Way Better Than The Matrix

I went into this film not knowing that it had even been released! I didn't know what it was about or who was in it. It was just one of 3 movies at a Movie Marathon we did at the local cinema. It had everything I liked at the time (and still like):

1) Great music
2) Lots of the colour green
3) A depiction of the 1930s
4) Sci-Fantasy theme
5) Characters you can love and hate

and it completely blew my mind.

It's one of my favourite movies of all time, and I watch it at least once every year. I don't watch it with a critic's eye and I don't try to dissect the story any more than they did within the film.

A plus side of this one for me personally, is that this movie doesn't contain a lot of cryptic and pompous dialogue about "You know the answer" and "Causality" yada yada yada, like The Matrix did. I've never spoken like that, and I don't know many people who do. So, characters who do speak like that don't entertain me much. But that's just me - I prefer Star Wars to Star Trek!

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I thought it was quite good. But look at the dumb metascore or w/e. It's like critics just do a coin toss because this is a type of movie that's normally up their alley, only more entertaining. I did think this movie could have been much better at the end, but it was still good. How hilarious to have a metascore in the 30s.

I think they had a very good concept but couldn't handle it. I gave it a 7 for what it could have been but I feel it deserves a 6 or a 5 for what it is. I enjoyed it a lot more than other 6s of course, its just that the whole thing seemed like a draft of a complete movie.

When all is said and done, this is all about preference because objectively (whoa) The Matrix is a superior film. Reasons? Groundbreaking visuals aside, it's got a much better script, better cinematography, better and more iconic performances and it's "arguably" a more enthralling & entertaining film.

Having said that, The Thirteenth Floor is wholly pleasing. Not knowing what the film was about beforehand, I gotta say I found it to be captivating; great atmosphere, good pacing, and the whole thing is thought-provoking. And while the visuals and performances are nothing special, the 1937 scenes are stunning in my book.


Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

Way Better Than The Matrix

Way Better Than The Great Gatsby
less dufus 1922 old sport

The Matrix is tight as a drum. The Thirteenth Floor is just poorly written and doesn't give me a reason to care about any of the characters.

But lets consider the scene where the bartender pulls Douglas aside and tries to blackmail him. Uhm, hello? You're trying to blackmail this guy because you believe he killed someone. Ignoring the faulty logic there for a hot minute, the bartender then physically assaults Douglas and acts SUPER surprised when Douglas fights back. The bartender calls him crazy and runs off like an idiot.

In what world is this considered good writing? So far, the movie is full of stupid scenes like this. I had to pause the movie and come here to rant. The movie is fundamentally more dated than the Matrix, it's concept is less fascinating, and it's retro 30's scenes are nothing special. Craig Bierko is annoying and lacks the leading man charisma necessary to pull the part off properly. In fact, the whole cast except D'Onofrio and Armin Mueller-Stahl was horribly annoying to watch.

And anyone who says the matrix is more of an action movie, is right- but only marginally. It's a more exciting movie- sure, but after the opening scene, no real action takes place until the last act. So a solid 3/4ths of the movie is pure sci-fi concept exploration. Not to mention the casting, writing, and cinematography is all vastly superior. And, lets talk about Keanu Reeves for a second. The guy is a good actor who can emote just fine. He's playing a disillusioned man here, he's supposed to be rather wooden. Watch John Wick, Bill & Ted, Speed, or Point Break. He's incredibly dynamic in all of those movies. People who claim his acting was stiff just didn't get the character of Neo. The Wachowski's got a perfect performance out of everyone else, and they got exactly what they wanted out of him as well. Read the script, look at the concept art, his performance was spot on.

The Thirteenth Floor doesn't have a fraction of the scope or scale the Matrix does. I fail to see how it has any fans at all.

Definitely not.
The writing is terrible here.