I adored/adore the first Matrix film. The sequels... not as much. One of the reasons that the 'original' worked so well is that it stole so elegantly from so many different sources. Like so (Embedded Video).
Everything Is A Remix: THE MATRIX from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.
Amazing visuals lifted from awesome sources wrapped around a Dickian/Morrisonian Science Fiction/Reality Warping plot? Yes please!
I believe a lot of creators struggle with their 'sophomore' work; probably because their first work that 'makes' it is the result of years and years or peculation and interesting/varied influence whereas any follow up (inherently influenced by the marketing interests desperate to get a new work out when the hype is still bubbling) doesn't have nearly enough time to develop into what it might be. (For this reason I'm much less forgiving of the Star Wars prequels than this author because the films had so much more time to take shape).
More than anything, I think the Wachowski brothers were overly influenced by Hollywood's most beloved intellectual--Joseph Campbell--into shoehorning Neo as a Christ-like messiah. I personally would have been much more interested if Neo would have stayed a hacker. A savior of hackers could have and should have been something novel, something new, something we hadn't seen before. Instead, he ends up with the same sacrificial/becoming the land arc that we've seen a hundred million times; the same arc demanded by the shape of Campbell's mono myth.
In any event, I hope the Wachowski's keep making movies. I just hope they remember that they're at their best when their stealing as widely and as elegantly as possible... like just about every other creator out there.
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