Wake Up!

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2003)

So many people have maligned this film and its sister, but have not given an intelligent reason as to why they have done so. If you find a movie too intellectually stimulating or complex for your enjoyment, this is hardly anyone's fault except the individual who cannot be bothered to think. The Matrix films are not designed to save the world or bring us to a higher plane of existence. They are movies. They are fun. The philosophies contained therein borrow everything from Socratic "I only know that I know nothing" to Sartrean "I am, therefore I think." (It's Decartes, not Sartre, who said "I think, therefore I am.") These tidbits make an otherwise bang-bang shoot-em-up film evolve into something a bit more palatable. If these meanderings are above your heads, insulting the film or the people involved will not somehow justify your existence or make you "right." It's astonishing how a little insult makes a person feel so much larger.
All the same, it occurs to me that writing this post in the first place defeats the point I am trying to make, so I will quit. By the way, excellent flick. But... Where were the freaking twins? How long, indeed, has humanity been plugged into the Matrix? If there is a new "The One" every so often, were there Neos running around in the Middle Ages? Colonial Days? Or has the Matrix always been set in early 21st Century society? If so, why hasn't anyone noticed that nothing seems to be progressing into the future? So many questions....