Alright where do I start? Let’s see, how long has it been, a one month and one week? I dunno, I can’t really remember but what I do know is that it’s been too long I would say and for that, I genuinely apologize. I shouldn’t have just bailed like without a solid reason. You all deserve more and i’m going to put in more effort, I’m going to try to do my best. I admit the reason I was away for some time is because I’ve been overwhelmed with certain things lately and also the ocd ban didn’t help either. Yes I do admit I was my fault, I broke the rules and I served my time but l’m out from ban jail, a big thank you to my man 
Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s talk about the greatest action film of all time; no let me rephrase that the greatest action thriller trilogy in the last twenty four years. Citizens of the hive, I could write an entire thesis on why in my opinion this movie franchise is the closest thing I have seen to cinema perfection. If it were up to me it would score a perfect 100% in all movie review sites. This movie in my opinion is a cinematic masterpiece. It is gloriously executed, practically checking all the boxes on everything it takes to craft a god tier film. In fact this film is every action movie enthusiast and director’s guide on how to craft a god tier action flick (yes I know I said god tier twice in two sentences; sue me), it is the bible for action films to learn from, the benchmark of what an action thriller film could be. The amount of detail and effort put in this movie is absolutely phenomenal. Not only was it responsible for the popularization of bullet time, it was the film that ushered us into a new age of applying cutting edge CGI technology to film. To show you how much effort went into crafting this masterpiece, the cast and crew were made to read Jean Baudrillad’s Simulacra and Simulations (later on how this book influenced the idea and story of this film… Like I said it’s a whole damn thesis). Keanu Reeves who played the lead was made to read not just Simulacra and Simulations but also Kelvin Kelly’s Out of control: The new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world and Dylan Evans’ Ideas on evolutionary psychology after which he was required to explain the concepts of these books, he also had to endure stunt training after a spine surgery. These were the lengths the directors and actors were willing to go for this film which ended up being a masterpiece. I genuinely believe this level of dedication coupled with the application of cutting edge technology in order to bring an idea, a visionary story to life, are what’s missing in many films these days. I mean you don’t have to go too far, just take one look at paramount’s infinite and see how it’s lackluster story telling stands out.
Alright enough fan-boying (fan-boying, is that even a word). Now I’ve tried to make these claims, let’s look at actual evidence. Let’s take a look at how to properly craft a cinematic masterpiece using the matrix trilogy as our guide. Citizens of the Hive I give you
An Expose into Effective World building
World building is the process of constructing an imaginary world, for a story; the story could be film, it could be video games, it could be anything. These days almost every modern day action flick wants to try their hands on some sort of world building in film. I saw one recently not too long ago, a dreadful nut job of a film titled infinite, excluding Chiwetel Ejiofer’s performance nothing else stood out for me in this entire film asides its lackluster story telling style. I saw it while taking a break from re-watching the matrix and going into it and seeing it from the trailers I already knew it what I was getting into, plotless CGI noise with big industry names.
There are three aspects of world building the matrix greatly excels at.
1.Defining the rules governing our world. (Dynamics)
2.The circumstances surrounding the world created and its relationship with the characters. (Circumstances)
3.The way information about our new world is relayed to us (internal interaction vs external interaction).
So let’s dive right in
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I.Defining the rules that govern our world; think out it as world dynamics
One thing the Wachowskis did perfectly well from the very beginning of this film, was defining the rules that govern the matrix universe. What this did was that it essentially showed us the dynamics and the workings of the matrix universe, letting us know in some ways what this movie was all about. In the one of the early scenes, Neo attempts the jump program which he subsequently sustains an injury from. He leaves the simulation discovering the same injury in the real world; this leaves him in a confused state. Morpheus notices it and provides with the answer, the first rule we come to learn about the matrix an injury or death in the matrix is injury or death in the real world, because as he explains the body cannot exist without the mind. Another example of when a rule is given to us is when cypher betrays the team and unplugs two of his crewmates before they could be they could be “ejected” from the matrix which kills them. This conveys the second rule to us, as the body cannot live with the mind so can the mind not be disconnected from the body as this would leads to instant death. Why are both these scenes important to the film? In showing these two scenes, the audiences learn about the workings or dynamics of this new reality and the risks and stakes involved. It builds in their minds just a little bit of suspense and tension when they think about this rule and its implications. It also helps them understand and better assimilate the world you are trying to visual create. Rules are so crucial to world building because they are the tools used to define the details of your world, how it functions, it’s functionality and relevance. They serve as defining tools for creativity; you know making world look and sound more logical and comprehensible. It helps your audience correctly anticipate your story and your reality, letting them know what’s trying to kill them, or what’s trying to help them; basically answering the what and how questions.
