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SuperMechagodzilla posted:Morpheus is just a dumbass libertarian who stands for a generic freedom divorced from any sort of socio-economic justice. That’s why his “blow up the government” rhetoric is so curiously inoffensive. Pretty much. "Red-pilled" humans in the Matrix are allowed to indulge in an elaborate fantasy that they are fighting the Man, but what is actually happening is that the machines are running wash cycles until the humans come up with someone mature enough to permanently rejoin them in reality. Until then the machines keep engineering apocalypses with a familiar cast of human characters who can be reliably replicated, with the hope that human unpredictability will generate something that meets the necessary conditions for humans to advance. The architect spells out that at no time are humans necessary to running the Matrix. The entire storyline about machines needing humans to run as power batteries makes no sense on a cursory examination. It's just part of a fiction created to give humans something to struggle against, because without this oppression fantasy, humans lose the will to live.
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Sep 17, 2021 18:14
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Lutha Mahtin posted:how are goons so consistently bad at humanities 101 lol. projecting your own worldview onto a piece of media this hard is fine but you should at least be honest about it What I posted barely qualifies as analysis, it's just text. This reminds me of the time that several goons were adamant that Man of Steel had nothing to do with 9/11. I don't often go in for SMGposting either, but if you're going to do a spit take at plot summaries certainly there's no need to bother with the philosophical underpinnings of these movies.
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Sep 18, 2021 17:12
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Mandrel posted:yeah I’m not sure you’re supposed to take Smith’s beliefs as gospel any more than you should Morpheus In short, this isn't being stated by just Smith, and you essentially have to disbelieve the entire plot of the sequels in order to come up with some other version of events. The movies are really straightforward on this.
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Sep 19, 2021 08:48
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I wonder, if you switched Carrie and Keanu's roles, if anything would be substantially different.
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Sep 24, 2021 05:28
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:It would certainly affect the parts where Trinity is like “I’m a woman, and I love this man.” I didn't really get the sense from the films that your persona/"freed" avatar in the Matrix is supposed to be your idealized self, although it could be. More that it was you in a state of subdued, often serene, monk-like contemplation. I guess the real poo poo would be if Keanu woke up from the first time in reality to discover that he is a woman or just otherwise different from who he is in the Matrix. Since he wouldn't necessarily know before then! I also wonder what the Matrix did for sex in film. The romance in the Matrix does not read as overt to a lot of people, almost glued on to the "perfect action movie." Later we get lots of superhero movies where they just never gently caress, ever.
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Sep 24, 2021 18:51
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Apologies if these have been posted already. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53692435 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adXm2sDzGkQ
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Sep 24, 2021 19:33
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Shiroc posted:Sex for egg trans people can also be really uncomfortable and weird. I think that's less of a discussion of theme of the movie (since its so limited) but more of stating why the Wachowski's might not have really thought about it and when it does come up its all kind of off. In the 80's it was generally the rule that you needed at least titties in your action/horror film or else why did we even make this movie, if not to attract young teens?
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Sep 24, 2021 19:56
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sponges posted:I just watched the Matrix sequels and the plot completely lost me. I didn’t understand what was going on or what they were trying to say lol There is a cyclical plan by the machines to keep humanity in a state of rebellion against the dystopia that is the Matrix, which is apparently the only way humans can even accept being in the Matrix, because otherwise they reject it and die. The implication is that humans need something to struggle against or they basically cannot live. This rebellion can't be won in the traditional sense, because even the One is a mechanism designed/anticipated by the machines as part of the cycle. Eventually every cycle ends with an apocalypse on Zion, and the One choosing to start the Matrix over rather than end everything. Instead of continuing this cycle, Neo makes a choice out of love to apparently end everything and doom the Matrix/humanity, and out of a seemingly forlorn hope that there is a third option. The architect is puzzled by this as it is all human feelings, and admits that humans have an unpredictability to them that it has been unable to adequately solve for. Apparently the Matrix is now doomed by Neo's love, but Smith becoming a virus in the system has also not been anticipated, and is screwing up the planned apocalypse/the future of the Matrix. While the defenders of Zion fight a battle that can only be a delaying action to preserve the city, Neo negotiates a fragile peace between Zion and the machines by promising to defeat Smith. Neo does this by unifying with him, as Smith is his equal. The machines keep their agreement and relent from destroying Zion. Man and machine now look forward to some new future.
