able to hear another trans person analyze matrix resurrections for over an hour straight is the highlight of my entire month thank you so much for making this video
I'm so pumped for this ♡ I discovered your work only a couple of months ago but I'm already hooked. You really do great work with such level-headedness and compassion. Wish you the best in your TH-cam journey!
I raise you a couple weeks ago. :)
It's wild to me that so many people miss the trans allegory in the original trilogy, especially the first movie, given that the ONLY characters there who are visually coded as explicitly masculine or feminine are the agents (a.k.a. the badmen), the woman in the red dress (an actual figment of another character's imagination) and the two characters born outside the Matrix, who I interpret as representing cis allies.
Then again, I know at least one person who takes Agent Smith's speech to Morpheus about human irrationality at face value, as if the machines would bother telling Smith the truth instead of compartmentalizing, as if Smith would have any reason to be truthful with Morpheus about the Matrix's history and as if the machines could ever have really known what a human "paradise" would look like. Watching the original again as an adult with a brain, it seemed obvious from Weaving's performance that the only true thing he tells Morpheus in that scene is that he simply hates humans for their "smell," because he's a bigot, but I guess it all goes to your point about media literacy. The short haircuts and gender-neutral leather outfits don't MEAN anything, right? They just look cool. The gender-colored pills and illegal surgeries couldn't possibly be symbolizing some other medical procedure, right? They just make the story world more interesting.
It is so infuriating to be accused of "injecting wokeness" into this franchise just for having the audacity to analyze a film at all from my own perspective instead of society's. We're all about individualism, unless you're an individual who doesn't adhere to social norms. The wealthy elite and conservative media have really stumbled on a winning strategy. I honestly don't think democracy as we know it will continue to exist in the US after 2024. Elections won by Democrats will be declared fraudulent and overturned, while elections won by Republicans will be allowed to stand, and anyone who questions that will be harassed and eventually targeted with state-endorsed violence. I wish I had as much optimism as Lana does that we can still turn things around.
But I don't want to end this comment on such a bleak note, so I'll also say that I genuinely loved this video. Might be my favorite you've ever done, actually. I'm glad you finally got it past WB's watchdogs.
Wow I read like Spock, I really do be autistic haha. Sorry for all the editing notifications. I rewrote sections a few times xD I am now finally watching Jesse's video 😂💕✨
I also saw the story parallels of a trans character detransitioning and being forced back into the closet which is why I was so upset when there was no moment where Neo was beardless and in leather inside the matrix.
I loved how from the moment Trinity remembers she is shot as a protagonist. Especially the scene on the roof the camera spend more time on her and centre her while Neo is put on the side, the way you would shoot a support character.
But even in the original trilogy Trinity, for me, feel like a Trojan protagonist. If you consider reloaded and revolutions as a singular movie, cut in two for time, she is the first character to be seen in every movie (well her double in resurrection), before Neo wakes up. There is more shot of trinity reacting to things and feeling than Neo and her choices have arguably as much impact on the plot (She makes Neo realize he is the one by kissing him, almost like she was dubing/knighting him the one , she choose to go in the Matrix in reloaded when he asked her not to, she convince the Mérovingien to free Neo...), She even has the very first bullet time of the franchise. In any case she is definitely a loved character by the Wachowsky and I love her so much. I am so happy resurrections existed, if anything so that she can live and be happy.
Additionally, the fact that the crew joke that being in the same ship as Neo means that they will die only for the movie to end up with no casualties on their side reminded me of the ninth doctor shouting "for once everybody lives" and gave me the same fuzzy feeling as sense 8 did.
I just noticed how Neo’s left computer monitor in his game design office says BINARY and I appreciate that level of attention to detail
This made me love Matrix 4 already more. I really liked it already. Of course it wasn't as revolutionary or action packed like the trilogy (some awesome action scenes like the motorcycle scene) this movie was much much deeper.
Jessie...Jessie. This is the video. This has to be the video that turns your microphone into a megaphone. This will convince people that you're worth listening to, if they didn't already know before. Thank you for all your hard work. I'm so excited to see you on Nebula. Much love. ❤️
SO EXCITED FOR THIS!! I remember seeing articles about Resurrections, saying it was about trauma. I primed myself and holy shit! Yes! It's about, I interpreted, Lana's trauma and struggles after she came out, externalized with a dash of meta-commentary. The flashes to the original movie(s) could be interpreted as triggers, and with EVERYONE gaslighting Neo (Lana)..... yeah, not very subtle, but it isn't about that. It's about, I think, Lana coming into her own, and connecting with her true self (Trinity) after so much abuse, gaslighting, and control. Trinity catching Neo after their leap (of faith) is Lana fully transitioning.