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II.Defining and establishing the circumstances surrounding our new world. (Circumstances)
Another brilliant thing the matrix does with world building, is the way it cleverly establishes the circumstances surrounding its reality through the experiences of our protagonist. In the movie, we see that there is a war between humans and machines and we are on the losing end; so things aren’t so great basically. To add salt to injury, the machines have human farms where they harvest, human beings for their bioelectrical energy and keeps them sedated in a simulation identical to our reality (yunno an upgrade from the kind of cruelty we see in the Terminator universe). This simulation is what is called the matrix; the place from where we first meet Neo, the place where Morpheus and Trinity rescue our home boy from. The first act of this film is dedicated to setting up and showing us the circumstances that surround this reality. The severity and complexity of the situation we find ourselves and what really is our primary goal in this film, escaping the matrix and winning the war. So if rules in world building serve as tools to help define and structure out our reality then circumstances serve as the tool that embeds purpose into our reality and with purpose comes meaning. It answers the why and when questions of our story. Why does this reality exist, why is it important, why do these people fight and the most importantly why should I care? By simply developing and establishing the circumstances surrounding the reality you are creating, the story and characters are automatically embedded with a sense of purpose and a goal, they are infused with essence, with meaning; plus if you want to make a more compelling story adding the element of achieving success within a time frame enhances the suspense of the story. Paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock, “show two characters sitting down having a conversation and that’s normal but show two characters sitting down conversing and not knowing that there’s a time bomb underneath the table and you have suspense”
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III.Internal interactions < External interactions aka leave the freaking fourth wall alone.
This right here is the singular point upon which the successes of my earlier stated points lie. In the entirety of the matrix trilogy, not once were either text or voice overs used to convey information to us (save that scene were Morpheus shows Neo a screen of what the world has become as he explains to both him and us, what we are seeing). NOT FREAKING ONCE IN ITS TOTAL RUNTIME OF OVER SEVEN HOURS DID WE SEE A BLANK SCREEN WITH TEXT WRITTEN ALL OVER IT PERTAINING TO THE STORY (and yes I had to capitalize that because of how important that is). This I believe is what makes the matrix such a stand out film, the fact that the screen writers were willing to go that far as to show us instead of telling us. The writers and directors of this film chose to tell us this story by making us “interact” with the film as opposed to telling us about the film in text or voice overs. They enlighten us about the story by making us experience it through the life of our protagonist, Neo or a better way to put it is they make our interaction with the story an internal instead of an external one. We are introduced to Mr Anderson at the beginning of the film, from the first time we see him we can tell he is a hacker looking for answers he is on the verge of getting. In the next scene we discover he is also a programmer working with a successful software company and he has troubles with managing his double life. We learn that the person with answers he is looking for is actually looking for him to show him the “truth”. From the first time we see Neo we realize that he is the stereotypical passive protagonist, one with whom we can relate to, who the story pushes forward as his actions have no severe consequence to the story. However the writers make beautiful use of this by making us learn every detail about this story through Neo’s experience and journey. It is from Neo’s eyes that we learn what the matrix is, what the rules of the matrix are, what the circumstances surrounding the creation of the matrix are, what our role is in the film and most importantly, why we should care about all of these things; because it is through Neo that we experience the matrix, through him we learn and live this reality and our purpose in it. What this does for us as viewers is that it makes us more invested in the story as well as more invested in Neo’s character arc through-out this film. All of a sudden from this passive hero whom the story propels forward, we learn through prophesy that we are the key to stopping the war between the humans and the machines, we learn martial arts and gain super human ability in order to fight back the simulation and system designed to hold us down, we realize that our choices matter and the fate of all of everyone rests on our shoulders. We come to realize that we aren’t just a part of the story, we are the story.
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This style of story-telling allows the audience to see themselves in the hero of the story, and in doing so, it brings them into the story to experience it. This is something I believe is something that missing in many modern day action flicks. A lot of film producers are so enthralled in creating spectacularly jaw dropping visually aesthetic worlds that they fail to realize that in order to build a perfect reality and a near perfect story, you must focus on three things and they are
The visuals; World building
The characters; Character development
The story; Story telling
The truth is, you have to focus on these three things with the same intensity because I believe they constitute the body, soul and spirit of any great action film. Where world building is the body, character development is the soul and the story-telling is the spirit. If one of these is poorly done then the other two fail automatically and the film fails. There’s still a lot more to talk about in this film and I hope to continue next week and so until then..
Bella Ciao