All posts by Alexander V Woods

Events

Cyberpunk Day 2021

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Cyberpunk Day 2021: A Celebration of Everything Cyberpunk

 

Well folks, it’s October again, and with that comes a celebration of everything Cyberpunk: Cyberpunk day! Created by a coalition of Cyberpunk creators and fans, Cyberpunk Day was conceived to  help others discover new cyberpunk content like books, comics, shows, movies, and art. The team includes such cyberpunk writers Matthew Goodwin, Elias Hurst, Rachel Beck, and many more.

A Cyberpunk Lineup

This year Cyberpunk day has a really cool, revamped website, with a lineup is as follows:

11AM EST: Cyberpunk Games with Devs–Cyberpunk games showcase and game-dev interviews, hosted by FuzzyFreaks.

12PM EST: Cyberpunk Red GM Tips with GM Rob Mulligan.

1PM EST: Cyberpunk Roundtable with Cyberpunk authors Joseph & Marisha Cautilli, Tobias Cabral, and Matthew Goodwin.

2:30PM EST: Author readings (Block 1) with Cyberpunk authors Elias Hurst, Rachel Beck, Jon Richter, Jim Keen, Stu Jones, Marcos Antonio Hernandez, and Eric Danhoff.

4PM EST: Deus Ex Speedrun with Heinki.

5PM EST: Screening of Venus and Interview with Director Andrew McGee.

6PM EST: Author Readings (Block 2) with Mark Everglade, Craig Lea Gordon, Tanweer Dar, Matt Adcock and Cypress Butane.

7PM EST: Interview with Mike Pondsmith.

9PM EST: Cyberpunk Red One-Shot: Cyberpunk TTRPG creator Mr. Stidz refs a one-shot playthrough of Cyberpunk Red with players JonJon TheWise, Phil Harker-Smith, Rachel E. Beck and Miss Magitek.

With a full schedule of events, Cyberpunk day will be surely a day unlike any other, where people around the world can follow @cyberpunkday on Twitter to access all the events live as they happen every hour. I wonder what they will have planned for next year.

Celebrating Favorite Cyberpunk Media for World Cyberpunk Day

To celebrate everything Cyberpunk for World Cyberpunk Day, I thought I’d once again share my own favorite Cyberpunk media pieces, in addition to shining a light on some of my favorite, lesser known Cyberpunk content creators,  writers, and websites. Some of this has changed from last year, a lot of it hasn’t. Regardless, come celebrate Cyberpunk with your operator Alex, here on the Cyberpunk Matrix.

World Cyberpunk Day: Favorite Cyberpunk Media

  1. The Matrix (the trilogy and the animatrix) by The Wachowskis
  2. Ghost in the Shell (the original anime and live action remake, as well as the animated series) by Masamune Shirow (writer), Mamoru Oshii (anime film director) and Rupert Sanders (live action director).
  3. Battle Angel Alita (the manga known as GUNNM, as well as the anime movie and the live action film) by Yukito Kishiro (writer), Hiroshi Fukutomi (anime film director), and Robert Rodriguez (live action director).
  4. Altered Carbon (the novel, the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, and both seasons on Netflix) by Richard K Morgan (writer) and Laeta Kalogridis (Netflix series director).
  5. Blade Runner 2049 by Denis Villeneuve
  6. Ready Player One (both the book and the live action film) by Ernest Cline (writer) and Steven Spielberg (director).
  7. Upgrade by Leigh Whannell

World Cyberpunk Day: Favorite Community Content Creators

  1. NeoMatrixology–For a yellow-pilled approach to understanding everything to do with the Matrix, I always consult NeoMatrixology and his Matrix University series. While I tend to report Matrix news in batches when major things happen, NeoMatrixology is always first to report the latest news relating to the Matrix, no matter how big or small, including livestreams breaking down the latest news. He also has lots of high-quality, in-depth analysis on the philosophy and themes present within the Matrix Universe. We also had a really interesting hour-long discussion about his inspiration, beginnings, and our first Matrix viewing experiences which you can check out in our podcast here.
  2. Matthew A Goodwin & Elias Hurst  — Both Cyberpunk authors in their own right, Goodwin and Hurst have joined forces to create Cyberpunk Day each year, creating an impressive lineup that helps other cyberpunk creators come together, while also helping cyberpunk enthusiasts find their content. They also help contribute content to the Cyberpunk reddit forums, Matrix forums, and Cyberpunk discord servers. Both are doing great work to keep the lifeblood of the cyberpunk community alive, and I was able to have both authors on recently for the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast. You can listen to Matthew’s interview here, and Elias’ interview should be going live this weekend!