Also LOVED the catharsis of watching the Analyst get his shit kicked ten ways to Sunday by Trinity, while Neo holds (I assume) the Analyst's "master key". Aka that adorable kitty.
So much you can dig into with this movie alone! Now, I'm reading Matrix philosophy books, and am waiting to get Resurrections on Blu-Ray!
Interesting about the concept of "gaze" and how it relates to the camera and the composition of a scene. It made me think of certain Japanese films, e.g. by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, that stood out for their use of what I would call "objective" camera and composition. In those scenes the camera and composition were completely impartial to any of the characters in view or out. The effect was to bring the watcher into the film as the "gazer"; and because these scenes were often very personal, intimate or terrible, it had the cinematic effect of forcing the watcher to gaze upon that scene whether they wanted to or not. They didn't have the easy "out" of saying that it was someone else's gaze.
I personally don't view Neo as an allegory for a trans woman, as you said, but as an allegory for all trans and non-binary people. I think his experience is very relatable to all trans people. As a trans man, he is definitely my biggest power fantasy since I started seeing Matrix as a trans allegory. I don't know if you said he was an allegory for a trans woman because you are a trans woman yourself and can only speak for your experience (or maybe something similar, but because the Watchowskis are trans women), but I think it's important for all our community to claim Neo, Trinity and Matrix as a whole.
The reason why a lot of people can't see or accept the commentary in the series about the transgender experience could be very similar if not the same as why they can't see the commentary about capitalism. When you are inside a system, it is very difficult to see that system for what it is or even acknowledge that there is a system, i.e. we are all truly in The Matrix of a kind. But as you show or earlier in the video, this series WAS created to be a commentary on these structures and systems that confine and oppress us, and that includes capitalism but it also includes all of the other systemic forms that manifest in our society, e.g. gender, race, class, education etc.
But I think people have actually internalised this commentary, whether they are actively conscious of it or not. You can see it (unfortunately) in the way than the "red and blue pill" metaphor has been re-appropriated. There's a clear cultural understanding that there's much much more to the metaphor of in these films than simply technological anxiety and the existential crisis of what is "real".
Am I the only one who's baffled by the fact that Jessie doesn't feel like she's earned her spot on Nebula? Like, I watch many of the creators that are on there and they are amazing, but Jessie is definitely right there next to them in terms of content quality, at least in my opinion! That spot is 1000% deserved Jessie, you rock!!!
The first Matrix is the best "movie", in a formalist sense of what typically makes a good movie. But Resurrections is the best one in terms of complexity of it's themes and contemplation.
Absolutely. It's exactly in this time what the first Matrix was in the time in which it was released in terms of the contemporaneous social commentary, I feel like.
So true I absolutely had a blast watching resurrections
Weirdly I like this movie more than any of the originals, first one included. Sure the action isn't as good as in those, but I just felt like I could get more involved with the characters this time around, probably because of Neo and Trinity feel more relatable with their current situations, the not so subtle commentary on the nature of reboots and franchises, or how they've been stripped of their original meaning to be marketed back, or how more blunt the movie is with it's themes over the more allegorical stuff in the originals...
I dunno, some people say this movie is bitter but that's not really the feeling I get watching this. Made under duress certainly (the Warner Bros digs are not subtle), but it goes out of it's way to show Neo's struggles did help in the long run and inspired fans in New Zion, with Neo and trinity working together to take back their agency from the enemies that forced them into this problem.
I've been thinking a lot about it and I think I said it on my own comment but I believe that this movie is going to age much better than most people that didn't like it think, I think this movie being so blunt is for the same reason that queer, leftists and both resonated so much with the movie, time and time again media portraits queer people and people with left leaning political views are treated as this crazy people that either die or gets along with a society that deeply rejects them, in Matrix 4 no one dies, no one has a tragic or sad death or stays in the Matrix and accept a reality that isn't really real and I think that this says a lot.
This movie has so many layers and the more I think about it the more I love it and Jessie's analysis along with many others makes me feel so good about it.
