Whoa. Saw eXistenZ tonight. What a movie. Well, I gotta say, I expected no less from Cronenberg. Strange casting decisions that somehow end up working, and an amazingly novel take on the "reality" theme present a challenge to the popular philosophy school that The Matrix popularized (during the same year as eXistenZ, actually), schlock like The Matrix Reloaded started to beat up on and utter crap like The Matrix Revolutions effectively finished off, ofsetting the sci-fi/philosophy genre for another ten years, at the very least.

At any rate. Though many approaches in eXistenZ were very original, I saw a constant looking back to Videodrome, what with the wicked biological gun assembly (with the tooth-bullets, heh) and the "Death to the demoness!" shouts and all. I was left with the impression that Cronenberg perhaps really was trying to make up for something he did not finish in Videodrome or something he could do better, some sixteen years later.

My only complaint is regarding the ending. Yes, there are many "realities" in filmmaking itself, I understand. But I believe it could be perfect. If you've already seen the movie, you can read about my gripes on the IMDb forums here.