World Cyberpunk Day: Favorite Cyberpunk websites

  1. Neon Dystopia–if ever you wanted in-depth, scholarly articles about all kinds of Cyberpunk content, look no further than Neon Dystopia. This is also where I first went the day I discovered the Cyberpunk genre. Covering philosophy, fashion, movies, music, video games, and news, Neon Dystopia doesn’t post as often as some other blogs, but when they do it’s always very in-depth and interesting. Neon Dystopia was also one of the first Cyberpunk websites I shared about, back in March 2018.
  2. Cyberpunks.com–Cyberpunks has the highest amount of content of all cyberpunk websites I’ve seen to date on the ‘net. Going less in depth as Neon Dystopia but providing far more content, including also the occasional video, Cyberpunks provides articles and essays about all Cyberpunk genres–movies, tv shows, music, news, technology, video games, etc. It also has reviews, lists, recommendations–you name it, Cyberpunks has it! For more about the ambitious creator behind this incredible website, check out my interview with its founder Bradley B. here.

World Cyberpunk Day: Favorite Up-and-Coming Cyberpunk Book

Despite the title sounding like a Cyberpunk Cosmopolitan Cocktail, Bubbles in Space: Tropical Punch is a delightful Cyberpunk Noir Detective story following Cyborg Private Investigator Bubbles Marlowe as she investigates a mysterious crime ring and new drug that hit the market. Starting in dystopian slums, her investigation brings her to a luxurious interstellar yacht, where not everything is as it seems. I read this book incredibly quickly, and particularly loved the interactions with the PI and her sassy android pig companion. Read the complete review for Tropical Punch on the blog, fortunately it’s only book 1 of 5 in the series by Canadian Cyberpunk author S.C. Jensen!

World Cyberpunk Day: Favorite Cyberpunk Video Game

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon by Ubisoft

If you ask most Cyberpunk fans what their favorite Cyberpunk game is, they will probably answer System Shock, Shadowrun, or Deus Ex (see the speed run in the Cyberpunk Day lineup above). While I haven’t played System Shock (it’s a little dated to play now unless you have that nostalgia factor) or Shadowrun (a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, think blade runner meets LOTR from what I’ve heard), I have actually played Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Unfortunately, I felt both Deus Ex games were a lot more stealth and RPG-focused for my tastes, with the gameplay considerably less fun than the usual fast-paced First Person Shooters I usually go for. Considering I’m a FPS player at heart, it should come with no surprise that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is actually my favorite Cyberpunk video game of all time (even more than Cyberpunk 2077, surprisingly, although it was close). Sold as a stand-alone expansion to Far Cry 3 (another favorite FPS game of mine), FC3: Blood Dragon is a hilarious, over-the-top parody of 1980s action films featuring corny lines, fast paced action, dragons shooting laser beams, and cyborg ninjas.

Your Favorites

So what are your favorites? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Movies

The Matrix Resurrections: Official Trailer Reaction and Breakdown

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The Matrix Resurrections: Official Full Trailer

The Matrix Resurrections finally released its official trailer this month, and I’ve finally found some time between moving and getting stable internet back to sit down and unpack everything it revealed. So buckle your seatbelts, folks, because there’s a lot of exciting things that we’ve learned about Matrix 4.

The opening shot

The trailer begins with an opening shot of the top of a hill in downtown San Francisco, with a lot more vibrant hues and colors than we’re used to, considering the green tint to everything we saw in the previous Matrix trilogy. While this may seem confusing to some, it’s important to remember that at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, we see a young Sati next to the Oracle overlooking a brightly-colored sunrise, which apparently Sati created. The hues and color tone of that final scene in the matrix matches this color scheme, so it’s not exactly without precedent, despite it being definitely something new.

In the therapist’s home

We then pop into the office of a psychologist, played by Neil Patrick Harris, who is asking Neo (Thomas) about himself. We immediately see a black cat like the black cat Neo saw in The Matrix that was a deja vu, which was a glitch in the matrix and an indication that something was changed in the code of the matrix. This cat is walking across a desk with a porcelain bust of a head with different markings of the brain, and behind it are two butterflies (symbols of rebirth) in both red and blue, mirroring the red and blue pills from The Matrix as well.

