E. Parsons barks intrusively

Dear Mantis

Look. Let's stop this nonsense right here once and for all.

The Matrix films are clearly not crap in any way. In fact they could be considered very, very good. I understand that it is exceptionally easy to sit down at our computers and criticise some thing so un-immediate as a film, and that after a while of ardent critique one may begin to acquire a degree of purchase upon one's culture that I can imagine is oh-so-very satisfying, but with that power comes responsibility.

How dare anybody reprimand a film such as the matrix for the very same suspicious devices utilised by said critic?

It's one thing to consider elements of The Matrix that are apparently stolen from another text- filmic or otherwise- but the tone of criticism used by the Atlantis Mantis are clearly not those of casual appreciation- they are clearly more in the needful cynic.

So what if The Matrix is just a mere contrivance of scenes from other films and thus morally bankrupt and indeed fake?

I personally pay little heed to the notion of a huge insect-god with nothing better to do than mope about the place and whine about the new starwars films not being any good. Yes that's right! A contrivance of fiction demonising a contrivance of fiction!

How very fanciful. I don't' know who writes this Mantis spiel but I bet it 'aint no preying insect! How very post-modern! How very now! How very MATRIX!

There- now I think we all understand just what is going on here. It's another saddening skien of lies purveyed by the lacklustre voice of post-modern web-culture.

Nothing is being achieved by slagging off The Matrix merely because James Cameron owns the rights to far too much Anime. Simply reversing Orientalism and attacking anything American that pertains to Japanese is a bit reactionary- nobody ever complains when Anime series bastardise famous American Pop songs for titles music? SO WHAT if some dumb fat yanks have torn-off bits of every other film under the sun for their latest effort? It called COLLOQUIALISM!!!! Look, films are a form of language, and language is just a from of understanding via signs and symbols that has always relied heavily on whatever was around before it.

English is one example of this.

Why cant we leave The Matrix alone?- it's just the emergence of a global filmic language! Okay so it's not even a particularly good film per se, but the first writing systems became redundant quickly, more so the first computers.

Just because some of you like some obscure Japanese animation you had to spend far too much money on obtaining doesnt' warrant this exclusive attitude.

Your web of deceit and misinformation merely enforces what you perceive as a 'crapulence of Hollywood' problem!

So children, maybe we shouldn't pay heed to the MANTRIX, it's just what The Matrix would want.

Dear E. Parsons, if that IS your real name,

Yay. Another angry Matrix fan who hasn't bothered to read the rants properly and who has missed the main focal point entirely but who has taken the time to form a counter rant anyway. Huzzah.

What saddens me, and the reason that I choose to indulge your largely ill informed warblings with a response is that I heartily agree with many of the principles upon which your arguments are based, but not the arguments themselves. Your rantings are clearly the product of an idealistic mind, but your social politics are tainted by dislogic.

For starters, YES cinema is a global language. It is a means of conveying ideas and narratives by way of a complex audio visual vernacular, the lexicon of which has developed, like any other language, by the assimilation and interpretation of sources once external to its self. To this end the appropriation of sub-culture symbolism into the mainstream only serves to broaden the general cinematic lexicon and in so doing necessitate the constant self reinvention of 'legitimate' cinema. To this end we are in agreement. The point which you, and other misinformed web-wranglers like your self seem to miss, is that I ALREADY FUCKING SAID THAT YOU SILLY SOD! I'm reticent to indulge myself with self quotation (no really, I am), but careful as I am to make my arguments clear, I never fully account for the people who don't read the actual words. So, for the convenience of the monumentaly stupid, here is the third paragraph from the Matrix Reloaded rant AGAIN...

"I am NOT trying to say that The Matrix is crap because it's got a bunch of stuff from other films in it and I would NEVER present that as an argument. Plagiarism is the mother of invention. History is everything. My argument is that if The Matrix paid a little MORE attention to its source material instead of just halfheartedly stealing the aesthetics that it might be ANY FUCKING GOOD. The Matrix problem is a problem of cultural appropriation and incompetent replication."

Key word there. Incompetent. Cinema is indeed a language, and there are certain facets of said language which carry a very specific grammar. Certain applications of that grammar are open to interpretation, both personal and critical - other elements are NOT. The linguistics of the fight scene is such an example. The nature of the fight scene is such that it represents a truncation, both historically and in practice, of the semiotic development of the entire cinematic lexicon. The visual complexity of the subject matter and the speed at which it necessitates the audience interpret its language, is such that certain fundamental understandings of the reader and set rules have developed. In short, there is such a thing as 'grammaticaly incorrect'.