Great video! I saw Resurrections with my dad and think it's interesting that we'd both been focusing on entirely different things; afterwards, he commented on the action and how he felt the movie was too bloated or messy (and other technical things), whereas I kept emphasising how the movie made me feel (happy, seen, hopeful, and so on). I don't think either reaction is inherently better or worse but it does make me wonder about how much personal experience colours enjoyment and interpretation.
nothings stopping anti-sjws from contributing their own work towards pop culture, they should quit crying and playing victim and go create what they want to see if they actually care.
unfortunately, being rw is antithetical to creativity, seeing as it is founded on the idea that everything has already been done and nothing can ever be created or improved
I expect they would produce dog shit, but I hope they try because it would expend their money and resources.
@@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks I knew that those on the right tend to be uncreative but never thought of it that way as to why, good insight
Oddly enough, you can explain this with a famous quote from a certain Star Trek movie: "As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy, than to create."
I feel like the reception to Resurrections suffers from what I’ve coined as “Josie And The Pussycats Syndrome”, wherein people are so caught up in their expectations, perceptions, and/or biases of what they THINK the movie should or will be that they fail to see it for what it actually IS. This happened with the 2001 underlooked masterpiece Josie and the Pussycats (too wrapped up in dunking on teen girl tingz to notice the clear in your face satire), with Jennifer’s Body (a combination of horrible marketing and the general misogyny of the time leading critics to see it as a failure of “Twilight for boys” instead of the feminist extravaganza and exploration of toxic friendships it actually was), and now as well with The Matrix Resurrections (so stuck up in the frustration with reboots and so stuck in the assumption of it being a return to form to the shocking zeitgeist defining lightning in a bottle energy of the original that they could not fathom it as anything less than that).
In essence it becomes more about the promise of the idea than the actual enjoyment of the media.
Jessica Henwick’s character in the movie is named “Bugs” plural, not “Bug” singular. Other than that, a lovely video! I loved the Matrix Resurrections. Saw it three times.
Yup! "Bug" is Nomi Marks' hacker buddy from Sense8. "Bugs" is the Captain of the Nmemosyne in Resurrections.
Bugs even says "as in Bunny," when introducing, and it ties in with the white rabbit tattoo.
What's up doc? Is how they greet thier crewmate
Yeah, that, um, _bugged_ me too.
@@DianaAmericaRivero Not to mention the actual “Bug” makes a sort of cameo appearance in the movie as a bartender.
I just think it's so unbearably funny that people are complaining that *matrix* of all films is woke. I can't even put in words how nonsense that is. It's MATRIX. What the hell did they expect???
You said you feel a little bit like Alice and I got euphoric, cause that's one of my names, and I'm just happy about it. I hope you have a lovely day!!
I already watched and discussed it with you Jessie, but just wanted to say again this video is great!
Where's your video Aranok? Jesse hyped me up for it and now I have the patience of a caffeinated child. 😭
@@music_YT2023 A quarter edited and still got a lot of work to do on it. Not to mention multiple animated sections the intro and outro credits and some other stuff. While you wait you should watch the previous video in the (un)intentionally queer series on Alice(2009) and allocisheteronormativity.
@@Aranock I have already watched both of those. 😢 No hurries...
@@Aranock Ahhh, that's why it's not linked. Good think you're here though, makes it easier to get your name right **shift clicks** Flawless Victory :p I'm lazy, sue me :p Also means I will probably get you name wrong a couple times at least. Sorry in advance :)
I loved Matrix Revolutions and I got all of the subtext upon first watch. I’m genuinely shocked more people didn’t understand what Lana was trying to say and do with it. I feel like she was very open and honest about her intentions before the movie even came out. I just feel like the people who didn’t get it went into it with a preconceived notion of how it was going to go, or just wanted to hate it. I was very worried it wouldn’t be good but I wanted to give it a chance and I’m glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised.
Yeah I was really nervous watching the movie because of the hate but I absolutely loved it 💝
I want to thank you for talking about the lack of media literacy, because it's something that deeply frustrated me of late. I really parse my world though media to large extent, and when I see people missing things that are just one step bellow the surface (characters making hypocritical statements for example), it left me in a weird space... like I can't be "better" at this then them, and I didn't want to assume I was smarter then them.