The Therapist is wearing blue glasses and a blue vest, and we see yet another blue butterfly behind him.

Thomas Anderson tells the psychologist that he’s having “dreams that aren’t just dreams” and asks if he’s crazy. So clearly Neo has no memory of what he was in his past life, or who he was before he was reborn. We then see him meet Trinity, and with a handshake they seem to recognize each other, despite Trinity not recognizing him either, clearly a sign that she lost her memory as well.

Memory: A Theme for Matrix Resurrections

Earlier this year, Lana sold a prop piece from the movie set for charity, a plaque for a hovercraft with the name “Mnemosyne”, which was the greek god for memory. So clearly memory and memory loss will be a major theme in this film. This also matches similar themes of lives connected across time and generations that we saw in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas (which was directed by the Wachoskis and written by David Mitchell, the writer for the book the movie was based off of, and Tom Tykwer, who composed the musical score for Matrix Resurrections).

Blue Pills

In the next scene, we see Neo taking prescribed blue pills (which in Matrix Symbolism, a red pill was the pill to leave the matrix and wake up in the real world, whereas the blue pill was to forget and stay asleep in the matrix, symbolism present in the original Matrix film). The label on the pill bottle is Ontolofloxin, a made up drug whose name suggests an antibiotic for Ontology, or the study of existence.

Screen Zombies

We then see Neo in an elevator looking at a variety of people all staring at their screens like zombies, a subtle reflection of our current media-obsessed society.

The Oracle and Alice in Wonderland

Next we see Neo throw out his blue pills and go see who looks like a new Oracle, quite possibly a grown-up Sati played by Priyanka Chopra wearing red glasses (possibly a subtle parallel to the psychologist’s blue glasses) as she puts down the novel Alice in Wonderland. The symbolism of Alice in Wonderland was also present in the original Matrix film, with a mirror leading to a new world and references to the novel from Morpheus and Cypher. In this trailer, the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane plays throughout, with the words “go ask Alice” when Neo meets the Oracle in the trailer.

We next see Neo standing in front of a one such a mirror, and for a split second we see a balding Neo with a face that looks eerily similar to Agent Smith from the original trilogy. We know that Hugo Weaving will not be in the film, since he confirmed he was not able to join the cast due to a scheduling conflict, but there may be references to his character using digital animation similar to what we’ve seen with recent Star Wars movies bringing back actors digitally.

A New, Younger Morpheus

We then see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character looking like a young Morpheus, including bare head and round small sunglasses, offering Neo a blue and red pill once again. I personally think Yahya could do a great job as a new, younger Morpheus, but like everyone else I don’t know yet why Morpheus is young while Trinity and Neo are old(er). That must have been a very intentional decision not to invite Laurence Fishburne back, since he was such a central character in the original trilogy and he probably would have said yes if he had been asked. It’s probably due to the script instead of any bad relationships between the two, so far as I know the Wachowskis had worked very well with Fishburne during the filming of the original trilogy.

Follow the White Rabbit

Next we see Jessica Henwick’s character, with a rabbit tattoo on her shoulder similar to the girl who also had a rabbit tattoo that led Neo to meet Trinity, following the orders on his computer to “Follow the White Rabbit.” What I found interesting from Henwick’s character is that she feels similar to a new kind of “Trinity” character, but with a British accent, which makes me wonder why Lana wanted Henwick’s character to at least sound British. She then leads Neo through a door of white light, similar to the white light doors we saw from Matrix Reloaded, and the two emerge from yet another liquid mirror.

Trinity Crying Code?

A few scenes later we see Neo holding Trinity’s hand, and we suddenly see green code start streaming down the side of her face, which I am very curious to see what it was. Perhaps it’s an indication that Trinity, like Neo perhaps, only exist in the Matrix at that point in time, and don’t have physical bodies yet.

After this we see Neo and a young Morpheus fighting in a dojo, just like we saw Neo learning Kung Fu fighting Morpheus in the original Matrix film.

Next we finally see some scenes of the real world, with the red pods of humans still plugged into the matrix, and a hovercraft floating through the ruins of a church.

Matrix 1 Projection in Matrix 4??!!

Then we see something particularly meta. We see a stage with a mirror, and a surveillance booth with military soldiers, but on the wall is projected Neo entering the Matrix from the first film! So a scene from Matrix 1 will be in Matrix 4. What could this possibly mean??

