The Meatless Matrix

Just got around to reading Lileks Bleat for Friday and he reviews Matrix: Revolutions. During the process Lileks also takes to task a review that attempts to interpret the trilogy as an allegory of today's political and cultural 'matrix'. Although I haven't seen #3 yet, I had to read the review myself, just to be check the sources and, well. . .I'm neither convinced nor impressed by Harry Knowles review either.

I should have known when Knowles starts the meat of the review by saying, "Ok, You see, ultimately this film is a lot about what is going on in the world right now."

Uh oh. Toto, I don't think we're in the Matrix anymore. Why, it looks like. . .KANSAS. If you keep reading you are rewarded with gems like:

You see, The Machines, They're the United States and Capitalism. Ultimately they want society operating in the 9 to 5, eat your food, grab a movie, raise the kids, go to church and get back to work sort of daze. That's the Machine way. Don't worry about the 'MEANING OF IT ALL'; just do your job, be a battery and power the big society forward.

...

Or you could say AGENT SMITH is that Born Again Christian type that is trying to eradicate another's belief system--and ultimately --the elimination of both either politically, humanly or functionally is a move towards peace.

Hum. (furrows brow) I'll just ignore that he's talking about my inability or lack of desire to get the 'meaning of it all' and that my faith makes me some sort of homicidal maniac. Mr. Knowles is entitled to his free speech. In any event, it appears that his simplistic answer to world peace is through the elimination of any and all worldviews (I suppose but one. . .HIS worldview); once we have all adopted a morally relativistic worldview, we should all get along. Nevermind that my good may very well be your bad. Why shouldn't I take your stereo? It's good for me. Anyways. . .the whole review is social anarchary wrapped in morally relativistic philosophical babble with a dash of lefty to taste. Judging by the fan mail he gets, it works for some. If you're looking for a thinking man's review of the Matrix that muses philosophical . . .this isn't it. Lileks does a much better job of fisking this review than I. Can. Ever.

Well, what I found more interesting is Lileks observation that he ties on at the end:

. . .[the Matrix trilogy] is a product of deeply confused people. They want it all. They want individualism and community; they want secularism and transcendence; they want the purity of committed love and the licentious fun of an S&M club; they want peace and the thrill of violence; they want God, but they want to design him on their own screens with their own programs by their own terms for their own needs, and having defined the divine on their own terms, they bristle when anyone suggests they have simply built a room with a mirror and flattering lighting. All three Matrix movies, seen in total, ache for a God. But they can't quite go all the way. They're like three movies about circular flat meat patties that can never quite bring themselves to say the word "hamburger."

Now THAT I can believe. As a little green man may have said, "Good fun the movies are. Mmmm, yes. But more, they are not."