The Matrix vs. The X-Men

A look back at the two big sci-fi superhero action series of the past decade.

The Matrix vs. The X-Men

I know I'm a minority on this, but I thought The Matrix was all FX. In fact that is all I can watch it for. The idea of harvesting humans for their body heat is just too ridiculous for words. There's an advanced society.

I also can't stand the way so many people take Fishburn's fortune cookie "wisdom" way too seriously...What was the only good line from Mystery Men?..."You must master your anger..." "Or what? Anger-will-be-my-Master?" That dog came out the same summer, but it was like they were making fun of the Matrix with that line.

But what gets me more than even the bad science and bad philosophy of what is supposed to be a "Philosophical Science Fiction" story, is how it is not even internally consistent. I will forgive a lot, IF you play by the rules YOU set up.

At one point in the film Neo is trying to escape a building. In order to block his escape, the baddies that control reality just throw up a brick wall.

What the Hell?

If they can do that, why not just seal him in by walls. Make a little Neo sardine tin. You wouldn't even have to suffocate him, just keep him imprisoned forever.

Don't get me wrong, I like it for the action and effects. I think it is head and shoulders above most of its ilk in that department. That is what I watch it for. That's why it is still a good movie. But to me its all martial arts and gunfire, if I look past that it annoys me.

It is possible to make an intelligent science fiction/action movie – I thought that X2, for example, had a lot to say about humanity. A friend of mine even saw some parallels to the Iraq War in the movie – now that is a human action movie with a story, to me. When it comes to The Matrix though, overall the story is very black and white. The bad people are bad, the good people are good.

X2, on the other hand, raises a lot of ethical issues. Right now, in the real world, there are governments that require particularly skilled martial artists to be registered the same way a gun is. Assuming people were born with potentially lethal powers, why shouldn't they be registered, or marked so that you could see them (not a concealed weapon). As a matter of fact, if they as a group threatened the world as a whole - regardless of their intent - if their bodies were actual weapons of mass destruction, why shouldn't people be interned or killed? If your people are being oppressed, what is wrong with fighting back by any means necessary?

When I was a kid in the 1970s, before Star Wars, SF movies were not taken seriously by mass audiences because the special effects were so cheesy. But to me, I always just used my imagination - the effects weren't what made the movie. It was the philosophical issues they brought up. I'll take a good SF story with bad effects over a bad story with good effects. For example, I think the original Planet of the Apes is superior to the remake. (And I refused to even see the remake of The Time Machine). I think most people are the other way around. They want the effects, not the story.

With X2, this movie has effects that are not nearly as cool as The Matrix - but that is counterbalanced by a stronger, character driven story. A good strong skeleton on which to hang the effects. This is probably because X2 is basically an adaptation of the excellent graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills.

The Matrix is fun to watch, I enjoy a lot of films that don't stand up to critical thinking, but they rarely stick with me even 5 minutes after the credits roll.