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The Best of Both Worlds: "eXistenZ" vs. "The Matrix" |
Dear all, once again I find myself having to apologise for the rabid ramblings of my erstwhile friend and editor the Lizard. He is of course completely deranged and since publishing his comments of "eXistenZ" and "The Matrix", we have been forced to have him sectioned. The practical upshot of this is that anyone stupid enough to go and see Cronenberg's latest monstrosity on the advice of the Lizard will I'm afraid not be able to sue. As the Lizard points out in one of his briefer moments of lucidity the two films are constructed from similar base concepts, questioning as they do the nature of existence as "Dark City" and "The Truman Show" did before them. The two however diverge greatly in the style of their presentation. Despite the post-modern ironic nature of "eXistenZ" it is in actuality a far more po-faced movie than the relatively straight "The Matrix". Whereas Cronenberg seems under the illusion that he is saying something new and original the Wachowski Brothers are well aware that their film is an absolute rip-off and fill it with references to Baudrillard, Alice in Wonderland, the Bible and various other source-materials. As one of those people who has spent hours discussing the nature of existence with the Lizard I feel somewhat privileged, but what he forgets is that the vast majority of people do indeed "know nothing about the history of Western philosophy and even less about Eastern philosophy". They have as Jostein Gaarder once described it, buried them-selves deep in the rabbits fur. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, most people outside the ivory towers of academia or indeed the dingy depths of the Lizard's Lair have little time and even less interest in dissecting the intricacies of existence. They just want to watch Keanu kick butt, the Wachowski brothers realised this and have put out one of the biggest movies of the year, while Cronenberg has turned out an interesting footnote to "Videodrome" that will quickly find itself onto the video shelves of numerous anoraked teenagers. Want some mildly stimulating fun watch "The Matrix", want a numb-bum watch "eXistenZ". |