And So Much More

We also see more kung fu, a train fight scene, gun shootouts, corporate offices exploding in a building that may be called Deus Ex Machina, and Neo with a shaved head and a more modern neck plug connected into the Matrix, Trinity doing a special powered shout, gravity flipping (which we saw the Merovingian’s henchmen doing in Matrix Revolutions), wall running, agents entering human bodies in the matrix and dodging bullets, Henwick and someone else breaking through glass and falling toward the street (which Trinity did also in Matrix Reloaded, yet another parallel between Trinity and Henwick), Neo fighting someone in a train station (he fought Smith in what looks like the same underground train station in Matrix 1), Neo stopping bullets like he did in Matrix Reloaded at the Chateau, and finally…Neo and Trinity holding hands jumping off a skyscraper into the air, much like we saw in March of last year when they were filming in Alameda and San Francisco. This could very well be Keanu and Carrie-Anne actually doing their own stunts here between these 2 skyscrapers in San Francisco!

Also in the end scene with the credits we see some yellow code, which we saw in Matrix Revolutions as the way Neo sees the matrix, instead of the usual green code.

Want to Join the Conversation?

So those are all the major things I found! There was so much exciting content in this trailer that could all be unpacked and discussed and analyzed, but which unfortunately there isn’t enough time or space here on this blog post. If you’d like to add any additional comments on things you saw for this trailer, feel free to add them in the comments below. You can also check out the active Matrix subreddit for more discussions, or the Cyberpunk Matrix YouTube channel and comment on my reaction to this trailer in the comments there.

Movies

The Matrix Resurrections: Interactive Teaser Trailer

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The Matrix 4: Resurrections Official Teaser Trailer

Breaking news for Matrix fans: Not only has Matrix 4 been confirmed to be titled The Matrix: Resurrections, but Warner Brothers have also suddenly released an interactive teaser trailer that can be found online at whatisthematrix.com, which will redirect to thechoiceisyours.whatisthematrix.com.

Also confirmed is that the official trailer will be released on September 9th, 2021 at 3pm CEST.

Whatisthematrix.com returns

Upon going to both web pages, the viewer is greeted with the same problem of choice that Thomas Anderson was given by Morpheus in The Matrix. CHOOSE YOUR REALITY proclaims the tab title, with only one phrase upon a white background: THE CHOICE IS YOURS presented with a red pill and a blue pill, once again.

“You take the blue pill, you wake up and believe, whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, and I show you how far the rabbit hole goes.”–Morpheus.

If you click the red pill, you will be shown a teaser trailer that corresponds to the exact time that you chose to take the red pill along with a voiceover by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. If you click the blue pill, you will be shown a slightly different, yet similar, teaser trailer that also corresponds to the exact time you chose to take the blue pill along with a voiceover by Neil Patrick Harris.

Amongst green and yellow code cascading both up and down the screen this time, the teaser trailer shows a variety of different scenes from the upcoming Matrix Resurrections film that promises not to disappoint, but that also have many similar themes to the original trilogy.

Twitter user @matrixresource noticed the many similarities already in a tweet:

https://twitter.com/TheMatrixResou1/status/1435373212095844358?s=20

We also finally had a chance to see what the color scheme and cinematography would look like, and many people are very excited with what they saw, myself included.

The scenes revealed showed us Jessica Henwick sporting blue hair firing a gun, Jonathan Groff losing the ability to speak, a new hovercraft that is surely the Mnemosyne (whose name was revealed when Lana Wachowski was donating the ship’s plaque prop earlier this year), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II looking at himself in a mirror, and many more. We also had a chance to see a variety of scenes with Neo: on a motorcycle seemingly controlling his surroundings with his hand, speaking with Trinity, and walking off the rooftop of a skyscraper.

Online Matrix fan and MxO Youtube Content Creator Vesuveus had nothing but praise for the trailer and its iterative variations & intelligent design.

There was actually another Cyberpunk Matrix content creator, yours truly, who could hardly contain his excitement. Enough so that he made a reaction video that you can now see on the Cyberpunk Matrix YouTube channel.

Although I am a little concerned about the use of too much CGI, which is all too easy to see nowadays, I am generally super excited and hopeful for The Matrix: Resurrections. The story seems very intriguing, the costumes and characters look great, but we will have to wait until Thursday’s actual trailer to get more information and a better impression. It will be great to see the old cast, and to see how the new cast do as well. As for the trailer delivery, I did truly love its interactive nature, it was very unique and refreshing–I certainly don’t know of any other film that has kept its production under wraps so well and then revealed a teaser trailer so mysteriously, with such a (to me) complex code.

