The Matrix sequels -- revisited

The sequels were a roaring disappointment when they were released. Few sequels have been more anticipated among the cyberati than Reloaded. Perhaps The Empire Strikes Back. Yes, it had been that long since a Sci Fi sequel was this anticipated. (Am I deliberately -- in some Freudian sense of not knowing that I am deliberately -- forgetting about our disappointment at the Phantom Menace?) And we were sorely disappointed. Yet we help out hope and hopped right on Revolutions the instant it was released -- and should not have been surprised to be disappointed again.

What went wrong?

The original Matrix movie was both timeless and timely. It was clever, smart, engaging, well-paced, refreshingly original, and deftly executed. It was a great leap forward.

Reloaded was bloated and only appeared slightly less lugubrious when contrasted with Revolutions.

And yet when one re-watches them, and I have several times now, there is a very good sequel stuck in there. Here's the recipe. Combine both sequels into one movie. Remove 90% of the action that takes place outside the Matrix, especially the silly battle scenes, and those leading up to them. Why? There is a lot of good mythology and backstory to be found in the actions in the matrix in both sequels. It's interesting, complex brain-teasing stuff. And the action sequences, while a little long inside the matrix tend to be both exciting and contribute to the exploration of what the matrix is and how it works -- and how it can be "beat".

On the other hand, all of the silly battles in the "real world" between the machines and Zion -- and the dramatic scenes leading up to them -- are, well, trite, cliched, and take an A- movie (yes, I think it could have been an A-, compared with the original's A+) down to the level of a made-of-TV sci fi movie. Sorry, we've seen "the rebellion" appear in many more exciting and interesting places. (Gosh, Star Wars, anyone?)

Sorry, topics like what the Smiths are up to, how the Architect and the Oracle relate, even the Merovingian, the Keymaker and Seraph, and the lovely little program without a purpose we meet in the station between the worlds, are far more interesting than anything happening in Zion, or in the battles surrounding it.

Body Double

I waited for several years to see this film. The only DVD I could ever located as "panned and scanned" and appeared to have been mastered for VHS shortly after the film was made in the 1980s.

Recently I was able to see an OAR HD showing of the film and found it infuriating -- as I do so often when watching DePalma's work.

On the one hand, there is a deft and beguiling updating of some key Hitchcock riffs -- largely from Vertigo, but also from Rear Window -- transplanted to a b-movie milieu of Hollywood and related locales in the 1980s. If that were all it was, it would be a timeless variation not unlike the best that been done by some French Hitchcock acolytes. But for some reason -- which I would attribute to studio or producer pressure to be commercial, or similarly to compromises to achieve funding for the film as a whole -- DePalma throws in some very silly, quickly dated moments.

An examples: The "masturbation dance" scenes, while important to the plot, suffer from a problem not too dissimilar from the shower scenes with Angie Dickinson in another DePalma almost-classic, Dressed to Kill: They are far more silly than sexy. Contrast, for example, with the Molly Parker masturbation scene in The Center of the World. Heck, contrast, for example, with Meg Ryan performing a fake orgasm in a deli in When Harry Met Sally.

It's bit and pieces like this (other examples include the quite forced foray of our hero into the adult film business) where DePalma's reach exceeds his grasp, that one wants to cringe because what we have is a terribly interesting, at times very good, but at times very silly, film, that COULD have been an unequivocal classic.

The Out of Towners (1970) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Anyone who has recently suffered at the hands of the travel -- especially airline -- industry via long waits, canceled flights, high prices, or poor service may take a modicum of comfort from queuing up these two films, chosen almost at random. Who knew that 40 years ago, one could get delayed and diverted and end up a situation not too different from 20 years ago, when Steve Martin made it so famously "funny". Cringe humor as comfort (as in misery loves company) at its best.

Across The Universe

Beautiful set pieces marred by extended bits of trite dribble. The low-lights are quite numerous and relatively easy to circumscribe: the early songs and most of the heartfelt solo performances fall prey to a community college musical milieu. The high-lights are there, to be found. And should be extracted. The most extended highlight would be the I am the Walrus -> The Benefit of Mr Kite, with the eerily accurate recreation of the historic non-meeting between Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary in upstate New York. Watch it for the sequences that look like Michel Gondry was at the storyboard, and forget the rest.

Into The Wild

What is remarkable about Into the Wild is not the subject of the film. This is a story of a boy afraid to grow up -- so afraid to become his parents that he puts his life at risk repeatedly. By the time he has completed his journey, and is ready to grow up (or has) he is too far into jeopardy to live more life. In some way, this is a universal story of coming of age. Some people never complete the journey. Some people complete is rather rapidly -- and I do consider two years rather rapidly, since it took me nearly a dozen. Most people complete it and pay some price -- but not usually such a large price.

So what makes Into the Wild remarkable is not so much its subject matter. Variations of this story play out in many lives. What makes Into the Wild so remarkable is that it focuses on a particularly archetypal telling of the story, and it does so extremely well. There is, in fact, no better telling of this kind of journey, whether literally as a journey, or in its many other guises. In fact, considering how frequent the journey takes place in the lives of many people, it is remarkable how seldom the arc of this tale is told.

What comes to mind, in cinema, to compare it to? Wim Wenders' road movies, if they were ever conclusive. A few others' work. Nothing conclusive. Into the Wild is unique.

(By the way, contrary to so much talk about the real protagonists' life, I don't see the film as a story about society, or getting back to nature, or any of that. Those are points along the journey, red-herrings or macguffins, and little more.)

Chinese Ghost Story and The Simpsons

In "A Chinese Ghost Story" the Taoist sings an empty-headed song that captures and mimics the Taoist poetry of Lao Tze in his Tao Te Ching. A friend seeing the silly song and dance declared it a "Homer Simpson Song". And so it is. Which suggests that in some ways, Homer Simpson embodies "the Way"(Tao).