He “killed” the sentinel… what appears to be a “ghost” figure is Neo’s energy vision seeing the sentinel’s energy dispersing. The actual sentinel was run over by the ship.
Sounds about right to me. At one point in Reloaded, Neo is told that he is ‘hundreds of miles outside the city’ rather than ‘in the middle of Austria’ or whatever. Although in the first movie, Smith makes reference to ‘billions of people, living out their lives…’. shrugs
It’s never properly addressed in the films but it would be interesting to know exactly how big the Matrix is and how it is ‘enclosed’, if at all. Could people in the Matrix go to the Moon? To Mars?
wayward, I would assume so, yes. The way I’ve always thought it was is as follows: The Matrix is the world you and I are living in today. That’s what made the premise of the first one especially creepy.
Well yes, that’s what it seems like from the first movie but for me, Reloaded made the whole Matrix seem a lot less like our world, what with all these programs running around acting like supernatural beings, and the references to the city, the highway and so on. Does nothing ever happen anywhere else in the world? I don’t know…
Fair enough, which is exactly why I consider The Matrix (1st one)and The Matrix Reloaded two completely separate entities. That now also applies to Revolutions, though I have no problem grouping it with Reloaded sigh
Saw it yesterday. Exciting and action-packed, but hugely disappointing in how it enlarged the story to ridiculous proportions while leaving so much unexplained.
The biggest problem I had with Revolutions is that, after the somewhat internally-consistent setup of the original film, Revolutions (and the end of Reloaded) demanded that I suspend my disbelief in ways that go far far beyond what was required in the original.
In the original film, “super powers” were entirely restricted to the Matrix; the only reason Neo (and Trinity, and Morpheus, etc) were able to do the things they did was because they learned to see the reality behind the Matrix and, armed with this knowledge, became more and more adept at transcending the self-imposed limits and bending the false, software-generated reality to their will.
This not only makes plenty of sense (sci-fi silliness such as organic Duracells and the need for phone lines aside), it springs from venerable philosophical traditions that go back at least to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. These are themes that have been explored in philosophy and religion for centuries, and placing them in a modern sf/anime/action context is interesting and somewhat thought-provoking. I very much enjoyed viewing Neo’s transformation, paralleling in some ways the journey a student of Zen might take take on the way to Enlightenment. He can do the things he does because he learns to see and manipulate the false reality; he learns to play the Matrix like a video game.
And now suddenly he can manipulate things in the Real World too, with only unsatisfying or non-existent explanations for how he does it. :mad: The plight of those still sleeping in the Matrix is all but forgotten. The focus shifts (or IMHO is lost entirely - I don’t see much focus any more) in a radical way. And the symbolism seems heaped on helter-skelter without adding up to much of anything.
I don’t know - all 3 films are decent enough examples of Blockbuster Sci-Fi Action Movies, but the first one seemed full of promise and potential (which, to be fair, I may have imagined) that left me feeling disappointed and almost betrayed by the following 2 films in their failure to follow through on the perceived promise.
Well said Heatmiser I agree with you. But I think the original one was slightly over-rated in the first place.
Just some general questions:
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If Neo could defeat Smith by simply allowing himself to be cloned, why didn’t he just do so in the first place? Why go through the long and tedious fighting?
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What was the Oracle’s role in destroying Smith? Just before Smith cloned himself through Neo, we get a glimpse of the Oracle’s presence in him when he said “everything that has a beginning has an end”. What did Neo realise from this that made him give up fighting?
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Did the Oracle have any purpose in letting Smith take over her?
I was hoping for an entertaining movie–end of story. Instead I was boooored. I kept waiting for the end so I could leave.
It occurs to me that a big reason the second and third movies are so flat compared to the first is that the central character had most of his journey in the first one. He goes from nobody to a superhero. Then in the second and third movies he goes from being a superhero to being a super-superhero. And then he’s Jesus.
If the Wachowskis really had planned the whole trilogy the way they said they had, they would have designed Neo’s arc better. The way it is now, Neo goes from point A to point T in the first movie, then U to X in the second and Y to Z in the third.
That, I think, contributes mightily to the feeling that nothing much is going on, even though there’s all kinds of noise and kafuffle. It’s also why the Wachowskis felt compelled to introduce all the hundreds of other characters, so that we would have somebody we could watch doing something while Neo took his baby steps toward his inevitable crucifixion. It’s all padding to conceal the fact that Neo doesn’t really have that much to do in the story, even though he’s supposedly the protagonist.
Even Christ had his moment of doubt (“Father, let this cup pass from me.”) Aside from the obvious fact that the big fight made for a more exciting movie (for me, at least), I took it to mean that Neo was hoping he could defeat Smith without having to make the ultimate sacrifice. Plus, Smith would probably be suspicious if it were too easy (“Hey, Smith! You want to clone me? All right, here you go…”)
Perhaps this was the moment where Neo realized that he had to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Smith. Up until that point, he probably thought that he could somehow defeat Smith through force.