The Matrix Campaign for Matrix Resurrections is Here

Finally, the marketing campaign for The Matrix Resurrections has  arrived. One user saw ads for the actual trailer coming in 2 days, and I can only imagine what additional marketing materials we will see coming our way in the next few months.

For more detailed thoughts and analysis, make sure to check out the live reaction video on the NeoMatrixology YouTube channel, as they did an excellent hour-long breakdown of their thoughts and impressions.

But what did you think? Did you like this new website, and the teaser trailer? Are you excited for the actual trailer to drop tomorrow? Will you be watching? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Interviews, Podcast

The Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast | Episode 3: Cyberpunk Novelist Matthew Goodwin discusses the Cyberpunk Genre

Welcome to the Third Episode of the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast

In the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast Episode 3,  I am joined by Cyberpunk writer and novelist Matthew Goodwin, creator of a 5-book Cyberpunk Saga starting with his first book, Into Neon.

In today’s podcast we discuss:

  • How Matthew defines Cyberpunk and how he got into the genre
  • What his favorite Cyberpunk Media are
  • How to recognize Cyberpunk tropes and stereotypes
  • What litRPG is and how it’s appearing in Cyberpunk media
  • Different kinds of Cyberpunk as they are appearing, in particular with his writing compared to other Cyberpunk media
  • How NaNoWriMo inspired both of us
  • The future of the Cyberpunk genre
  • The Cyberpunk community
  • How the Amazon series Upload fits in the Cyberpunk genre
  • The Matrix, and Matrix 4
  • Cyberpunk Day
  • And a lot more.

For more from Matthew Goodwin, all of his books are now available on Amazon. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to write your responses in the comments below, and if you’d like to be a guest or want some questions answered on the podcast, send us an email to thecyberpunkmatrix@gmail.com

Television

Upload: Is This Cyberpunk?

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Upload: Is this Cyberpunk?

Upload is a relatively new series on Amazon Prime that came out in May 2020 and is a science-fiction comedy-drama set in the future where humans are able to upload their digital consciousness into a virtual afterlife, a bit like the episode from Black Mirror San Junipero. It’s rare that we see a science fiction comedy-drama series, as most are either action, drama, or thrillers, and especially one carrying such philosophical ramifications while making light of the whole notion at the same time. Themes include digital consciousness, the question of what makes us human, virtual life, and cutting edge-technology set in a non-too-distant future of 2033.

But is it Cyberpunk? Today, I’m going to take a look at Upload and answer that exact question.

A Familiar Cyberpunk Premise

First, a little bit about the premise of Upload.

Set in the not too distant future of 2033, humans are able to upload their virtual consciousness to a virtual afterlife of their choosing, with some afterlives being better than others depending on how much the user is willing to pay.  When computer programmer Nathan dies prematurely, his girlfriend convinces him to upload to “Lakeview”, an expensive digital afterlife, only to find himself under her oppressive thumb as she holds total control of his funds and thus, his afterlife.

UPLOAD

With a Familiar Cyberpunk Plot

As Nathan gets used to living in a digital afterlife, he finds himself growing closer to Nora, his living customer service rep. As Nora deals with her dying father and his wish not to be uploaded with the pressures of the job and her growing interest in Nathan, the two of them slowly discover that the circumstances of Nathan’s death aren’t all as they would appear to be.

Where’s all the Rainy Neon Megacities?

Is this Cyberpunk though? Well, it depends on your definition, because if you’re looking for a dark, gritty, and rain-soaked neon world, then Upload definitely isn’t it.

However, it certainly has a lot of the typical Cyberpunk tropes.

Recognizing the Cyberpunk Elements

Not only is the premise of a digital afterlife very Cyberpunk (we need only look to Black Mirror, Altered Carbon, or Ready Player One for similar themes) along with its latent existential and moral questions, but there’s a good amount of futuristic technology present in this series too, used in various interesting ways.

Cyberpunk 101: Attending your own wake after you die

In exploring what it would be like for a physical person to die with their consciousness uploaded, for example, we get to see almost an entire episode dedicated to Nathan attending his own wake, with some real people calling in virtually, other real people attending in person, and him attending across a mirror TV screen as his digital self from Lakeview.

