Episodes
Friday Feb 11, 2022
The Matrix Resurrections
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Friday Feb 11, 2022
[School of Movies 2022]
We come to it at last, maybe the final Matrix film directed by a Wachowski. Though this vein of property is worth too much money to the IP-owner to leave unmined.
Representing a refinement and evolution of the philosophies laid down two decades ago. This film was launched a week after Spider-Man: No Way Home and just before Christmas Day, due to a prior arrangement with HBO. This dismal decision, coupled with Lana Wachowski's revised approach to both storytelling and action led to this film being both critically panned and rejected by audiences everywhere. Par for the course on Matrix sequels.
However, some folks absolutely adored the tale that was being wound back on itself and then forward into the future. At the time of recording the only other show that we had in the can was the 2019 one on the original, so this represents a close-out of the series through the lens of diving back in to reassess, as we then proceeded to Reloaded, the Animatrix and Revolutions.
Next week: Hawkeye
Guests:
Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here
Friday Feb 04, 2022
The Matrix Revolutions
Friday Feb 04, 2022
Friday Feb 04, 2022
[School of Movies 2022]
The least-loved, most-hated, and in consequence least-explored of the Matrix saga finally gets the School of Movies treatment. The 1999 original is turned on its head here, resulting in a film that almost seems the inverse of everything that got us fired up in the first place. But it was a necessary refocusing in order to expand outwards from Morpheus' dogmatic vision of "Us vs. Them".
Philosophically this lands in a healthier place, even if so much of what we see feels mismanaged, awkward, stalling for time and sometimes downright annoying. We go all-out here to clear away the debris of the original conclusion and lay bare the depth of thought beneath.
Next week we close out with what might well be the last Matrix movie. Certainly the last steered by a Wachowski.
Guests:
Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here
Mackenzie Eastram @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod and Video Game: The Movie: The Podcast @VGTMPodcast
Friday Jan 28, 2022
The Animatrix
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
[School of Everything Else 2022]
A very solid argument could be made for this being a movie, and thus being in the "Everything Else" category being erroneous. However, the focus of this episode is the trans-media endeavour that The Matrix series became.
It straddles four films, a PS2 game named Enter The Matrix, an MMORPG named The Matrix Online and this anthology of nine short animated films, and it is ALL official story canon. The only release which doesn't quite fit this is The Path of Neo, another PS2 game which fills in the blanks of Neo's journey towards fulfilling the prophecy of The One, and while most of it probably happened the end is a direct departure, or at least an abstraction of the narrative.
So that's what powers this discussion, and The Animatrix is absolutely worth watching now, though as you will hear it is not only surprisingly violent and grim at times, but the shorts vary in depth rather significantly.
Next week we conclude the original Trilogy with the Matrix Revolutions
Guests:
Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here
Mackenzie Eastram @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod and Video Game: The Movie: The Podcast @VGTMPodcast
Friday Jan 21, 2022
The Matrix Reloaded
Friday Jan 21, 2022
Friday Jan 21, 2022
[School of Movies 2022]
For this one we went all-out. It was an incredibly rich and dense discussion for the initial recording and I have added a ton of extra content, all to the sounds of the eclectic soundtrack and the rarely-heard extended score of Don Davis.
This is the first part of an evolution of the binary Us vs. Them dichotomy of The Matrix (1999) and was far less successful in ensnaring audiences with expanded perspective. What Film 2 sets up, Film 3 knocks down, and then decades later, Film 4 then ruminates on.
So if you always thought the sequels were trash this may at least convey what they were trying to say. If you've always had a soft spot for them this will be a dream come true.
Next week we will be focusing on The Animatrix (2003)
Guests:
Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here
Mackenzie Eastram @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod and Video Game: The Movie: The Podcast @VGTMPodcast
Friday Jan 14, 2022
The Matrix
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Friday Jan 14, 2022
[School of Movies 2019]
NOTE: This is a re-release of the 2019 episode. It is one of our best shows and constitutes vital groundwork before we cover the three sequels over the next few weeks.
This one has been a phenomenally long time coming. Not only is it a dense and complex movie that's impossible to fully summarise even in our lengthier shows, not only does it mean a huge amount to millions of people, not only is it intrinsically linked with disappointing sequels (whom some claim don't even exist) but it's probably the one movie that got my brain moving the most at the tender age of 19. And as we'll discuss in upcoming weeks, there's complexities in those follow-ups that are key to better understanding the overall symbolism at play here.
That and Fight Club. And like the antics of Tyler Durdan, there are aspects of this film that have not so much 'dated' as they have taken on a horrible new significance over the past twenty years, via misinterpretation. So this is a show that would have been very different in 1999, in 2004, in 2009 or even in 2014. And I'm willing to bet that in five year's time we'll feel differently again, such is the way the 'Real World' moves.
So buckle your seat belt Dorothy, 'cos Kansas is going bye-bye.