Blog 22 (story v special effects)

First I have to say I agree with her whole-heartedly, and if you check my previous blogs you will see we where on the same wave link of thinking. The Matrix is vastly overrated and childlike because of it special effects.

The Matrix is very stereotypical film that is very appeasing to the male fantasy. With the ground breaking special effects, attractive leading characters, martial arts and lots of sleek black leather, or latex. It also has the standard boy meets girl, and falls in love plot. Now eXtistenZ had its stereotypical moments, but because there were very little special effects it as a more honest, and intriguing vision of pleasure of “connected” minds and bodies.

I saw eXtistenZ in 2000 or 2001, and I personal saw it has another version of the movie “Total Recall” it was at times a rather confusing movie but It had a story that you could see because there were no cinematic effects to take away from it. I think that the Matrix was all the rage over eXtistenZ was because of its bigger budget, and special effects. But I feel as trying to find a story to be able to teach in a class is I feel both are valued, but a big stretch.


Both movies it there own right will make any feminist proud, because the female characters are not the normal female characters you see in film…You know the one’s “o look at me I’m a weak girl who can’t stand up for myself, I need a man in my life to function, he hits me and I don’t know how to hit back type” When first see the character Trinity from the Matrix she is a bad ass, sexy, and in black Latex fighting with and over powering the men, so you pretty much get the idea she is the one to look out for and no one can stop her. Then she meets the male character Neo and still she is rather overpowering, knowing more than him, forcing him down when they are trying to get the tracking device out of him, and being rather aloof when telling him he can get out the care if he wants to, not showing any signs of weakness or catering to him in anyway. But then as the film progresses she still is a badass when it comes to fighting, but she reverts more into the female stereotype character, calling Morpheus “big daddy”, bringing Neo food in away that is more of a subordinate than an equal. Then of course you can’t have a movie unless the to leads make out, and then towards the end she is kneeling by Neo’s side crying and confession that she loves him. Now I’m not saying that because of the stereotypical that is bestowed on to Trinity it takes away from the actually film because that is a small part of it I just feel it is inconsistent. Now in eXtistenZ the female character is the man, and the male character is the woman through out the whole film. The female character is smarter, braver, and has a dominating personality, and where the male character is not as smart, and when he is “himself” he is very submissive. One of the first times you see this in him is when they are in the hotel, and she just with no warning lifts up his shirt to see if he has a port (a hole that is placed into you lower back to play the game) he jumps up and ask her what are you doing? As he is explaining why he does not have a port she is trying to talk him into getting a port so she can plug in her
Game system into him, she is speaking softly and being very sympathetic to his feelings about how it would make him uncomfortable. The whole scene plays out like a man who is trying to have sex with a girl for the first time. There is really nothing that takes away from the film like how the Matrix does. In my opinion the films are more different than alike. The Matrix is more reality in the sense that that is how the world is, where as eXtistenZ is reality, but they are playing a game. If you want more of an actually “story” you watch eXtistenZ, if you want action you watch The Matrix. I think that the Matrix was a more popular film because as I said before it played more for a males psyche, with the glitz and glamour, and the male hero, but because eXtistenZ had a smaller budget, and a female heroin a lot of people don’t know of it. Which shows that the world is not and may never be ready for action, sci-fi movies with female heroin’s.
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