The Matrix
By Marisa Pjerrou
Warner Brothers website for the popular Keanu Reeves film, The
Matrix (http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/)
sustains and extends the storyline of The Matrix's fictional
universe through features such as online interactive games and more
notably some very impressive online comic strips created by a talented
cadre of professional artists. Even the site's navigational design
often posits the enduser as a participant in The Matrix by
having the enduser enter in secret codes or click on a ship's control
panel in order to go to the next screen. The Matrix website
would definitely appeal to fans of the film: there is an asynchronous
chat section with a steady amount of postings, and lots of Quicktime
videos of actual movie footage or of the film's stars doing publicity
promotions. Naturally, the entire site functions to keep interest
in The Matrix alive and to create a buzz surrounding the much-anticipated
Matrix sequel.
While it isn't clear whether the comic artists at The Matrix
website are getting paid for their work, they are obviously a bunch
of individuals very committed to expanding upon The Matrix
storyline as originally conceived by Andy and Larry Wachowski. Apparently
the comic art surrounding The Matrix preceded the film, so
these artists are long familiar with the material. The different directions
that each artist extends upon the basic plotline of The Matrix
are unusual and interesting variations on a theme - and none, as far
as I could tell, involved the main characters from the film. But one
needn't be a fan of the film to enjoy the comics; even the artists
point this out in an introduction to the comic section of the website.
Whether separately or in tandem, they are high-quality enough pieces
of work to be stand-alone fictional, immersive experiences. While
it is dismaying to consider that these comic spin-offs of The Matrix
mythology are ultimately nothing more than intellectual property belonging
to Warner Brothers, they are by far the heart of this website; without
them http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/
would just be like any other ordinary film promotion site.
The two online games (one is only available if you enter the "enhanced"
version of the site) at The Matrix website involve using skills
of timed shooting in order to win. A spinning, red drug capsule strangely
advertises the milder of the two games on the home page. I did see
The Matrix when it first came out but don't remember the significance
of the drug capsule in the story; a brief explanation of the capsule
would have been helpful. Shooting at the drug capsules was kind of
weird in the first game, but preferable to the extremely violent second
game, which involved shooting and killing as many black-suited, evil
agents as possible in a timed sequence, and seeing splats of blood
every time one was shot.
It is interesting to see two extremes in the website's content used
to draw people in: on the one hand there are the incredibly violent
games that represent the lowest common denominator of entertainment
but more than likely have a strong appeal to the film's niche audience;
and on the other hand, the much more intellectually stimulating comics
that are highly engaging, and require more of a thought process than
the games do. Film audiences supposedly need all this inundation in
different media formats in order to remain interested and loyal to
the story. Matrix: The TV Series and Matrix: The Las Vegas
Experience are probably not too far down the road from here.