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The Matrix: Resolutions
Slappy White writes "For six months, Matrix message boards were aflame with speculation, theories, predictions and outright psychotic guessing about Revolutions. Now the film is here, and this article has a humorous roundup of some of the popular theories, both those that were close and others that were, shall we say, a little off the mark." I still haven't seen this film, so I'll refrain from passing judgment, but I'm ever so happy the matrix-within-a-matrix theories were unfounded. Update: 11/09 02:38 GMT by CN : Some folks who've never seen the Twilight Zone or even the Simpsons' Treehouse of Horrors thought that was a spoiler. If you're one of those people, I'm very sorry.
I agree (on both counts). If the "outside" isn't another matrix, then they're going off into the realm of the mystical, which was ok inside the matrix where such things are actually possible. Outside, it's just hokem and majorly detracts from the story. IMNSHO.
I agree wholeheartedly. The ending was unexpected, but it was the obvious choice in retrospect. I guess a lot of sci-fi geeks expected a geek ending to a geek movie, with machines being blown to bits :) and sun in the sky. In other words, a totally unrealistic, feel-good, hollywood ending. When it didn't happen, people felt betrayed. Even more so since the ending is far from happy.
You will die alone!
yes, so long as:
1. you don't expect them to be the best thing ever like many people (stupidly) did.
2. your life doesn't revolve around you having a perfect understanding of The Matrix and it all being perfectly plausible.
3. you can enjoy a film even if it doesn't tell you exactly what you want to hear and show you exactly what you want to see.
Simply put, the Matrix-In-A-Matrix theory is dramatically untenable. It undermines any possible resolution in the films because there can always be another Matrix enclosing the last, another dream to wake up from, as it were.
For the movie to work dramatically, there needs to be some sort of possible conclusion, either to be achieved or frustrated. Setting the first two films in some sort of "higher-order" Matrix undercuts this in two ways: first, it tells the audience "hey, you know those first two movies? well, it turns out that nothing that happened in them counts, there's no real payoff, sorry about that", thus abusing the audience's investment in the fantasy world; second, it not only leaves open, but implicitly nods to the possibility that the second Matrix is in fact fraudulent as well, and that no matter how many times our heros "wake up", they'll still wake up in (another) Matrix. So the possible conclusion necessary for the narrative in the movie to function properly disappears, and all we're left with is bad acting and gee-whiz special effects.
I guess I'm in the minority here in that I find the pseudo-philosophical ruminations* of the Watchowskis tiresome and adolescent, but even I recognize that they know how to spin a good yarn, and they wouldn't ruin the dramatic structure in such an obvious way.
(*"But, like, dude, they talk about Plato on their website, and that "desert of the real" line is like, from some French post-somethingorother dude, and besides, it's so, you know, eastern." Exactly.)
Every encounter Neo has is akin to Alice making her way across the chessboard. Every time he is informed about certain things, there is a nugget or five of important information in there.
As for you playa-haters out there: This trilogy is excellent. The Wachowskis are brilliant and they're created a piece of art that works on so many different levels that there are going to be people who will not pay attention and will not "get it." It doesn't take being an intellectual, or having a film studies degree, etc., to figure this story out. Just pay attention - the movies are more than the surface entertainment presents. If you want something lighter, go see Scary Movie 3 (no, I'm not knocking it - I love Zucker's flicks and hope to see this one soon). Then when you're ready to work, go see Revolutions.
Congrats on paying attention, Dan. Now if we can get the others to try it they might understand what's going on...
what spoiler?
there's no spoiler in it, except that some theories were wrong.
besides, if you don't want matrix spoilers who the f told you to read matrix stories? or heck, even read slashdot.
even more importantly if one line can spoil your movie experience, there wasn't much to begin with.
otoh, i did like revolutions quite a bit(i'd give it 3 stars or so, though i didn't find it that surprising of an ending after watching reloaded and animatrixes, it quite well is the only reasonable ending)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I've seen a lot of complaints from people who just didn't like how things were resolved. They didn't have specific complaints about the storytelling, dialogue (which itself is fodder for snide commentary), action or anything but how the story played out. Specifically, they had their own ideas of how things should work out (such as the Matrix-in-a-Matrix) and when these things didn't come to fruition they became horribly disappointed and jaded.
I'm not saying that everyone who hated the movie is like that -- some of them have valid complaints -- but many of the detractors, especially on the Matrix fan boards, have been citing the fact that events didn't work out how they wanted.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
- people start calling each other by nicknames ('merv', 'trin') in an hour's time
'Trin' was not exactly prescedented, but I can overlook it. "Merv" isn't an issue at all; Trinity was making a snide remark.