We’ve seen these hand-phones before…

The real world itself is also very futuristic, with self-driving cars that feel similar to Total Recall or I Robot in style, which also play an important role in the series at the beginning. Getting groceries also involves interacting with a robotic arm much like you would find in an automated car factory, and when people call each other it’s done using their hands, which we’ve seen before in Total Recall as well.

Dark and Seedy Hacking Den? Check.

Later on in season one we even see a hacker’s den selling hacks for the avatars at Lakeview, and later a secret level in the hotel for adult-level debauchery.

The actual focus: a comedic romantic cyber-drama

All this, however, is the backdrop for what invariably is a cute romance between Nathan and Nora. The focus is on whimsical and comedic drama, which isn’t’ an easy thing to do with a series based on a premise this deep.

Final Verdict: Yes, this is Cyberpunk

So is this Cyberpunk? I definitely think so. It was also quite an enjoyable, relaxing, and fun experience watching, so I definitely recommend it. The acting for almost all characters are great, especially the principal leads, the character’s choices based on the premise is very believable, and the cinematography and music are both great.

 

Interviews, Podcast

The Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast | Episode 2: NeoMatrixology discusses the Matrix Universe

Welcome to the Second Episode of the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast

In the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast Episode 2,  I am joined by Matrix University Director Lazarus, host of the NeoMatrixology YouTube channel.

We discuss:

  • The term NeoMatrixology
  • Addressing Misconceptions about the Matrix
  • The Matrix Fan Community
  • The Yellow-pilled approach and Matrix University
  • Learning new things about the Matrix every day
  • Matrix 4 News
  • Matrix 4 Predictions
  • What we’re most excited about for Matrix 4
  • John Wick
  • Matrix 4 Expectations

Hope you enjoy! Feel free to write your responses in the comments below, and if you’d like to be a guest or want some questions answered on the podcast, send us an email to thecyberpunkmatrix@gmail.com

Interviews, Podcast

The Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast Episode 1: Snowcrash, Matrix 4, and Ready Player One

Welcome to the First Episode of the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast

In the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast Episode 1,  I am joined by friend to the show and cyberpunk enthusiast Steven Katz.

We discuss:

  • Defining Cyberpunk
  • Snowcrash
  • Seeing the first Matrix films, and what scenes stuck with us
  • Matrix 4 news
  • Ready Player One the novel, and its adaptation to film
  • Philip K Dick
  • and the Cyberpunk genre in general.

Hope you enjoy! Feel free to write your responses in the comments below, and if you’d like to be a guest or want some questions answered on the podcast, send us an email to thecyberpunkmatrix@gmail.com

Podcast

Introducing the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast: Episode 00

Introducing the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast: Episode 00

In this initial Episode 00, I talk about

  • The definition of Cyberpunk
  • Some examples of the genre
  • The importance of Cyberpunk in our current society
  • Why we are seeing a resurgence in Cyberpunk.
  • Why I decided to start the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast
  • Why I decided to start the Cyberpunk Matrix Blog
  • Common Cyberpunk aesthetics
  • Why I love the Cyberpunk genre
  • What listeners can expect from the Cyberpunk Matrix Podcast.

Hope you enjoy! Feel free to write your responses in the comments below, and if you’d like to be a guest or want some questions answered on the podcast, send us an email to thecyberpunkmatrix@gmail.com

http://https://youtu.be/pcirLEl_U3s

Movies

Matrix 4: What we Know so Far (June 2021 Updates)

Matrix 4: What do we know so far?

It is now less than 200 days until Matrix 4 will be released in theaters on December 22nd, 2021. But what do we know about the film so far? Here at Cyberpunk Matrix, we’ll bring you up to speed on the latest developments all the way back to the original announcements.

Here’s what we know so far about Matrix 4:

Matrix 4 Directors, Writers, and Creators

Directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly will not be participating in the creation of the movie. Matrix 4 will be produced by both Lana Wachowski and Grant Hill.

The script has been written by Lana Wachowski as well, but this time with help from additional writers Aleksander Hemon and David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas).

Matrix 4 Cast

Returning to the Matrix franchise are Keanu Reeves (Neo/Thomas Anderson), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity),

Jada Pinkett-Smith (Niobe),

Lambert Wilson (The Merovingian), and Daniel Bernhardt (Agent Johnson).