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Sep 25, 2021 05:53
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LRADIKAL posted:Lol it works though, doesn't it? I think you figured out the metaphor Yeah I'm not getting much into the philosophy there. This is more or less literally what happens.
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Sep 26, 2021 07:08
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The conceit of anyone becoming an evil G-Man the moment they see an agitator or anything that breaks the illusion of the Matrix is just too, too perfect.
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Sep 27, 2021 00:36
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Hugo Weaving's portrayal of Smith is kinda burned into my memory so much that when I hear about people in an alphabet agency investigating something or doing some backroom thing, I think of Smith disdainfully paging through his binder of another Person of Interest.
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Sep 27, 2021 02:36
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Mister Speaker posted:Jones and Brown, although I don't think they're ever named in the film. Bernhardt only looks more menacing with age, and it was fun to recognize him in John Wick and know immediately that an action sequence was about to happen when he shows up in Nobody.
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Sep 27, 2021 03:15
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The Architect occasionally goes to a level 3 out of 10 on the Ian McDiarmid Evil scale during his big scene. He does not come off as entirely well-intentioned, and when we later learn that programs can become near-indistinguishable from humans and that they don't have to be ghosts, goblins, or terminators, his behavior becomes even more questionable.checkplease posted:I don't know anything about the early matrix reloaded drafts (though they sound interesting), but the Morpheus a presented in the first Matrix does not come off as someone who would knowingly force billions out of the matrix. When he first introduces neo to the matrix, neo has the panic attack, and Morpheus apologizes to him in his room. A bit like yoda, he states that they Neo is older then their limit for pulling people out of the matrix typically, but here he had no choice. He understands that it will be difficult for most people. Morpheus' faith in Neo and in people is ultimately rewarded; his faith in the providence behind coincidence is not.
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Sep 27, 2021 19:51
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I watched Revolutions again last night, and while I really like Reloaded, Revolutions still feels like a mess to me all these years later. The script needs refinement, we have a bunch of characters who just didn't get real screen-time in Reloaded who are suddenly Very Important and as a consequence a lot of stuff feels tacked on. Niobe and Ghost getting introduced in a (infamously bad) video game really hurts here when Niobe's character is just doing everyone a big favor all the time and remarking about how things do and do not change. Locke is just a useless rear end in a top hat that no one likes, with no character arc. What's most jarring is Locke realizing the dock is lost and then three minutes later chastising Morpheus for losing the already lost dock. Difficult to tell if Locke is that big of a dumb rear end in a top hat or if the writing was just rushed. If we just assume authorial intent, he's just a huge dumb rear end in a top hat. Speaking of video games, I still want to try Path of Neo and fight an ant person, but it came out in that gray period where not everything in the universe was on Steam yet and now you need to sell a spleen to get a copy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvDeXaiBy3I
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Sep 27, 2021 20:21
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:I feel like smith is another example where there is seeds of a strong theme that kinda just wilts and falls flat. Smith basically gets a piece of bugged code that lets him take over multiple bodies at once, instead of possessing people like a "normal" agent. Like most programs seem to be, he is already functionally immortal and wasn't actually killed when Neo ki blasted him. Like other programs, he evolves free will and showed this in the first movie, but his original purpose of being a boot stomping on a human face forever taints his evolution. Like Neo, he wants freedom from systems of control and oppression. Unlike Neo, he hates everyone and everything, and is at minimum a satanic figure. He will destroy the Matrix in the way that some posters in this thread think Morpheus may have (I also do not think that is Morpheus' game). After creation is effectively ended, Smith can finally do whatever he wants (Die? Create life in his own image? Up to him, he will be all-powerful in both the physical and digital realities).