Well, I’m not sure whether she “let” him take her over, or simply acknowledged the inevitability of the event. One can’t outrun one’s fate, and all that…
Barry
saw it friday. someone ought to tell the W bros they have these people called ‘editors’ and ‘script polishers’ that also work in films. editors are there to cut out and condense the unnecessary parts of your film (the first 40 minutes and fight scenes and death scenes) that go on too long (see also: rave/love making scenes).
script polishers are there to make your dialogue believable and snappy, and not like you would find in a school play.
(see morpheus and niobe: “somethings stay the same” “others change blaah bleugh bleh”–what they said made no sense)
anyway: fight scenes in Zion: excellently done IMO. captain myfawny (?) was the only believable person in the entire film. what happened to all the authority Morpheus carried in the first film? he wanders through this one looking like a lost puppy. everyone overrules him and appears to deride him. he was rallying the entire population of Zion in reloaded, now hes a nobody.
the end fight scene with the 3D bullet time punch where the rain stops also had the cinema laughing, but for the right reasons. its my favourite cinema punch ever, and thats saying something. I thought Neo would walk away though, thus defeating Smiths objectives, ie leaving him in the Matrix with just himselves. what would there be left for Smith to do? they could then start a new matrix, seeing as everyones a Smith. or something.
I’ll leave this one for DVD, where i can skip through all the irelevant talking parts and just have the action on. there was a lot of missed potential I agree.
ONE film. you could have had ONE GREAT film. i’ll still be interested to see what the Wachowskis do next.
I think one reason Morpheus is looking like a lost puppy is everything he believed in went to shit at the end of Reloaded. If everything you believed in all went to shit one day. You might act diffrent too.
I thought this was very well done, actually. It added some real depth to his character. Contrast Morpheus’s confidence in his convictions 10 minutes before the end of Reloaded with his directionlessness at the very end of Reloaded. After that, he still believed, but he had no idea what was going to happen. Lost puppy is an excellent way to describe it.
fair point. I really liked his authority though in the first 2. Fishburnes one of my favourite actors. it just seemed like they’d not really bothered to write much of a part for him this time round. and the bit i mention between him and Niobe after they’ve EMP’ed the Dock bugged me. he should be like: “whew! good driving there girl. lets get out of this boat”, not the drivel thats supposed to represent their on/off/whatever relationship. i’m aware of why it happens like this in movies, i’d just like a little more of a human reaction in things like this. that to me would have been better depth of character.
like i say, as well as Capt. Myfawny+ Hugo Weaving, Niobes the next best thing in it.
Keanu Reeves should give up acting.
On the other hand, I think the Architect was pleased with how it all turned out, or as pleased as much is capable of feelin pleasure. Pleasure, too, is just a word, right?
He may not “like” the way everything occurred, but as a program his purpose is the creation and presumably maintenance of the matrix. We are led to believe that the matrix at the end of the movie is a new iteration of the matrix, presumably one that is stabler than all the previous iterations, due to the temporary peace between man and machine, with the safety valve of letting humans who are dissatisfied with the matrix go free.
He may appear to be “irked” that the Oracle’s method for stabilizing the matrix worked out better than his, in ways that he may not even be capable of comprehending. But, when all is said and done, I would argue the Architect is “happy” with the final result, which is, we assume, a matrix stabler than the all the previous iterations.
One thing keeps nagging me. What happened to the suitcase that Neo was carrying for the family when he tried to get on the train? I thought it would hold some tool or secret that Neo could use somehow. You could see it on the platform after the train left, but when Neo tried to follow the train and ended up back where he started, the suitcase was gone. Or maybe he wasn’t back where he started. But why leave a perfectly good plot device behind, then have it disappear?
I join the ranks of those who are trying too hard with this movie.
Yes, I think you are trying too hard. Neo was carrying the suitcase when the Trainman arrived. The Trainman basically shoved the Indian family into the car and blocked Neo’s way. Sadly for the Indian family, this caused one of their suitcases to be left behind.
Of course, the real reason for having the suitcase be left behind was just so the audience could tell for sure that Neo had returned to the same platform when he tried to leave,
Barry
Wow…am I dissapointed. Where do I even start? I must admit I was one of the few who enjoyed Reloaded and was looking forward to answers to some of the questions that were posed in the second installment of the matrix. BOY WAS I WRONG! I guess this is what happens when you look forward to a movies release. At the end of the movie I felt completely let down and dissapointed. I do have one question about the final scene with the architect and the oracle, when the architect says something to the effect of “that was a dangerous game you played” and the oracle replies “I know” What was that supposed to mean? Anyways this ends my rant, back to your regularly scheduled program.