Newcomers to the cast include Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman, Watchmen),

Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, A Series of Unfortunate Events),

Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist),

Jonathan Groff (Glee, Frozen, Mindhunter),

Ellen Hollman (Spartacus),

Priyanka Chopra (Baywatch),

and Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan, Speed Racer).

Also part of the cast are ex-Sense8 cast members, whom have all worked with the Wachowskis during the Sense 8 series in the past. These include Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Erendira Ibarra, Andrew Caldwell, and Brian J Smith.

Notably absent from the Matrix 4 cast are Laurence Fishburne, who was not asked to reprise his old role as Morpheus, as well as Hugo Weaving, who was approached but ultimately not able to join the cast due to a scheduling conflict.

Matrix 4 Filming

Under the codename “Project Ice Cream”, filming began in San Francisco on February 4th, 2020, and wrapped in San Francisco and Alameda in March right before the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unfortunately, there was still some filming that needed to be done in Berlin at Studio Babelsberg, which was delayed but ultimately finished by the end of 2020. Matrix 4 is currently set to come out on December 22nd, 2021.

Matrix 4 Plot: Educated Guesses

We don’t know much about what will be in the movie yet, but after leaked shots of filming in San Francisco, we can make some educated guesses.

At some point during filming Keanu Reeves shaved his head, which suggests that he will be playing a Neo / Thomas Anderson who is alive and well in the real world, which brings into question how he was resurrected after his apparent death at the end of Matrix Revolutions.

He was also filmed with what looks like a haggard appearance in what must be the Matrix, suggesting his virtual self comes back too, perhaps with no memory of his past life?

Carrie-Anne Moss’ casting also suggests that Trinity was also able to be resurrected somehow as well, unless if time travel or memory-scenes aren’t being used as plot devices, which I personally doubt. I think it much more likely that Neo and Trinity’s consciousnesses will be somehow downloaded from the Matrix and reinserted into either clones or real-world bodies, which would explain their resurrection somehow.

Also in filming military helicopters were present flying among the buildings of San Francisco, which suggests some sort of explosive action sequences, complete with chase scenes on motorcycles, within the matrix itself. FBI agents and SWAT teams will probably be present within the Matrix world, at least.

Notably present in the filming were scenes of someone looking like Trinity catching someone looking like Neo in the sky suspended between two different skyscrapers. Then Trinity appears to fly up into the sky holding Neo, which suggests that perhaps Trinity becomes more powerful than Neo in this next chapter of the story, and that Neo maybe needs to re-learn or re-discover who he is.

Also from the rumor mill is that Matrix 4 will actually be called Matrix Resurrections, based on this post by Shunika Terry, a makeup artist who worked with the cast on set. Officially, the movie is still untitled as Matrix 4.

In an interview on “The One Show” on BBC, Keanu Reeves revealed about Matrix 4 that it “is a love story, it’s inspiring, it’s another version of a kind of call to wake up, it entertains, it’s great action, and all will be revealed…no going back into the past.”

So what other kinds of waking up will we see? Whose love story is this about, is it between Neo and Trinity again? We can at least know that it won’t be a prequel or set in the past.

Nonetheless, there are plenty more questions about the upcoming Matrix film, and all we can do is sit and wait for the trailer to release to give us more information. Which will hopefully be any time now.

What do you think Matrix 4 will be about? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.

Movies

Cyberpunk Review: Love, Death, and Robots: Vol 2

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Cyberpunk Review: Love, Death + Robots Vol. 2

Love, Death, & Robots is a series of animated shorts, an anthology all loosely related to love, death, and robots. Which means that many of which are also cyberpunk related. Volume I released in 2019, and we here at Cyberpunk Matrix covered the cyberpunk-related episodes here. Well, it took a couple years, but I’m happy to report that Volume II is finally here. So fasten you seatbelts, punks, because we’re about to dive into a new wild series of surreal, curious, cyberpunk worlds.

4 Cyberpunk Episodes, 8 Episodes Total

The first thing one notices about Volume II is how short it is compared to Volume I. While Volume I was a generous 18 episodes in length, Volume II contains only 8 episodes. Volume II’s longest episode clocks in at 18 minutes in length, although a considerable part of all episodes contain credits and thus shorten the actual run time, and the shortest runs at 7 minutes in length.

