Furthering the story

Rating: Null/10 (16 October 2003)

The Wachowskis don't have a lot of explaining to do, they have a story to tell and they are telling it. That it may have some "pseudophilosophical" content is not the point. They are telling an existential story and this piece was a necessary transition furthering that story. Animatrix was to the same purpose, plus adding some flesh to the bones of that story.
We stand at the turn of a man-made milepost-- the millenium-- witnessing the death, finally, of some very old man-made explanations of Why We Are Here. Can anyone doubt that the time for religion as a model of the universe is past (save the diehards who seek either the control or the succor that religion provides) Can anyone doubt that a new future is before us and we don't *really* understand where it is taking us? Can anyone doubt that we humans are *still* asking the same questions: Why... What *purpose*? Even hardcore athiests and pure reductionists are uncertain. (Witness, even Carl Sagan, who never saw a God he much cared for, laid more questions than answers at our feet.) No scientist worthy of the appellation can ever claim that mankind, at least in our current state, can understand What Is Going On.
We now have six billion people on this planet. We are doing Very Bad Things to one another. Old systems are beginning to fail. We, as humans, need to evolve a bit if we expect this all not to end VERY badly. Maybe the Wachowskis are just trying to tell a story about that uncertainty and fear and need to understand that many humans are feeling very deeply just about now.
And, to my mind, they are doing a pretty damned good job of marrying good story telling with amazing movie technology to do that. I'm looking forward to their conclusion.