Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Matrix










A while ago some of us were talking about The Matrix. Some of us had seen it, some of us hadn’t. I think it’d be cool to have another sleep over and watch it together…a Matrix Party! I’ve seen it, so I decided to do a post on it to get us all excited about it :-P
Now, the Matrix is rated R, I think for violence. I’d never seen an R rated movie before so I was pretty excited. I can’t say I saw the whole thing though…my younger siblings were watching so we skipped a scene or two. We don’t have Clearplay, but we have my dad, which is just as good :-P He remembers where every obscene swearword is and every inappropriate scene. And there was a lot of swearing. BUT despite the constant muting it was AMAZING. I mean, you know a movie’s epic when they all wear black leather clothes and sunglasses and carry so many guns they just throw them away when they’re done with them and pull out some new ones. You also know a movie’s epic when it’s about rebelling against world domination. I love those kinds of movies. The Lord of the Rings, the first Narnia, Star Wars, and (if you think about it) I am Legend. There’s a big bad guy (in this case, a computer program) who’s taking over the world, and a small group of good guys try to get rid of the big bad guy. It’s also very much science fiction (with the whole ‘what is reality’ thing going on and the Matrix itself and all the computer programs), which makes me love it even more. :)
I also loved the imagery going on with the names. The hero’s name is Neo, Latin for New. Very appropriate, since Neo is the One they’ve been looking for and the only One who can save them, etc etc.
The leader of the good guys is Morpheus. The name Morpheus is from the Greek (or Greekish word) morph, or change. After all, what bigger change could there be than bringing down the matrix? His name could also be Orpheus with an M stuck on the front. Orpheus sang so beautifully that the very rocks were moved…I guess you could say Morpheus was effective in moving Neo and the others…hahah but that’s going a little far maybe….
The heroine’s name is Trinity. Now, I wonder what they were trying to get across with her name?
The colony of people rebelling against the Matrix is called Zion. The city of God. Interesting, no?
I also liked the Oracle. It seemed like such a Greek, archaic thing to have in the midst of black sunglasses and guns. And the kids in the Oracle’s house were all in Greekish robes and doing Jedi-things with spoons…it all seems sort of unearthly and archaic…and then you meet the Oracle. Haha! That whole scene seemed so ironic.
Along with Zion and Trinity, I noticed a couple other…idk… similarities that reminded me of the story of Jesus…maybe I’m going a little far…if you’ve seen the movie you can tell me what you think. So, Neo is supposed to be the Savior (obvious parallel there). He is betrayed by that creepy wimpy dude (Judas-figure) in to the hands of the Agents. When they are trapped, he lets Trinity go through the telephone (giving up his life for hers). The agents then attack him. He has a few moments when he either dies or is so close to death they all believe he’s dead. But then he gets ‘resurrected’ and defeats the agents (which, btw, is THE most awesome scene in the whole movie). Obviously, Neo is of course sinful and not without fault, and the story doesn’t follow that of Christ’s passion perfectly, and I’m not trying to make it. I just noticed some interesting parallels :)
The thing that bugged me most about the Matrix: The fact that Neo is “guilty of every internet crime”. And when he has that underhanded dealing with those creeps in the first bit…It’s not a big part of the story, but it bugged me that the Hero used to be a criminal, even if it was in the Matrix.
The part I liked the most: Of course, the most redeeming part of the movie is when Neo decides to save Morpheus, even though he risks death and the ruin of their ship, instead of killing Morpheus to let themselves escape.
I also loved that a déjà vu is a glitch in the Matrix; when they change something…. RUN!
There is no spoon.
And they had a martial arts fight scene :-P
So, yeah, epic movie.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A couple movie heroes


Well, I'm sick at home and thought I might give this hero thing a shot. I have an extremely extensive list... but I don't have that on hand right now, so I will just do whoever pops into my head.

Dr. Robert Neville
from "I Am Legend"
acted by Will Smith


This is a rather strange movie, because there is very little interaction with people until the very end. Robert Neville mainly hangs out with the zombies (they aren't actually zombies, they are humans infected with a mutated virus thing), and his German Shepherd. I am assuming all of you have either already seen this, or have decided not to see it, so I hope spoilers are all cool with you.


Robert Neville is a hero definitely in the self-sacrificial sense. When he blows himself and the zombies up at the end, he is making it possible for Anna and her young son (people
who found him and told him about the small community of un-infected people in another state) to take the cure and save the world by giving this antidote to these infected humans.

He discovers the antidote after much trial and error (which involves catching creepy super-human strength zombies, locking them in his basement, and having cages of aggressive, hairless, red-eyed rats). He saves the world in a way that is a picture of when Jesus Christ died to save the entire world.

Plus, he is Will Smith, has big cool guns, and a German Shepherd.


John McClane
from "Live Free or Die Hard"
acted by Bruce Willis
Heh heh.



We just watched this on Friday night for Benjamin's birthday. I LOVED IT! We had ClearPlay on, of course, which was helpful because muted out stuff constantly. So, it is probably a pretty bad movie without editing, but it was AMAZING with the bad stuff taken out!

Anyway. So, the hero.

I love how he isn't a genius... more like a supremely awesome brute. :-) (I tend to like those types).

He is a police detective, and is directed to go collect this geeky hacker guy for questioning. While he is at the guy's house, all these bad people start shooting them like crazy, and eventually blow up his entire apartment. Fortunately, John and Matthew (the geek) are far enough away that they don't get hurt.

The main reasons I really like this guy are: he is trying to save the world from being taken over by creepers. He never hurts innocent people while doing all these crazy things to get the bad guys. He has a daughter, who, although they have both made mistakes in the past in their relationship, are reunited at the end after the bad guys kidnap her and hold her hostage.

McClane and Matt start heading toward where they found out the evil dude is keeping her.

Matt Farrell: Do we have anything, like, resembling a plan, or anything?
John McClane: Find Lucy, kill everybody else.
Matt Farrell: I mean, more like a plan, like, a way to do that.

>Awesome<



He also has some really good lines about treating people like human beings instead of like objects.

So he is a big strong beater-upper with surprising compassion and humor. (And you guys can't accuse me of being trivial and liking this guy because of his looks... because... he doesn't have much for those. Notice: baldness).