It’s hard to tell with these episodes which ones would truly be considered cyberpunk and which ones wouldn’t, since they are all so short, but since here at Cyberpunk Matrix we’re used to considered if something is Cyberpunk, I’m fairly confident with the episodes we selected. So here it is, folks, all the episodes related to Cyberpunk from Volume II of Love, Death, and Robots, complete with my own thoughts and review of each episode. Ironically, these four episodes are also the four that are first in the 8-episode anthology series

Cyberpunk episodes from Vol. 2:

  1. Automated Customer Service
  2. Ice
  3. Pop Squad
  4. Snow in the Desert

Cyberpunk Episode 1: Automated Customer Service

This episode reminded me a lot of the episode called blackhead from Black Mirror: a small, automated robot which threatens a nearby human with its cold, relentless hunt of the human it’s searching for.  Unlike Blackhead, however, this episode is delivered with a side of dark humor, a parody of automated customer service answering machines that is as much critical and social commentary as it is ridiculous. It features a future society in an elderly community where all electrical devices have been made automated, so as to give the elderly people who live there as assisted an experience as possible. All seems well and good, a prime utopian experience, until of course one of the automated robots malfunctions and starts threatening every living being inside the home it’s supposed to be cleaning.

I personally didn’t care for the animation itself, with its sharp angles it felt much too similar to a badly rendered videogame. Nonetheless, it ended up being very funny in the end, and as always I’m a sucker for a film, whether it be short or otherwise, that takes something that exists in present day and shows the negative sides of it by speculating what would happen if we took that same system to the extreme.

Basically, if you like dystopian futures with robots, and you like dark humor, then you’ll love this episode.

Cyberpunk Episode 2: Ice

Ice is a coming of age story about a teenager who is struggling to fit in with the other kids at school. A classic tale, of course, except the twist for this one is that the town they live in seems to be in the middle of a frozen tundra, with only oil wells of some sort and the residences of the workers who maintain them. Oh and the majority of the kids in town are genetically augmented, which makes the only un-augmented younger brother feel out of place and thus compelled to prove himself that much more.

At first I wasn’t going to classify this entry as a cyberpunk short, until I considered the genetic augmentations, the drugs, the punk-like artwork, and the rebellious nature of the teens sneaking out of their homes to take part in dangerous games to demonstrate their fearlessness and ability.

If you like stylistic artwork, high contrast, and a coming of age story with a dramatic thrilling end, then you’ll like Ice.

Cyberpunk Episode 3: Pop Squad

Pop Squad was my personal favorite of all eight episodes. Closely resembling a film-noir style set in the future (which is just like what Blade Runner did to pioneer the cyberpunk style), Pop Squad features a government operative, a detective of sorts whose mission is to find and process unregistered, or illegal children. Illegal children in this world doesn’t mean immigrants, however. Rather, it’s a type of population control police force to ensure that humanity isn’t having too many children, or any children at all for that matter, which seems to be a luxury reserved for the rich and powerful. This society also seems to have solved the problem of ageing, allowing many of its citizens to live hundreds of years. So what happens when one such population-control detective develops a conscience? Well, you get pop squad. The voice acting, visuals, and acting are all incredible. The episode also asks the question of what makes life worth living, where we as a society place our values, and why seeing the world through a child’s eyes is important.

Cyberpunk Episode 4: Snow in the Desert

Perhaps the most fun, interesting, and well-animated episode of all  (it seems to be a favorite for many), Snow in the Desert is about an albino bounty hunter with an unusual physiological special ability that everyone wants to kill him for. Set on what looks like a desert planet similar to Tatooine from Star Wars, it features some calm moments and some exciting moments, with a surprise ending that really drives home the Cyberpunk elements. The animation for this episode was incredible–it really felt like live action even though it was digitally animated. I was also left wanting more, and Snow himself reminded me a lot of an old, grizzly Han Solo.

If you like desert planets, high-quality digital animation, action/mystery and great visuals, then you’ll like Snow in the Desert.

Final Verdict: 8.5/10

For the quality of the visuals, the great voice acting, the action and compelling stories delivered in these short segments, I give Volume 2 a high rating of 8.5. I only wish we got more episodes, 8 is a woefully low number considering how short each episode is, but otherwise I felt the quality of all the episodes were really good. If I had to pick I would say Volume 1 was better, simply because there was more there so they had some better episodes and some worse episodes overall.

But what were your thoughts? Which episodes were your favorite? Make sure to let us know in the comments below.