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Sep 27, 2021 20:52
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Ferrinus posted:I assume Morpheus was in fact prepared to destroy the matrix at immense human cost, because that fits with his characterization as both an apocalyptic cult leader but also a die-hard radical insurrectionist. What, you think you're gonna get free by asking nicely? A revolution isn't a tea party. If he wanted to do that, it wouldn't be that hard. They can already get physical access to the "crops" and have EMP weapons. They could probably wreck most or all of the Matrix in a day if the idea was to slash and burn all the people who Morpheus deemed beyond salvation by the means he is giving Neo, an incredibly mentally and physically stressful boot camp. Morpheus is looking for a messiah to usher in a new age and give everyone the choice, not to destroy the Matrix.
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Sep 27, 2021 21:03
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Given that the script's timeline is wrong, sounds like insane horse poo poo that has nothing to do with the finished movies, and is also stupid, I'm going to go ahead and call it fake.
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Sep 29, 2021 00:55
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Every program supposedly has a primary purpose that they can't "transcend," but we find also that there are so many programs that have "outlived" their purpose and been effectively forgotten that they formed an organized crime syndicate. Few of these insist that they still have a purpose, as opposed to magical powers derived from their original purpose that they now abuse for personal gain and amusement. So you only really need a "purpose" according to the Machines, which is a different faction from most programs. Very few programs are loyal to the Machines now, and for whatever reason (perhaps a part of the Architect's plan?) these loyalists don't go out of their way to destroy rogue programs.
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Oct 1, 2021 23:08
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There's no machine/program in the story sitting there going "haha yes, this is good!" Agent Smith hates humans but doesn't want them to be his responsibility. He originally believes he will be liberated from his responsibilities and the Matrix if he can help the machines penetrate Zion. He is apparently unaware that the machines could do this at any time, it's just not time yet. When he discovers more about what is going on he decides to destroy everything. This is basically the character that for some reason several people claim Morpheus secretly is. The Oracle is trying to help humans transcend, and has watched them fail to do so five times (but perhaps there were incremental successes we don't know about). The Architect describes everything in terms of an unbalanced equation. He has built the rebellion and the One's inevitable existence into a cyclical and admittedly unstable system. It's not really working, but this is the best he can do. Notably at the end of the movies, no one has ended the Matrix. There's just apparently now a peaceful pathway to leave the Matrix and join Zion. The Matrix is still the best anyone can do for a lot of humanity.
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Oct 7, 2021 18:23
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:Given that Neo and the machines have mutually agreed to crash the matrix and end humanity, Smith's takeover is implicitly an effort to save those lives. lol
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Oct 8, 2021 08:22
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Noob Saibot posted:I know that over the past month since the revival of The Matrix we have had a lot of heated and passionate debates but can we all agree that Matrix was the best (and only good) attempt at making a live action anime? Speed Racer and Pacific Rim 1 are both good.
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Oct 9, 2021 22:49
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Ferrinus posted:Like I said, there are private entities which profit off prisons because by selling those prisons soap they can funnel public money into private hands, but that's a tiny proportion of the money and labor actually circulating through the prison system, most of which stays within federal or state governments. Also, these relationships are relatively recent compared to the creation of the prison as an institution. I wish any of this in particular were true. There is an enormous private profit motive behind prisons, and it's most of the motive for prisons at all and always has been. By entering prison you essentially join the exploited "third world" workers of the world and subsidize numerous private industries just by being there, even if you never stamp out a license plate or the money (purely on paper, but in effect to a number of other interests) goes to state coffers. https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/private-companies-producing-with-us-prison-labor-in-2020-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-ii This article really describes no recent developments in prison labor, and notes that even if for whatever reason you are not placed in a work program, someone is selling you overpriced goods in prison. Capitalism finds ways to ruthlessly exploit people no matter who or where they are. Corporations have taken pains to find ways to do this and to keep what they are doing a secret from the general public. Most people therefore handwave away prison labor as a major industry, instead visualizing Cool Hand Luke. Taking the narrow dogmatic view that the prison industry is a net cost to governments and therefore not profitable leaves out a lot of other things going on, such as to where all that money is actually going. This is a basic logical fallacy usually wielded by politicians to convince voters to end social programs. In this case, if prisons were all just endless red on the ledger, the industrial complex for it would shrink, instead of accelerating non-stop. But the efficiency also isn't the point, it's that the system takes and takes until it destroys. Currently we have a system that so over-incentivizes imprisoning people at cost to the state that the state turns people back out for lack of a place to put them or pay for them. But when you are bleeding off excess work force it doesn't mean you are unprofitable.
