[motohagiography]

Perhaps a bit meta, but between a new Matrix reboot, this weekend's Rick & Morty finale, and previously even Midnight Gospel among quite a number of other cultural themes about meaning, reality, good & evil, nihilism, I'm feeling a little metaversed out and wondering whether this kind of entertainment is a healthy thing to indulge in.

The idea that it is good to be unmoored from our senses and experiences in favour of filtering them through this flavour of intellectual dissociation seems unhealthy. When I think of the artists behind it, if you are invested in someone's happiness, "red-pilling" them is not generous or sharing, it's self interested and adding company to misery, and I am doubting that this is art by people actuated by the wellbeing of others.

[Apocryphon]

Don't forget Loki, or WandaVision for that matter.

I think there's been both qualitative and quantitative changes to American pop culture. Today's audience is able to handle more sophisticated or just convoluted complex narrative structures than in the past. From comic book cinematic universes to Christopher Nolan's gimmicks, we've come along way from straightforward standalone popcorn films. Now even dumb action movies have to be not just a sequel but intertextual, living within a cohesive fictional space. Everyone knows what "canon" refers to and most know common tropes. (Speaking of R&M, that show seems to be an example of running out of tropes to the extent of burning itself out, imploding into bigger and more meaningless reveals.)

That's also because of quantity. We've simply got too much content, across both films but TV shows, games, tie-in novels, comic books, and other media. Merchandising has been huge since the original Star Wars, but now every franchise has a Wiki and dedicated scholars. It's a whole new level of meta. Maybe that's the only way we can handle the scale of content we are bombarded by; to try to fit them together into cohesive contexts.

I don't know what that means for us as a society or as a culture, but I do note that The Matrix, or at least its sequels, helped to accelerate this process. Back in 2003, the series had both the Animatrix animated shorts and the Enter the Matrix video game that added to the story depicted on-screen, even introducing key characters that movie-only viewers would be confused by (such as the Kid).

I would say that dense intertextuality and cross-media world-building, not so much the Gnostic question your reality themes (which are old hat now), is the current defining legacy of The Matrix.

[lostmsu]

> Don't forget Loki, or WandaVision for that matter.

> ... convoluted complex narrative structures than in the past.

You've got to be kidding...

[Apocryphon]

Mass market pop culture in the past wouldn't place the focus on plot elements like multiple dimensions, alternate timelines, elaborate nostalgic homages to different genres of television, stuff like that. The more high concept sci-fi or fantasy might, but not something as basic as a superhero television show. It goes to show that even mass appeal entertainment are now experimenting with nonlinear storytelling.

[BiteCode_dev]

Alien, The Matrix, 12 Monkeys, Terminator, Fight Club, The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense, Back to the Future, eXistenZ, Gattaca, The Arrival, 2001 space Odissey, the Shining, Trainspotting, Ground Hog day, Dune, Dark city, Tron, Demolition man, Total Recall, Robocop, The city of lost children...

Nuanced, scify, full of smart details or mind bending films are not new.

In fact, it's really hard to innovate now, because so much as already being covered.

[lostmsu]

Back to The Future is not mass pop culture?

NVM, I looked it up for you: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1985/

[Apocryphon]

BtTF was a standalone movie, then a trilogy with only two sequels, not either 1) a multimedia franchise like many of the works I've mentioned or 2) an Inception or Tenet type Nolan blockbuster that requires infographics to tease out the plot.

[lostmsu]

> a multimedia franchise like many of the works I've mentioned

I guess you forgot about the animated series.

[evv555]

That's a valid concern and I think the cost/benefit equation has gradually been shifting towards "red-pilling".

-

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”

[imtringued]

I wonder if this has to do with copyright. It's easy to get the rights on content that was created in the last two decades. It's much harder to get rights on content that was created 70 years ago. The people involved are dead yet copyright (or some other intellectual property law) still applies.

[thinkingemote]

Wait for it to come out. If current movies are anything to go by, expect your expectations to be subverted.

The lesson therefore of Hollywood is don't believe the hype.