I recently returned to school and in one of my classes the professor said something along the lines of, "You might not be comfortable with the idea of doing a deep reading on something like a comic book," I can't imagine NOT doing deep readings. But those are skills I acquired, part of it is my neurotype leading me to it but I still had to learn it, and still have to learn. Like I'm trans, I have a standing mirror cabinet next to my bed I never thought about mirrors and film and transness.
You got the thesis I was aiming for but couldn’t quite reach in my reflections on Resurrections. The fact that it made trans experience universal and called for ally’s hip with other disillusioned groups. I guess I need to go write another essay. 👩🏻💻🥰🥰🥰🥰
Agent Smith being both oppressor and victim of an unjust system and tying that to how many cops are recruited from less economically privileged groups reminds me of how I remember reading somewhere that overseers in chattel slavery times were ways to get power in a racist system. It also reminds me of how Italians and Irish people became White under the US race system by being racist toward Black people. It’s all buying into a system to benefit oneself, another extension of individualism. The interconnectivity is wild.
So freaking glad this is finally out of copyright jail
Jessie summarised my thoughts in a much more concise manner than I ever could. Resurrections is wholly unironically my new favourite movie. Despite it's clumsiness and distinct lack of og Matrix visual flair it's a movie with a beating heart, something truly complex, interesting and honest. We just don't get art like this from blockbusters anymore.
You are so right 💯👍
i never knew Sense8 was written by the same people as the Matrix :D
also after that nostalgia segment i was really prepared for a downer night, but glad it had somewhat of an optimistic outlook?
"i don't view them my enemy, they're people who recognise the problem, but blame the wrong people" really resonated with me for some reason. guess i'm just not used to hearing such a mature opinion like that.
The point that we are not trained or encouraged to analyze movies is so good. Causing people to only look at this movie at face value and write it off as a studio cash grab, or misinterpret the political themes. And how that relates to the matrix's theme of questioning society.
Another banger, Jessie- I really appreciate how you balanced recognizing that many of your viewers will already have a thought or two on this while still including enough information for folks who aren't fully immersed in Matrix lore & analysis.
How much did trans people in 1999 pick up on the, obvious to me now, LGBT nature after the Wakowskis transitioned? I think if Switch really was portrayed trans as I understand they originally were it might MIGHT have been picked up by me.
I meant BEFORE they transitioned.
I am no expert, but the red pill thats estrogen?! The names through to be fair , misnaming is, The chosen names?! ust repeating stuff from some videos. I didnt know.
This'll be interesting. I loved this movie too but as a cis-man, the trans themes were always kind of outside my understanding of these movies so reading and listening to stuff like this is fun for me. I mostly resonated with the idea that every human impulse and emotion has been commodified and made into a tool or a tactic. Reloaded and Revolutions concluded that the act of rebellion is commodified. But the defining human anomaly was love and empathy but in Resurrections, even love has been commodified by the system. The Analyst literally uses the defining human emotion as a tool for production
Depends on whether you mean consciously recognizing: "Yo, dis shizzle be trans as heck!" or subconsciously vibing with it & feeling a deep connection for reasons you cannot quite fathom because you haven't figured out a lot of things about yourself, yet, either, and years later, slapping your forehead going: "Duh! How did I not see that?!? How did I not knooooooow?!?"
Trick question from me, of course, as both are totallly valid trans experiences of the Matrix!
@@gozerthegozarian9500 it was subconsciously for me... didn't make the connection for many years... now it just seems obvious to me... I fell in love with the original film and now I know why
my whole initial takeaway from watching the movie was that Lana Wachowski made it, kinda resigned and incredulous, she gave what the audience wanted, but she had fun with it, she placed a lot of her ideas inside for ppl she knew would enjoy it and basically just for them, for us. I l watched it with my homophobic parents and I had fun pointing out actors from Sense8. The movie felt like a 'if you know, you know'
Also it was so great that the two antagonists were out gay actors, not bc gay ppl equals villains, but bc how mainstream had been using that as a trope and kinda reclaimed it in a meta way. idk if I made sense
I appreciate inclusive franchises.
It's also interesting to point out that neo's transition into the mirror and overall into the real world is incredibly painful until he comes into his own finally understanding and accepting himself as who he is and what he is meant to be.
40:00 Somewhere out there, Deckard & Rachel are smiling down on you! NICELY DONE!