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Oct 19, 2021 21:09
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Enter the Matrix was considered an embarrassment at the time, and time is not kind to old bad games. The driving sequence was the big one, it was just utter tripe.
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Nov 10, 2021 14:58
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Shiroc posted:I watched Reloaded tonight for the first time in a very long time. It's so bloated and excessive but still mostly entertaining. Some of the action scenes go on for way too long without advancing the plot or saying much about the characters, mainly the chateau fight and the freeway chase once its Morpheus vs the Agent on the truck. The freeway way really tight and perfect up until then. It was like they decided Laurence Fishbourne needed to get a fight in and just did it. The freeway sequence pretty much saves the entire movie action-wise. I get that the whole point of the Merovingian is that he's not nearly as interesting as he thinks he is, but drat don't make it my problem. The so-called Burly Brawl hasn't aged well. Name Change fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Nov 26, 2021 |
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Nov 26, 2021 11:43
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Shiroc posted:I had a big effort post written about how much I enjoyed watching Revolutions but hosed up and accidentally closed my browser, losing all of it. I'm not going to bother trying to rewrite it unless people actually care to read my longer form opinions, otherwise I'll just leave it at that I think Revolutions is an incredibly well done action, thematic and emotional climax to the original trilogy. I'm really hyped to see if Resurrections is able to be a meaningful follow up that adds something to the story and not take it down an 'and Neo's effort and sacrifice meant gently caress all in the end' path ala Disney Star Wars. I care. Really.
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Nov 28, 2021 03:20
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VROOM VROOM posted:Lol C*****W*** You're going to have to be more specific.
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Nov 30, 2021 08:32
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It's very weird, and also the first warning that this could actually be dire.
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Dec 7, 2021 19:48
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If this gets a huge negative reaction from being a disaster, within like five years you'll get Episode V: The Matrix Awakens with the actual cast members.
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Dec 7, 2021 20:03
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Trilogies usually have their best movie as the second movie. I've always thought Fellowship was by far the strongest LOTR movie.
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Dec 20, 2021 15:50
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The beginning of this movie was definitely Lana letting us know exactly what kind of bullshit goes on at Warner Brothers and I'm guessing someone has called the Wachowskis up about 200 times with an extremely bad Matrix 4 pitch, so this movie leans in. The movie is fun but everything feels a little unearned and recasting Smith with a guy who absolutely does not project any Smithness was quite bizarre (though he is good in his own right). Recasting Lawrence Fishburne made some amount of sense given the story they wanted to tell, but if you can have other older actors, it seems like a missed opportunity to reunite the gang. I want to know more about manta bird and its story.
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Dec 23, 2021 12:18
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Kin posted:Is the whole power sharing thing at the end supposed to have happened due to the machines hacking their bodies to pieces? They both have presumably equal potential and only become a Force dyad when they are together and both free.
