I really enjoyed Matrix Reloaded. Alot of my friends thought it was a letdown until I explained the plot to them. So here are some things that I thought were cool that you may or may not have picked up along with a theory or 2. And for those that haven't seen it (where have you been?), there are spoilers.

• The Vampires and Werewolves weren't just there to say that there are vampires and werewolves in the Matrix. They are agents left over from an older version of the matrix (they couldn't have used FBI agents if the matrix was based on a different stage in history, ya know?)
  
• Persephone doesn't decide that she needs a kiss just for the hell of it. She's a vampire of a different kind...(note that Persephone was the wife of Hades in mythology)
  
• The Oracle engineered Neo's choice at the end. Watch the first one when she tells Trinity that she will love the one and Neo obviously doesn't love Trin yet.
  
• Why do you think Neo was able to stop all the squiddies at the end? Is it because Zion is another Matrix inside the Matrix?*gasp* Or does it relate to all the stuff about bioelectricity in the first one? Hmmm...?
  
• The Merovingians were a Frankian Ruling family in the middle ages (about 700 years before 1999. There were 6 one's before Neo. Each reset the Matrix after 100 years.) that were believed by some to have descended from daemons and monsters created in unions between angels and men in the book of Genesis. A Daemon is another name for a small part of a computer program designed to run in the backgound and carry out a small task. Thus is Merovingian.
  
• Who's watching all those monitors that show Neo in the interrogation room in the first one? Now we know.
  
• How does Neo stop those squiddies at the end? Is Zion a matrix inside the matrix? Or does it have something to do with bioelectricity? Hmmm...
  
• Zionists are Jews trying to separate from the rest of the Jews (simplified alot, I know)

That's all I could remember off the top of my head at 3AM. What do you think? Got any others?

Okay, I just saw this movie too and was going to start a new thread about it. Instead I figured I'd play Neo here and rescue Popcorn's thread from the Org-Matrix of seite drei. I also hope maybe Pop will reveal the significance/origin of his name. heh

I also thought of posting on KingSausage's thread...

http://www.prince.org/msg...&tid=49410

...If for no other reason than the opportunity to call out rd as a motherfucker and put him on my list of one. Especially since he is deactivated and can't retaliate.

rd

Okay, preliminaries over. Let me start by saying I had absolutely no idea what was going on for most of the movie, and subsequent Googling and reading here at the Org hasn't really helped. (There were angels and vampires?? wtf? ) Some might consider that a handicap when offering a review. I think it's alright.

And I've seen the first movie. Twice! A class I was teaching convinced me to show it because it related to something we were reading. I can't imagine what it was. Utopia? The Cyborg Manifesto? (And no! I didn't take up class time showing a movie! That's a cop out!) They all loved it and some good discussion came about. With all that, I still couldn't follow this thing! I saw some familiar people, some familiar eerie claustrophobic tunnels cum cyber-cables, that leather suit on whatshername, and, yes, those trenchcoats... Part of the problem is that I have the attention span of a six year old. More about that later.

Anyway, it started with that streaming, dripping, cyber-code and quickly moved to Trinity (That's her name!) shooting her way out of a building. Out the window of a building that is. And the rain of glass and the dripping code I guess were supposed to echo one another. It's all about the Fall and interpreting the reasons for the Fall. (More cryptic religious bullshit to follow.)

She gets shot, it's a dream, blah blah blah. But damn that girl is good. I think she would kick Neo's ass if it came down to it. It almost did when Monica Bellucci put the moves on Keanu Reeves. That scene was funny, in a "that scene is really not funny" kind of way.

Anyway, other scenes and events happen that I didn't really get. (Did I say above that there were spoilers here? heh. I wouldn't worry too much about it. ) Morpheus's speech to whoever he was speaking to (would they be called "Zionists"? Somehow I doubt it) was a bit of a relief for me as he seemed to spell things out for everyone, the movie audience included. But I forgot what he said. Everyone seemed pretty revved by it though, so I guess I was too!

