Anyone out there who still thinks The Matrix is deep or original in any legitimate respect — I’m talking about the whole franchise (as it’s come to be) — then watch Dark City. Please. If you’ve already seen it, then watch it again if you haven’t recently. You probably haven’t seen it since the second Matrix movie was released. Since no one seems to remember the film, I feel this is a pretty safe assumption.

Every single theme encapsulated within the first two movies is present in Dark City — only there’s even more. And it’s tied together more well. It’s more elegant. It’s more stylish. It’s more original. It’s made with more talent and more heart. It’s got a better sense of narrative. Not only that, but it understands what it’s talking about. It doesn’t just dump freshman-level philosophy directly out of a class discussion. It doesn’t get is special effects from TV commercials. Although they’re just as much tools of the narrative as in The Matrix, its characters have personality.

It doesn’t pretend to be hip, by borrowing its hips from all of the most obviously cool ziggurats of popular culture. And it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It is a self-contained short story, because that is the nature of its message. The Wachowski brothers, in contrast, don’t seem to understand the useful limits of their material. Kind of like George Lucas.

And — again — they don’t have anywhere nearly as much to say. Not that they understand what little they do have. Nor do they seem to understand that their words are not their own.