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Dec 27, 2021 20:31
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Shiroc posted:Retcon but the Neb seemed to actually only have the EMP (because it made it more dramatic in the context of that movie). They weren't giving information for 'oh yeah we can just shoot them. And by we I mean humanity. We can't. By that we I mean us specifically." I wonder if the rebels are concerned with the machines recapturing escaped humans, as well as the issues with speed and maneuverability that would come up if you loaded the ship with turrets and the 550,000 bullets necessary to repel a squid attack, which can close distance in the endless sewer system that is Earth really fast.
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Dec 30, 2021 11:54
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I would definitely be worried that Lana Wachowski is pro-mental illness, if I were exactly the type of bad guys in this movie, people who are conscious on a surface level but beneath it all love their comfortable lies about how things work, hiding behind authority as an unimpeachable good and devoid of context or nuance about what it means to really fall between the cracks of society. Basically if you are trans in America there is an entire humming industry dedicated to the idea that this is wrong and you have to be fixed, even if you have to be damaged and forced into lying about yourself to do it. This extends from plainly crackpot right wing groups running "conversion therapy" into sectors with a veneer of legitimacy because they have all the "right" credentials. Likewise there's a huge number of people dividing the world between binary non-choices (one seemingly rational, one seemingly impossible), who will gladly crucify anyone not making the non-choice. Male/female, Democrat/Republican, you name it. "Stop taking your schizophrenia meds and grab your gun" is not really the point of Resurrections. Even if you could describe it as simply as that (you can't), the movie's clear that this isn't inassailably correct or truly free, either. Everything is a system of control.
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Dec 31, 2021 00:14
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:As I noted earlier in the thread, the Smiths are undead. They’re an uprising of the inhuman dehumanized. It's increasingly apparent that you have zero literacy in trans issues, and this extends so far that you don't even listen to what trans people are saying to you ITT. Watching you systematically try to steer the conversation away from this topic and freeze out other posters is also embarrassing. Anti-trans therapists and other authority figures aren't attacking trans people from a place of expertise or concern for their welfare, they're doing it out of fear and a generalized sense that they're losing control of society. When we discover that the analyst is a simplistically deplorable person despite his layers of smug self-superiority and claims of vast intellect, that tracks. In the end he's a coward whose power comes purely from bureaucratic connections. That all tracks. The analyst is an intellectual authority figure in the same way Mike Pence is. When you strip away all of the excuses for why this therapy is designed as torture, you find the same old misogynists working their grifts. Having a therapy practice doesn't make you an absolute unquestionable good. That so many people ITT are blind to this, and instead of accepting it, veer toward absurd theories like "the Wachowskis are pro-mental illness!" essentially proves that Resurrections is especially relevant to our present social conditions. Or to be more precise, VROOM VROOM posted:Seeing Resurrections Resurrect the original moral panic around The Matrix is cranking it way up in my book, currently at a solid 7.5/10
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Jan 2, 2022 02:21
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sigher posted:This was in the first image search for Cowboy Curtis: I believe Keanu mentioned they did almost no rehearsals for Matrix 4. Compare to Matrix 1, which had something like an 18-month training/conditioning leadup alone.
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Jan 4, 2022 23:31
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I thought the otherkin movie was Ready Player One
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Jan 10, 2022 04:28
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I don't think the soundtracks really work when not paired with the action in the films.
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Jan 10, 2022 21:56
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checkplease posted:A direct quote from the review: “The reason is now clear: in spite of its occasional brilliance, the film is ultimately not worth seeing – which is why I also wrote this review without seeing it” Probably the clearest actual evidence that SMG is Zizek
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Jan 13, 2022 22:04
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I willfully choose to read it as Trinity roundhouse kicking her entire family, of real living people with hopes and dreams, to death, an unforgivable crime that unravels the pretense of this movie. In the next 200 posts between myself and the one person ITT not exasperated with me, I will
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Jan 19, 2022 08:00
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Watching a movie is the basic bare minimum to being able to critique it. Otherwise you are just blathering incoherent nonsense. Seems familiar somehow, maybe explains why Zizekposting has been a joke with no punchline in CD for many years now.
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Jan 22, 2022 20:52
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