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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. The Digital Natives and the Implosion of Humanity in The Matrix and Avatar

Author : Artur Skweres

Published in: McLuhan’s Galaxies: Science Fiction Film Aesthetics in Light of Marshall McLuhan’s Thought

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In this chapter, The Matrix films will be analyzed together with James Cameron’s Avatar in an attempt to highlight many similarities but also differences between them, all of which make them suitable for analysis in terms of McLuhan’s theories of the media. One of such aspects is the fact that they deal directly with what the Canadian scholar predicted would be the eventual result of the invention and spreading of the electric media: the collapse of Western expansionism and implosion upon itself, with and additional drive towards finding models in the Eastern culture.

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previous chapter Horror Vacui and the Critique of Visual Society in Alien and Terminator Films
next chapter Conclusion
Footnotes
1
This would classify as their approach towards game as characterized by óneiros (Gr. “dream”) defined as a “state of complete immersion in the play at the cost of the loss of one’s identity and as a result loss of the desire to abandon play to return to reality (see Skweres, 2017, p. 14).
 
2
Importantly, this is distinctive not only of Avatar and The Matrix trilogy, discussed in this chapter, but also the Star Wars universe divided between the jungle-dwelling rebels and bureaucratized imperials.
 
3
The landscape seen at the beginning of the film was intended to suggest a world which could be Pandora as much as Earth, perhaps not to distract the viewer with too great a departure from a recognizable, human environment. With Jake’s added voiceover, the scene was supposed to “introduce the idea of a man’s personal journey, a journey as much of mind as of place” (Cameron, as quoted in Duncan & Fitzpatrick, 2010, p. 256).
 
4
For instance, Cameron supported the 1996 release of Ghost in the Shell anime by Mamoru Oshii by hailing it “the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence… an important visionary work” (as quoted in Ghost in the Shell Manga Force the Ultimate Collection DVD, 2006 Manga Entertainment Ltd). Cameron is also planning to produce the upcoming film adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, with Robert Rodriguez as director (McNary, 2015).
 
5
Not only did the technique allow to “extract” emotions from the acting of a live actor and endow a CG character with it, but also “[j]ust as importantly, the reams of concept art suggested that Avatar would introduce audiences to an utterly original, fantastic world in a way not achieved since George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977)” (Duncan and Fitzpatrick, 2010, p. 52).
 
6
The film conveys a pacifist message and warnings from an alien perspective, and the seeming helplessness of the ordinary people to stop the escalation of armed (and especially nuclear) conflict by the military. It also explores the dangers of diving in the deep sea, an extremely hostile environment for humans, and the psychological effects thereof. Due to the placement of most of the action undersea, the image in most shots has a blue hue. All of these factors seem to have influence the aesthetics and themes found in Avatar.
 
7
Traces of these inspirations in the design of Pandorians can be seen in the film’s script, which specifies that the camera should clearly show that Jake’s avatar’s hair writhes as if it was an extremity of a creature of the sea, to which Jake reacts with puzzlement (Cameron, 2007, p. 22).
 
8
The same kind of robotic repetition and insistence was discussed in reference to Alien 3 concerning the communication between the inhumane corporation management and the victimized survivors in the penal colony.
 
9
Mobil is an anagram of Limbo and in a parallel to the Catholic theology is a place of transition set outside of the Matrix.
 
10
The film self-consciously addresses this problem when the Oracle observes that nothing the heroes encounter should surprise them: “Every story you’ve ever heard about, vampires, werewolves or aliens, is the system assimilating some program that’s doing something they’re not supposed to be doing.” (The Matrix Reloaded).
 
11
The task given to the heroes by the key maker resembles the quest to reach a “magician’s tower” which is in a building at “a level which no stairway or staircase can reach.”
 
12
For instance, despite its formulaic action sequences, Ebert (1999) praised The Matrix for managing to be “a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement.”
 
13
Cyberpunk genre as a whole has a predilection to introduce far eastern aesthetics. The Matrix trilogy, as well as the animated short films which accompanied it, served as a perfect example of that trend.
 
14
All the fights were choreographed as Far Eastern martial arts by Yuen Woo-ping, director of numerous hit movies, such as Drunken Master (1978) starring Jackie Chan or Wing Chun (1994) starring Michelle Yeoh.
 
15
The scene of dialogue between Lee and the Monk was cut from the theatrical release of the film because the producers assumed that it would have been too cryptical for American audience (Kato, 2007, p. 128).
 
16
First shown in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
 
17
When Dr. Augustine sees Jake scrutinizing his queue, she advises him to be careful lest “go blind,” a clear allusion to masturbation.
 
18
The disappearance of his mouth is a visual allusion to the aforementioned short story of Harlan Ellison, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.”
 
19
The way Agent Smith takes over the bodies of other characters is as threatening and rape-implying as the way the eponymous Alien “impregnates” the human bodies with his spawn. In the first scene this is shown, Smith quickly catches a man and punches his fist into his chest, from which a black liquid oozes and covers the man’s body. When he reemerges, he is the likeness of Smith, his double. In order for him to multiply, he does not link with another person to form new life—he simply replaces the other persons, destroying human lives and individuality in the process.
 
Metadata
Title
The Digital Natives and the Implosion of Humanity in The Matrix and Avatar
Author
Artur Skweres
Copyright Year
2019
Book
McLuhan’s Galaxies: Science Fiction Film Aesthetics in Light of Marshall McLuhan’s Thought

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04103-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-04104-5

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04104-5_4