Possible Gap product placements in "The Matrix": Khakis Explode? Khakis Virtual? CyberKhaki? In fact, there's a perfect moment to yell out "khakis?" in a crowded movie theater: soon after Lawrence Fishburn says, "You can get anything you want," that's the right time. MST3K could not have asked for a better lead.
Actually, the movie isn't MST3K fodder, beyond the usual quota of Keanu moments; these pass quickly, though they're worth a few chuckles ("Keanu Fu"). Perhaps the best way to describe "The Matrix" as a movie is to say it's some sort of live action Japanese anime. You have the hyperkinetic martial arts, the bad-ass pose downs for which the movie lives, the impossible body dynamics of being tossed at a brick wall or leaping gulfs, perhaps even a large-eyed woman if you use a little imagination with Carrie-Ann Moss. It's a fun, mindless action movie, featuring the aforementioned Martial Arts Plus, prodigious amounts of ammunition, and Quake-like charge-into-big-room-and-shoot-everyone video game violence. What more can you ask for?
Beyond style and action, I'm not sure what else to say. Keanu's character appears to have no past, so that's an indication of his alienation from this world? All the eye imagery and the sunglasses indicate how strongly the world is based on perception? I'm sure that we can come up with lit crit that talks about the eye symbolism in this movie, and the focus on sunglasses, mirrored or otherwise, and how Agent Smith's pupils are apparently manipulated during the interrogation scene to be more square than round. But, you know, I think all the sunglasses are there to look cool, and they're just showing how Smith is the evil automaton he is. Anyway, sunglasses go with the black leather bad ass look. That's what we're aiming for. No need for anyone to say, "hey, you're driving at night, take the glasses off!"
Yes, they do try for the Deep Thought at times. The primary one is the Information Age update of Plato's Parable of the Cave. When Fishburn describes the nature of reality and his efforts of freeing others from the illusions of life, his speech is almost lifted from the Cliff Notes on "The Republic". The notion of the world as shadow play on cave walls is, of course, an old, rich science fiction vein; many have been there before for ideas, and many will be there later. No one is really expecting "The Matrix" to break new SF ground, and in fact the various "the Matrix is this, the Matrix is that" speeches that Fishburn gives are repetitive (well, Keanu isn't the brightest) and bog down the film. A good ten or twenty minutes can be cut from the middle, and no one would notice.
Oh, the link between The Matrix and the Gap khaki ads goes one step beyond the large blank white rooms where some of the action takes place. There's also marriage of computer and camera, with the augmented overcranking and the virtual camera tricks that make the freeze-and-rotate effects possible [1]. The Matrix, as noted, is a visual marvel.
[1] http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/02/16/0843210.shtml
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