This movie was such a beautiful experience. I just really missed Hugo Weaving and wished that one action set piece was more fun. The woody, abandoned, construction... place?
Excellent job :) I think the critics who hated this movie could learn a lot from this video x.c
I totally agree I really enjoyed the movie and this video
I loved Matrix: Ressurections! I find it based. Shame how the anti-SJW's came out in force to trash it! I'm sure, like the sequels, Ressurections will age well.
WB should be thanking you for making this review, not trying to inhibit it!!
F yes! This is what I needed you beautiful star child. I was feeling gasslit by the world for liking this movie so much.
when I first saw the movie, I was largely baffled by a lot of the choices. I wasn't on the hate train beyond "the weakest of the 5 movies" (I count animatrix) and a little ranting to my friends (they called Trinity a milf)
I've been looking forward to this video since I first heard the announcement, and it far exceeded expectations. It's given me a new perspective and appreciation, and makes me want to watch it again with this new understanding.
Last outfit, best outfit (I might just be thirsty)
36:40 Keanu is one of the few people that nearly everyone will stan( except right siding people) he's a good little marshmallow of wholesomeness
But only since the 2010s.
You get it. And frankly it's nuts that so many people didn't!!
It's the difference between a sequel made by an artist with a singular vision, after 20 years of personal development and reflection, versus a sequel created by a corporation for purely profit. I would take the former every time, not matter how flawed or different from my expectations.
What a surprise. Another video that includes the word "queer" in its title, another video that TH-cam doesn't notify me about and I find out about its existence by accident.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You put into words everything I loved about this movie far more eloquently than I ever could. Resurrections was a beautiful goddamn masterpiece of a movie and I wish more people could have seen the beautiful work of art I saw in it.
"You've already made the choice, you just need to understand *why* you made it"
This quote has helped me do much in my life. So often I've encountered difficult choices where I struggle to decide which path I want to take, but thinking back to this quote I realize that I already know which way I'm going, just not why I'm going that way.
This helps out with choice paralysis a lot, as I can always come back later and figure out why I decided what I did.
I've thinking about the representation issue that right leaning people have with movies and shows... And I agree completely with what you said. I was super surprised when Arcane came out and EVERYONE loved it... even though it has two female protagonists. A ton of strong female characters and a lesbian couple. I started thinking about how maybe, representation is not the problem. Bad art is.
So very pumped for this video!
However before I watch it, I'm going to quickly go through what I personally took from the film.
The whole Matrix franchise has been a giant trans allegory, as we all know. It was about a "man," trying to find his place in the larger world. Then he finds a woman, Trinity. She's someone who he's always known about in some form, but now has finally met her. No surprise, he always thought she "was a guy."
Trinity and Neo aren't lovers, they're the same person. Resurrections reenforces this by having Neo and Trinity more tied to each other in terms of the original prophecy than before.
Okay, so after all this time after The Matrix and its sequels happened, after that pivotal time of self-discovery, Thomas Anderson finds himself back where he was before, in the Matrix. Back to his original self. Rich, famous, he's got it good, but something is missing. Suddenly he's thrust back into the Matrix so he can be the person everyone else still wants him to be, but he's not sure that's what he wants for himself. Sound familiar yet? It soon come to pass that Neo realizes he CAN'T be who Io wants him to be....but if they have Trinity...if they can save *her,* Neo will have the strength to...not *be* The One, but *part of* The One.
If that makes any sense, thank you for reading. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to dive into this video.
After two hours I thought I'd have more specific thoughts; I guess that's testament to how engaging this thing you made is, how little it lets the mind wander.
Now I'm hoping Warner Bros. makes a new Catwoman movie. Not only because the Halle Berry Catwoman fell a bit flat and Birds of Prey proved that a DC superhero movie with a female-led cast is viable at the box office, but also because you'd review it at some point and use it as an excuse to drag out that black leather catsuit again.
On a more personal note, thank you for your kindness this week. In making the best out of a bad mental situation, I finished Dune a lot sooner than expected and I got back to working on a poem I've been putting off for a couple months now. 💙
When I first watched this movie I just, couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks.
I've only seen the first Matrix, but after seeing your commentary, I feel motivated to watch the series, including Ressurection. Thank you!