"...the first writing systems became redundant quickly...",

Indeed they did, and that's just it. The Matrix is the product of a redundant writing system. The application of the existing grammar by The Matrix is equivalent to language used by Chinese cinema in the mid-seventies. If you want to talk linguistics, then I'm afraid The Matrix is quite specifically technically redundant. The fight scenes refuse to adhere to basic mechanical laws of fight scene choreography (I'm talking editing here, not kung-fu moves) established by the eighties new wave and the post Drunken Master Renaissance. None of this would particularly matter if The Matrix both in its own internal content and in the content of its media orbitals didn't CONSTANTLY hark on about the cinematic histories in question, perpetually enforcing the entirely fanciful notion that it has technically superseded its predecessors. 'We've taken martial arts to a whole new level' oh blah blah blah. Its THEIR argument, not mine. I am simply encouraging people to find for themselves the evidence which disproves this argument and reveals the redundancy of The Matrix when placed against the context of its own history. If they didn't constantly try to enforce a deceitful reevaluation of said history then I would let The Matrix slide as just another incompetent and semiliterate white-fu film, but it is the constant assertion of its sovereign claims which drives me to debunk it.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that The Matrix HAS revolutionized western perception of the action film, not through its own merits, but because more worthy films have been prevented from attaining the lauding they deserve because of the social and political dynamics that the media enforces. Compared to any given Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal film OF COURSE The Matrix is going to look like a fucking masterpiece of its art form. But if you compare it to any, absolutely ANY Tsui Hark/Jet Li collaboration or any film made by or starring some combination of Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Baio, of which there are a great great many and to which The Matrix owes everything, then its turgid pant wetting awfulness becomes immediately apparent. The Matrix only stands up as an even passably competent action film unless you COMPLETELY IGNORE the history of cinema - if you COMPLETELY IGNORE the existing lexicon. It very keenly and shrewdly picks up on the superficial aesthetics (Neo wearing Wong Fei Hungs coat and other such meaningless frivolities) but applies not one little bit of understanding of how to orchestrate a fight scene. A+ for spelling. C- for grammar.

Like I said, I'm not usually one for comparative study. I do my best to judge a film very specifically on its own merits and try to analyse the actual scenes and what actually happens in them and the actual content of the film instead of reviewing the general 'concept' of the film in the manner of every other fucker. But then people cant be bothered to read the rants properly and come back with tedious non counter arguements based on the same old inherited opinions that were beaten into their minds while they slept, by the thumping drums of the TV gods.

But the beat goes on, and The Matrix persists in self gratifyingly alluding to its own historicity, so the need to help people unmask for THEMSELVES just what that history even fucking consists of remains relevant. At no point have I ever been even remotely encouraging of keeping culture in a niche market. Completely undermining the orthodox perception of cinematic history is precisely THE point of these pages.

Fuck the Otaku. That's what I say. Stop fucking coveting the 'otherness' of some cultural cross section you have discovered as a means of enforcing your self imposed removal from society. Stop hiding the things which you find and in which you find pleasure, as if you fucking own them, you counter-productive sick fucks. 'Fan culture' is for the most part a detestable blight upon progress, understanding and truth.

The media lies which fan cultures willingly perpetuate are singularly responsible for the redundancy of much of your otherwise flawlessly constructed arguments, dear reverend. Anime is NOT some weird little niche thing. It is NOT something 'other' to the animation mainstream. It IS the animation mainstream. Japanese anime constitutes more than 60% of all the animation produced in the world in any given year, and a good percentage of 'western' animation is also animated by the Japanese. Animation history belongs rightfully to the achievements of the American industry only up until the fifties. After the nineteen sixties most of the significant advancements, both artistic and semiotic, have been Japanese developments. There is no cultural favoritism involved in this proclamation, it is simply the way it is. History removed from politics and stripped down to its bare facts. Yet it is precisely this history which is repressed and downright LIED about in the media, as a means of prolonging the dominance of Disney and those who conform to its modus operandi.

Martial Arts cinema, similarly, is not inherently a pop-culture curiosity to be accompanied by pizza and a six pack. It is in fact the dominant form of the worlds third largest film industry. It is the popular mainstream for most of China and India and in purely numerical terms has a wider audience than American cinema. It is not only an extremely dominant force but one from which a great majority of the last quarter centuries semiotic expansions have developed. The language of action cinema legitimately belongs to the Chinese and thus any argument concerning that genre that does NOT involve a broad familiarity with its history in Asian cinema is not only COMPLETELY redundant, but implicitly racist.

I have used martial arts cinema only by way of example. The same principles, in relation to The Matrix and many other film of its ilk, can also be applied to its use of scifi imagery and ideology and the use of philosophical debate. Most of these elements I have already dissected with the assistance of specific examples.

It is apparent to me, young Parsons, that your contempt for niche sub cultures is equal only to my own, but your argument conforms to the world view they perpetuate. Furthermore, who is to say that 'nobody' ever complains when the Japanese appropriate American culture with an equal level of ham fistedness and pig bloody ignorance? I don't recall writing a rant in which I claimed to APPROVE of the Americanization of the globe.

There is no exclusivity to be found at atlantismantis.com, honey. The only message here is "Get off your fat asses and go and find the many wonderful 'secrets' that your fellow human beings have made for you, then tell all your friends about them. Stop indulgently gorging yourself on the narrow minded crap that your televisions blurt out at you to vindicate your life style, they will only taint your world view and make you susceptible to the idea that there is a legitimate rationale for invading other countries"

Last and most definitely least, I am frankly shocked and appalled that you would suggest that I am anything OTHER than a 40,000 year old giant insect that reviews films. Such CYNICISM! The very idea is just...silly and unrealistic. My visitors all faithfully believe in their hearts that I AM a giant insect and they make their decisions as to whether to agree with me or not EXCLUSIVELY upon that claim. Why, if it turned out that I wasn't a predeluvian tyranid behemoth with an army of mutant clams and a specially trained bear with a dictaphone - then all my arguments would become completely redundant! All the true things that I said would suddenly stop being true! Honestly Parsons, I'm hurt. Deeply hurt. See my wounds. I'm wounded. And after I was so nice to everybody too.