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The Matrix… Reloaded or overloaded?
IT WAS a first. As a volunteer cinema usher I was required
by order of Warner Brothers to check people’s bags and jackets for camcorders,
and to patrol the cinema during the movie. Yes, our small local independent
cinema was one of nearly 9,000 worldwide involved in the release of Matrix
Reloaded, the biggest and most expensive movie to come out of Hollywood this
year.
With its sequel Matrix Revolutions, out later this year,
Matrix Reloaded apparently cost $300 million: the most expensive car chase ever,
the most action stunts, the newest computer graphics, it boasts of re-defining
action movies for a decade. Simultaneously released in 62 countries, it grossed
$363 million worldwide in its first week. But there’s a lot more to this
particular matrix than a movie…
The original film The Matrix (1999) is a sci-fi classic –
fresh, stylish, gripping, even subversive. The story is simple: the human race
has brought doom upon itself – reduced to existence in pods, mankind is a power
source for computers who allow us to dream our lives away in a simulacrum of
late 20th century Earth – the Matrix. A few survivors devote themselves to
freeing humanity. One man, known as Neo, or ‘the One’, (Keanu Reeves) appears to
be able to take on the computers and their apparently invincible agents.
Complete hokum, of course, but stylish hokum – with sensational action, martial
arts, wire work flying sequences, cutting edge computer graphics and tongue in
cheek dialogue, The Matrix has had a massive influence. Drawing on classics from
Alice in Wonderland to Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is an old
fable retooled for the Net generation; this ensured its success and even cult
status among young people.
So what of the sequel? Does it live up to the massive hype?
Unlike the original movie, Reloaded has been hyped beyond the point where it can
possibly deliver. While needing to break the mould as an action movie, it also
had to develop the story. This time we see Zion, the underground city of human
survivors – New Age meets Metropolis. We learn that not all believe in Neo’s
semi-mystical abilities – a military wing want to use more conventional force to
defend their community. Meanwhile, what seemed to be a simple battle of good
(Neo and his friends) versus evil (the Matrix and its agents) is more complex.
Rogue programmes run amok and it seems everyone’s strings are being pulled by a
mysterious ‘Architect’. Is anything what it seemed? Reloaded offers us two
worlds, the Matrix and Zion. Which is real? Which is the more attractive? Is the
Matrix actually capitalism, offering illusory pleasures to tempt potential
rebels… or is the Matrix actually the real world, and Zion just a latter day
hippy commune?
But after the inevitable cliff-hanger, to guarantee an
audience for Revolutions, fans can pass the time with a myriad of products
competing for their attention. From videos to action figures, the Matrix
phenomenon looks set to run and run, with Animatrix on DVD, and the game Enter
The Matrix, released simultaneously for all games console formats. To make this
game, 32 movie cameras registered every move that Keanu and friends made, while
14 infrared cams tracked reference points on their faces, a process taking six
months. According to games reviewers, they should have spent a bit longer – the
game is apparently disappointing. Yet to come is Matrix Online, described as a
multiplayer online role-playing game, ‘carrying on the plot where the movies
leave off’ complete with lethal agents, weapons and martial arts manoeuvres.
The Independent’s Philip Hensher comments that many young
people are passionate and serious about The Matrix. He sees the roots of its
success as more than spectacular kung-fu, special effects, and the movie’s
undoubted style, but rather in the "paranoid philosophy which echoes a
widespread feeling of helplessness in America today". He points out that
Reloaded gives star billing to several Black and female characters, and argues
that the film taps into a deep discontent and alienation from the political
process experienced by young African-Americans, disenfranchised and criminalised
by the system. This, he says, should "worry America’s leaders". As Annalee
Newitz of Alter.Net points out, "most of our heroes are people of colour and
racially mixed - the ‘bad guys’ are all white men in suits" and goes on to ask:
"are our preferences for progressive fantasies a hint of political preferences
to come?"
But at least the Independent is, well, independent. A whole
lot of other supposedly eminent thinkers have been considering The Matrix. The
official Matrix website includes a series of essays by professors of philosophy
and others, exploring the significance of the film’s message. Interesting though
many of these essays are, and perhaps even laudable if their intent is to
encourage independent thought among their young students, I personally would
have more respect for them if they hadn’t clearly had the backing of Warner Bros
to enable their views to reach a wider audience.
My own analysis, as a Marxist, is that there is a matrix out
there, as all-pervasive as the one in the movie. But this matrix is one
controlled by AOL Time Warner, Microsoft and the handful of companies who own
and control the information and entertainment industry worldwide. According to
IT industry watchdog The Register, "The leisure software market is clearly
positioned as the fastest growing and most dynamic entertainment media sector
globally". And this is particularly the case in the UK where gaming is now
established as the first choice leisure pursuit for young people. You would be
hard pushed to find many households with teenagers or young adults that do not
have at least one games console. According to a new report from ELSPA, the
Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, UK spending on
leisure software in 2002 was double that on video rentals and 1.4 times more
than cinema box office. Big business indeed. Worldwide, 30 million games
consoles were sold in 2002, with one name, Sony, having a 74 percent market
share. Screen Digest predicts another record year in 2003, with a staggering 32
million console sales, and 550 million games, with Britain the third biggest
market after the US and Japan.
And in case you were still wondering about AOL Time Warner,
makers of the ‘subversive’ Matrix series, as well as AOL (35 million
subscribers), and America’s leading Cable TV provider (11 million subscribers),
they also own IPC, Britain’s biggest magazine publisher (80 titles, from Horse
and Hound to the TV Times, read by over 30 million UK adults) plus Time
Magazine, CNN News, Home Box Office, Cartoon Network, New Line Cinema, (The Lord
of the Rings, Austin Powers), Warner Entertainment (Harry Potter, Friends, The
West Wing, Band of Brothers) Looney Tunes, DC Comics… oh yes and Warner Music is
the USA’s second biggest record producer. This company dominates entertainment
and information not only in the US but across much of the world. Faced with
losses of $99 billion last year, and a 70% fall in the value of their stocks
after a punitive and long-running dispute with rival Microsoft, they have now
reached a deal with their old rival. The companies aim to "work together to
develop a digital media environment secure from piracy", in other words one they
can control. AOL chief Dick Parsons "welcomes the opportunity to build a more
productive relationship with Microsoft". For ‘productive’ read ‘profitable’.
Young people are not fools. They can enjoy the movies, play
the games and interact on-line with fellow-gamers a continent away… but they
know the difference between reality and illusion. They know when they pay £40
for a computer game that someone is making big bucks out of them. They are well
aware of who controls these industries, and see capitalism – especially the US
variety – as ever more blatant in its pursuit of profit. The real matrix is AOL
Time Warner, Microsoft, Sony and a handful of other multinationals. But just
like the film version, this matrix is not as all-powerful as it would like to
think. Revolutionaries can use the internet too.
Kate Jones
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