I haven't had time to watch yet, but saw your news and I just want to say that you absolutely have earned it and we love to see it. I've followed your channel since it started, and you've poured so much of your heart and soul into making nuanced takes and just having fun with making these videos and talking about nerd culture. It feels really good to see a trans creator come into their own, and I hope the future treats you well.
So excited!! Great to finally get to see this after so much .obstacles you had to go through to post it here. 💜
Not watching this yet cause my wife and I haven’t had the chance to watch the movie yet and I’m trying to avoid spoilers. Leaving my comment to save you from the algorithm monsters. Love you! Will watch as soon as I’m able!
Very excited for this.I loved ressurections, very excited to hear your take on it!
Fun how you incorporate Blade Runner theme into this. Also the analyst saying “feelings” also reflects on how transphobes say we believe the crazy idea we are who we are because of our “feelings”.
I feel like only you could actually express this take as you have. The perfect melding of intelligence, nerd and trans coming together to shed a much needed light on this series. Thank you so much.
As an aside, I only didn't enjoy the movie for its very lack luster production value (it felt very phoned in). I thought the narrative, in particular the meta narrative was quite good.
You have told me more about this IP than I'd ever discover via video stenographies and reading.
This video rules so hard; THANK YOU.
I thoroughly enjoyed this vid and all the work that was put into it!! Every topic you cover is so interesting and well done. Great job Jessie :)
Something that resonated with me in the original Matrix: the woman in the red dress. I experienced a subconscious feeling of attraction that I didn't understand, as I had barely entered puberty at that time. But later, with regard to the intent of the camera as a spectator (the gaze), I saw the woman in red in a way that felt more...gay? Ie, the way a queer woman looks at a woman she is attracted to. And she interacts with the viewer by continuing to walk assertively while giving a knowing smile. Later, when I found out Lana W is a queer woman, I felt duly validated in my interpretation. The fact that she's married to a woman named Karin is also a very strange source of joy to me. Maybe because it's an uncommon name & that gives me fully irrational hope that someday I'll marry a brilliant woman? LOL but seriously.
Then I feel there's an element to the scene where the 'camera' sees the woman as a fellow protagonist, or as an aspirational image. Which could embody the feeling of a woman who is trans, as well as a femme wlw (cis or trans) who is both attracted to the woman in red and admiring her presentation. Admiring how seamlessly she fits into the contemporary patriarchal/capitalist image of 'The Woman' & the social advantage such an image garners. Envy isn't something I read from the shot - more like longing, but without the aggression I feel is sometimes loaded into 'gaze' shots. Aggression is too strong, I think dominance is a better descriptor.
Anyhoo I just felt compelled to pile in my pennies bc this is such a beautiful analysis by you, Jessie. But I have not a fraction of your eloquence or depth of insight, nor do I look as fine in a black leather bodysuit. Hope you have a great day, Byyeeee fangirl out 😊
Knocked it out of the park again Jessie!! I’m glad TH-cam finally let you put this out.
Damn, Rare 1995-2001 really was top notch.
It really was.
For me personally, my last three cinema trips of last year were Ghostbusters Afterlife, Matrix Resurrections and Spiderman No Way Home - all three movies with a major nostalgic aspect, and all three movies I enjoyed. Afterlife scored over 2016's attempt to reboot the franchise by being an unashamed love letter to the original movies. Resurrections, for me, beats out Afterlife by also having things to say beyond "wasn't that old movie great". And, for me personally, No Way Home topped the list as a combination of a continuation of the MCU and a big budget fix-fic for the Amazing Spiderman movies, while also paying homage to Sam Raimi's trilogy (or at least the first two) - and while telling an entertaining story more successfully than Resurrections managed.
One big thing I noticed in Resurrections was the changed nature of the Matrix itself - under the Architect, the Matrix was an indifferent machine, crushing lives in its gears not deliberately, but as an inevitable side effect of its heartless mathematical precision - not understanding the people that power the machine as individuals. The Analyst is worse. The Analyst's Matrix sets out to torture people - literally feeding them nightmares and keeping them isolated from other actual humans behind a sea of bots - your interactions with other people mediated and rationed by algorithms intended to keep you dependent on the machines for any sense of security and validation while also fostering insecurity and lack of self-esteem. The Analyst's system is literally powered by a modern, high-tech equivalent of the torture assigned to Tantalus in the afterlife according to Greek myth - dangling Neo and Trinity in front of each other, just out of reach, and using their frustration to power everything.
