Why I can't love The Matrix

[doubLe a tom]

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Wow, i didnt even realise you wanted to discuss why the sun was blotted out.

Its not like sunlight is needed at all. Its just without such a large viable powersource the machines couldnt grow and exist in such huge numbers. You have to assume at that point the human race was reduced to a pretty tiny number.

If anything, the idea was to limit the machine advantage and level the playing field.

Also, the sun has nothing to do with wind or running water. One is controlled by changes in temperature and pressure, the other is controlled by gravity.


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Wow. Think about this one for a second. Im not going to get into the wind and temperatures and pressure cause thats more complicated, but the water being controlled by gravity is one of the stupidest things I've heard in a while.

Consider this: Water has to be evaporated, by the heat of the sun to be lifted into the air and form clouds. When these clouds become dense enough it falls as rain. This is where running water comes from, and how energy is generated. Water does not magically appear at the top of mountains and just flow. If the sun was gone, rivers would only continue flowing for so long, as there would no longer be rain to supply them, therefore there would be no more running water. Get it?

[[Phill]]

I see your point now youve made it clearer.

Of course, after the event happened the topside of the earth died.

Effectively the machines could use tidal power generation instead, and they could use nuclear as well i guess.

But then that wouldnt be a particularly good movie.

I also loled a fair bit that we can make machines now capable of withstanding an EMP, but the machines centuries into the future cannot.

[doubLe a tom]

And also to be clear I was just playin devil's advocate, I liked the premise of the movie and thought it was well done.

I cannot say the same for the sequels, however.

[tautomer]

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Wow, i didnt even realise you wanted to discuss why the sun was blotted out.

Its not like sunlight is needed at all. Its just without such a large viable powersource the machines couldnt grow and exist in such huge numbers. You have to assume at that point the human race was reduced to a pretty tiny number.

If anything, the idea was to limit the machine advantage and level the playing field.

Also, the sun has nothing to do with wind or running water. One is controlled by changes in temperature and pressure, the other is controlled by gravity.


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Wow. Think about this one for a second. Im not going to get into the wind and temperatures and pressure cause thats more complicated, but the water being controlled by gravity is one of the stupidest things I've heard in a while.

Consider this: Water has to be evaporated, by the heat of the sun to be lifted into the air and form clouds. When these clouds become dense enough it falls as rain. This is where running water comes from, and how energy is generated. Water does not magically appear at the top of mountains and just flow. If the sun was gone, rivers would only continue flowing for so long, as there would no longer be rain to supply them, therefore there would be no more running water. Get it?

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Water doesn't really need heat or light to evaporate, dry air works as well. Anyway, unless this cloud of nuclear fallout makes the world 100% dark, there is still at least some sunlight and heat getting through. I'm sure machines smart enough to conquer the world would be able to develop new, more sensitive solar power cells as backup for the human gravy. There, now you can enjoy the movie. What I'm wondering is why they weren't stuck in an ice age. Oops.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The degree of ignorance exhibited by some posters in this thread is breathtaking.

[Hoi Polloi]

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The Matrix is a fun, unpretentiously pulpy, little sci-fi movie that plays with the question "how do you know your reality is real and not a dream?" To stage that question as a reality you are asked to buy a simple premise. Like most such devices, the backstory of that premise may not be terribly convincing. But that's price you pay for the ride. If the ride's good, then the price is fair. The Matrix is definitely worth the price, IMO.

The other two are a bunch of pretentious claptrap, IMO.

Don't be a nit. It's okay if you don't like the movie.

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Why should we accept a backstory not making sense (in context, of course)? I seriously think that people's standards are far too low in this respect. If having medium-high standards makes me a nit, so be it.

I did like the matrix... I just didn't 'love' it for the reasons outlined in the OP.

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In sci-fi/fantasy, amongst other genres, the author asks the audience to accept 1 counter-factual premise. After that, the audience requires the author to conform to the logic implied by that premise. The premise will never hold up to scrutiny; suspension of disbelief is the price required to enjoy the narrative.

Now, if the complaint is that the Matrix violates the logic of its own premise that's another matter. But the whole machines-turned-people-into-power-source thing is the premise that makes the world of the narrative possible. Nitpicking it doesn't get you very far, IMO.

I think it is misreading to say the film is an exposition of a genuinely possible world. The film is about the question "how do I know that what I call real is indeed real."

But whatever: LOL_LiteraryTheory

[oe39]

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UHH You do realize this is a movie don't you. It's not real. That's why it's called FICTION.

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Doesn't mean it can't have premise that makes sense.

So you would be ok if a giant 30ft penguin started shooting everyone at the end of the Matrix just because it is fiction?

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i would've liked it better, actually

[evil twin]

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Why would robots use humans like this? Humans have got to be the most inefficient form of energy production known to exist.

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I really don't think this is true. We do an incredible job of converting a pretty limited food budget into mechanical and chemical energy.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

Intellectually the Matrix is crap....but it has cool special effects. It amazes me some think this is a deep movie. The authors pull a few shallow-slight-of-hand-verbal-jui-jitsu moves and people fall on their knees bowing at the deepness of this farce.

K.Reeves should get on his knees everyday and thank god he got the role.
How this no-talent fool achieve financial success in acting is beyond me. This guy 1-dimentional. No matter his role, he always talks the same way. If I close my eyes he sounds the same whether he is in the movie Dracula or the Matrix...

[bobman0330]

Why are people arguing with OP that the premise didn't make any sense? Of course it didn't make any sense. It's incoherent gibberish. It's likely impossible that the machines would be able to feed billions of people, and even if they could, it's completely ridiculous for them to spend their energy creating food for humans to inefficiently convert into energy.

Whether that prevents you from enjoying the movie is a completely different story.