And then there's this keymaster guy or "The Locksmith" or something. He was the sole instance of humor in this very grim movie: this older, short, dumpy looking guy who sits in this close little office grinding out keys that surround him like the computers on board the Nebuchadnezzar.

It's actually quite liberating when you don't recall/understand any of the plot, as you can kind of drift from topic to topic!

At one point there are a couple of albino guys who work for this despicable French guy and his wife (Bellucci) and who looked like Sigfried and Sigfried (or is it Roy and Roy?) and they go for the Key guy, who just bolts! Another fight scene, as Neo stays to settle business with hubby and his crew of sword swingers, sending Trinity and Morpheus to defend the Key guy.

As the two albinos catch up with the Key guy, they start to fight... and I suddenly remember that I didn't put enough money in the parking meter. So I go outside to check and what do you know? There was enough money in the meter! I'll be damned.

So I miss that bit.

But I come back just as there is a fight on the freeway (the scene that KS mentioned.) I guess it was okay. But I've spent the last 8 months or so commuting on the Northern State Parkway, so I see worse every day. One of the suit-guys is fighting with Morpheus atop a speeding 18-wheeler and you know it's going to end badly for the suit when Morpheus does one of his patented (and geriatric) spin moves and slices off the guys tie. Damn! That's some bad mojo.

Then what? Oh yeah, the Key guy dies. I guess he dies. No one else seems to ever die, so I don't know why he's so lucky. And then there's a lot of "Lady or Tiger" decisions that various people, mainly Neo, need to make. That seems to go well, even without the red or blue pills to choose from. At this point, I suddenly remember that the pressure in my tires may not be where it needs to be. So I go outside and check. At which point it occurs to me that I don't know where the pressure in my tires is supposed to be anyway. So I head back in.

Good thing too. Because Neo is meeting with what looks to be a very important guy who I don't think was in the first movie, and he seems to be pissed by this fact. He is called the Architect. He looks like Sigmund Freud, talks like Vincent Price, and dresses like Ricardo Montalban. All of which screams to me "Denouement!"

And I guess there is a resolution of sorts, or a further clarification, something along the lines of "all in all we're just another brick in the wall" or something. Neo confesses that the One is yet another deception and we are all behaviorally driven, in what seems a complete turnabout from the first movie! But maybe I missed something there as well...

Also, did anyone notice Cornel West put in an appearance as one of the committee that tries to save Morpheus and company? From the Celly to the Matrix!

It was good I guess. I need to see it again. Maybe I should take the bus.

I give it a 7 1/2.







FREE YOUR EDIT
[This message was edited Sat May 24 19:29:12 PDT 2003 by 2the9s]

PopcornFetus said:

I think you're a glitch in the Matrix...

Thinking more about this movie after a good night's sleep (and dreams in which visions of $8.75 danced in my head. Talk about your freaking matrix! ) I have come to the conclusion that I still didn't know what it was about...

But there was another scene that I forgot to mention that I wanted to mention: the scene where the rapidly multiplying Smith's attack Neo in the alley. That was the trailer that was most frequently shown and that whole concept of uncertain identity and virally multiplying personalities seems to be different than in the first movie.

Visually, I liked the scene. All those Smiths attacking, all those suits in need of pressing, the spin kicks, the dog-pile, the robotic lack of expression except for this seething rage. Some great stuff. And yet amidst all that choreography of kick-ass, Keanu Reeves stood out as particularly stiff. I guess that was the point -- to remain unphased among the attack of the Smith-Clones. But I couldn't help but feel that Stanislavsky might have helped at least as much as Bruce Lee. ("Be the One, be the one...")

And then there was that scene where Smith and Neo meet face to face and he says that they are part of one another or something? What was that all about? Again this scene of personalities and identities bleeding into one another, all those interpenetrations of bodies for purposes of healing or attack. I would have more to say about this, but I was out checking my windshield wiper fluid as there was rain in the forecast...

That didn't happen.

I am staying with my 7 1/2 rating.

Damn rd, all your Matrix references tonight, I wanted you to see this!

ithought it was real good too,
although the Zion scenes dragged on a bit...