Bad Films
This is mostly my opinion, but I feel like there is a lot of exaggeration about bad films. I think that if you enjoyed a film, despite its bad production, terrible storytelling, or other flaws, you can still enjoy a film for other reasons. Unless the film is somehow extremely racist, sexist, or just horrible in its ideology, I see no harm in enjoying something a little shittier than the average film.
There has been a trend in cinema of making high budget flops though, especially in the 2020s. It is alarming that so much money is going into making boring or just extremely generic films, and I think corporations who do this should be criticised. But when the film is 20 years old and you watch it through a way that doesn’t feed the corporation, then I think there is no harm in enjoying some older superhero slop, or some 2000s Disney trash (just don’t watch it on Disney+!)
Recently, I watched Snow Dogs with my family. After watching it, I checked Letterboxd for reviews, and my god, people HATE that movie. I just think its a dumb comedy that’s good for families. (That’s probably why it was created lol.) Honestly, it may just be me, but I like it when a movie has dogs in it, I think it’s cute. This made me realize that some films can be enjoyed not because of their quality but rather because of an element the film has. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is considered to be a pretty bad superhero film, but I enjoyed it. I could tell it was a weird film, but shit, I came for Wolverine and stayed for Wolverine. I got to look at Wolverine tearing shit up for around 2 hours and left satisfied, lol.
Maybe I am just trying to excuse my bad taste, but I feel like a lot of people don’t allow themselves to enjoy films that other people hate. If you enjoy a film that wasn’t very well received, you don’t have to feel guilty about it. Once again, this is just my opinion, and I don’t think that this should apply to films that are coming out right now, as it is more important for the public to criticise the corporations that make slop and expect fans to just consume it. I also think that instead of funding film projects made by extremely rich corporations, smaller indie film projects should be given the attention instead.
The different interpretations of The Matrix (1999)
This article includes spoilers for The Matrix (1999). This article also discusses gender dysphoria.
There are multiple ways you can interpret the Matrix. The way to view the Matrix as the writers intended it to is to view it as a trans allegory. This is the biggest and most important interpretation of the movie, yet barely anybody seems to know about it. The Matrix has also been interpreted as a metaphor for a consumerist capitalist society. Here, I will explore a few of these interpretations. Not all of the interpretations that I will mention are the actual intended meanings behind the Matrix, but I just wanted to do this for the fun of it.
The first and most important way to view the Matrix is to interpret it as a trans allegory. The director Lilly Wachowski has said that the film was written with a hidden trans allegory. The Matrix itself, the simulated world, can then represent gender dysphoria, or the extremely polar gender roles present in a capitalist society. Being forced to live in a world where you have to express yourself a certain way, or otherwise be bullied or rejected from society, harms everyone. Society has put a massive difference between men and women, and that difference is not natural, its artificial. Its humanity who made it, not nature itself. The Matrix then represents those gender roles, and being forced to live in a society that expects you to act a certain way because of the way you were born.
Gender dysphoria can feel like an oppressive force, and Neo’s reaction to the Matrix is close to how a closeted trans person can react to gender dysphoria.
"like a splinter in your mind"
The feeling that you felt your entire life that something was not right. When I was a child, I could not look at myself in the mirror. After 15 years of my life, I discovered I had gender dysphoria. But the mere discovery of the “splinter” does not result in its removal. When Neo is told the truth about the Matrix, he is in denial, similar to how a trans person would be in denial after discovering that they are trans. Morpheus tells Neo how most people stuck in the Matrix would be in denial of the truth or even defend the Matrix once again links back to man-made gender roles and how some people will defend them, no matter what the truth is. Gender roles are ingrained so deeply into our society to the point where almost everyone defends them to some degree. In reality, gender roles may have just been created to sort people biologically, and to put one gender above the other. Being trans means you have to understand that gender roles are bullshit. I am not talking about just man and woman, I am talking about how men are expected to act one way, and women are expected to act another way. Around the end of the movie, Neo understands the truth and we see his POV: he can see the code, and he can manipulate it however he wants. This can be interpreted as a trans person finally being content with their gender identity, and being able to resist gender roles. FUCK GENDER ROLES.
Another interpretation of the Matrix is that it represents capitalism. The movie shows this visually, by having Neo go to work, live in a busy city, trying to make money and live his life, and metaphorically, by having people’s energy harvested by sentient machines. In a capitalist society, the work never ends, people HAVE to work to survive, to get money and use that money for food and shelter. It almost becomes a Sisyphean struggle. Work drains people’s energy, especially when they have to work multiple jobs to survive. Work drains the individual of energy, while keeping the machine running, similarly to how it is shown in the Matrix. Now, I am not saying all work is bad, I’m just saying that capitalism absolutely requires an individual to work to be able to afford basic human needs (this also depends on the country though). The machines in the Matrix keep the people distracted with the simulated world while their energy is harvested their entire life, which then powers the machines, keeping the people in charge of the entire Matrix powerful. This can also link to the quote that I cited above. As a capitalist society drains an individual of their energy, yet they can still feel that something is not quite right. That they’re being exploited, that someone is profiting off them. The sentient machines in the Matrix can then represent extremely rich and greedy corporations who exploit their workers for their own benefit, draining their energy and using their work for profit. The Matrix itself then becomes a representation of the endless grind towards the top of the system.
That is a whole lot of text! Honestly, I love The Matrix, I think its a great and intellectually stimulating film. It’s got great action, awesome fight scenes, and a variety of ways to interpret it. Once again, these interpretations of the film that I described may not be the intended way to view the film, but I just wanted to do this for fun. (I apologize for the lack of sources, these are just my interpretations of the film and my knowledge of the subjects I mention. I also apologize if my knowledge of the subjects I mention are wrong.)