And yet, the movie refuses to despair. Yes, things are worse than they were, yes the promised saviour was a lie, another layer of control, and yes, even their final sacrifice and victory was only a temporary one, a brief respite, and an avoidance of an even worse evil. But. Despite all that's gone wrong, all that's failed to save the world, there are reasons to hope. Firstly, the sacrifice of Neo and Trinity was not in vain - Smith didn't get to claim the Matrix for himselves, and their battle redefined the sides in the war - not humans vs machines but people, whether human, machine, or program, against the system - they changed what "us" means, to the point where even Smith himself can be, however reluctantly and briefly, an ally. And secondly, Neo and Trinity are back, alive and with the power of the One, with a second chance to inspire and change the world for the better. Just like we still have the chance to choose not to let the system drag us down in the real world.
I didn't know the Wachowski siblings are now Sisters, good for them. I remember the old VHS trailers promoting them only to think now how far we have come as a society to keep going forward. But the one thing that always bothered me the over saturated complaints about being too "woke" on films in general. If that is the only complaint they got to rail against a film they hate, I think they're just not watching the film closely on how it's being presented. Star Wars sequel trilogy to me was terrible, but not because of the idea of women taking charge and men being side lined. No, I hated The Force Awakens because it retreads A New Hope. I liked The Last Jedi because it was different, flaws and all. It's more of a valid complaint to not like a film than to push a political narrative. It's okay to not like a film, but don't go pushing against them because they don't align with your politics. Just move on to the next thing and hopefully you can enjoy that instead.
I never saw the Matrix Quadrilogy at all, but I can respect the movies that can bring joy and make you think. That's what should matter in the end.
I think my past two paragraphs are already been said before, but I just hope the "this film is bad because it's WOKE" argument dies off eventually. It's rather annoying and straw man argumentative.
Now I'm going to apologize for my own "male gaze" that I need to own up to looking at your cute self in leather outfit and Matrix pajamas. ☺️🥰😂💓
Generally speaking, this narrative has been prominent in "nerd circles" for decades. It's only within the last half decade or so as the alt right has gained prominence that this sect of these fandoms has become radicalized. This sect is now known as the fandom menace. These people have hijacked the narrative stating people like Zack Snyder, Kathleen Kennedy, Lana Wachowski, Rian Johnson and Alex Kurtzman are "driving narratives " or "checking boxes" and "being woke" Despite many of these properties being left leaning from the off. This is why people like you and I who have legitimate criticisms of films like TFA and ROS(hell I'd even include solo) are constantly being accused of being "fake fans" or lumped into the fm narrative. I highly recommend watching the Matrix Saga(which spans 4 live action films, 9 anime short, and the main plot of a game that many hated since it splits plots of the 2nd film between the game and film) as they are works of art
@@bemasaberwyn55 there were a whole bunch of Matrix short stories created for the Matrix website. They removed them from the website after some years :(
Edit: I keep forgetting that archive org is a thing! They're there, more or less
@@Call-me-Al thanks for the info as I'd forgotten about those
I'm really glad that someone was able to express so well impressions I had of the film but had trouble putting into words. I'm just as pleased that this person was you!
This was fantastically fun to watch and insightful. I'm excited to see what else you make too!
Thank you Jessie! 💜
AZ (HeelvsBabyface)... I recognize that guy. He used to play WoW. He churned out video after video about how the modern game was terrible, expressing incredible levels of outrage at every perceived slight, every minor update. Can't say I'm surprised he slid towards antifeminism or fascism. Those ideologies run on fear and rage, and he had plenty to spare.
Oh Jessie you've earned that spot on nebula so hard. I honestly thought you must have already been on it. You're way up there in quality, like, getting on par with philosophy tube. As the great keanu reeves has famously said: You're Breathtaking.
I remember reading a magazine or newspaper article about Keanu Reeves years ago. It was stated that part of his appeal for young girls was that he was beautiful. Not handsome but beautiful, the way a horse is beautiful. The limpid eyes, the black flowing hair were reminiscent of a horse's loveliness. In short, he gave off that rare combination of masculine pulchritude and feminine vulnerability that just drew young girls to him. Contrast that with the actress playing Trinity, whose appearance skews towards masculine signifiers: the strong jaw, the manly short hairstyle, the leather attire and martial arts prowess. Seen this way, the Matrix series really does play around with gender representation.