- the young indian girl and the trainkeeper seem to have no real purpose
The trainman was somewhat gratituous, but Sati has a level of importance that is implied more than explained. The oracle allowed her old shell to be destroyed specifically because she believes that Sati is important to the future of both the humans and the machines. It's just that there really wasn't any way to develop her much in the movie.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Hollywood, I am your messiah and I'm unemployed :)
t erialism
The messiah you're not. That should have been modded as funny, considering it's one of the more asinine theories I've heard and doesn't take into account the philosophical underpinning of the trilogy that actually does explain how the machines are able to program humans. Read up on the Materialist philosophies of Hegel, Marx, and Lenin for starters.
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/m/a.htm#ma
What so many people don't seem to understand is that many of the explanations we seek are available in the philosophy of the past ~400 years (since the Enlightment). There's a reason the Oracle, Merovingian, Morpheus and Architect spend so much of their dialogue speaking philosophically. Just b/c you can't be bothered to educate yourself doesn't mean the movies are flawed in that respect, and theories you pull out of your ear with no relation to the philosophical clues in the movie are utterly specious.
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
Obviously you haven't read the article - I doubt there's even one shred of a fact in there, and if it's the basis for CowboyNeal's comment (who says he hasn't seen the movie), well, it doesn't mean *anything*. I mean, that's a pointlesswasteoftime.com article for God's sake, not exactly a reputable news source. I bet you write back emails flaming TruthMedia reviews, too, eh?
Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
I agree. I think a lot of people are distracted by the eye-candy and bad dialog. But they're are missing lot of the cool ideas in the film. For example, the idea of choice and freedom:
**Spoiler warning**
The matrix was perfected by giving people choices (Oracle's idea). It took away the perfect controllability, but it made people happier because it gave them a sense of freedom. But it wasn't true freedom, because everything inside the matrix was inevitable--choices can be predicted and acted upon. But the Final Choice, the choice that the ONE makes is the one that could un-do the matrix. It didn't happen for 6 previous matricies, but the seventh one it did.
However when Neo chooses to save trinity instead of the rest of the human kind (in the 2nd film), and also when trinity comes with neo in the third one , they do it out of love, but it means that their choices really weren't free. They're bound to the "inevitability" of love. But at the same time, they *are* free to make the choices that could doom them. So there is a paradox that "inevitablity" and "fate", can both come from having free choice and not having free choice. But which one is real?
Also, having peace and war is also matter of choices. The machines choose to honor their bargain, neo chose to (potentially) sacrifice himself to save the machines. So havin pgeace or war is also choices made by the parties (think Israel-palestine).
There are a lot of hard ideas/paradoxes in the film besides, but people should look past the eye-candy and some bad acting and see it's not really that bad of a film at all.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
Think of Smith as a viral network. It absorbs a person or program and adds it to the network, becoming more powerful in the process. The machines need to hack that network and destroy it but they can't because it is no longer connected to them.
Neo and the machine mind agreed to work together to destroy smith. When Neo entered the matrix to confront smith he did it by connecting through the machine mind.
At the end of the fight Neo lets himself be absorbed by Smith and becomes part of the Smith network. Smith thinks it has won but doesn't realize that Neo is connected to the Machine Mind. Just before Smith dies you see the cables into Neo light up. The Machine Mind is now connected to the Smith Network via Neo and can destroy it from the inside.
The Oracle was the key to Neo realizing that he had to lose the fight to defeat Smith. She knew the Smiths were coming to "assimilate" her but stayed there and let it happen. The Smith that Neo fought was the one who had been the Oracle, this is provable because (a) it said the others were letting it fight him because it had forseen itself winning and (b) when the smiths died it was her body lying there. At the end of the fight the oracle/smith said that had forseen Neo was lying there while it said "Everything has to come to an end", but it seemed confused by this. This was a message for Neo from the Oracle. He understood that he had lose the fight and let Smith absorb him into the network thus giving the machine mind the backdoor it needed. This also fits the messiah theme, he let himself die in order to save humanity
Just my theory here. Think of Smith as a viral network. It absorbs a person or program and adds it to the network, becoming more powerful in the process. The machines need to hack that network and destroy it but they can't because it is no longer connected to them. Neo and the machine mind agreed to work together to destroy smith. When Neo entered the matrix to confront smith he did it by connecting through the machine mind. At the end of the fight Neo lets himself be absorbed by Smith and becomes part of the Smith network. Smith thinks it has won but doesn't realize that Neo is connected to the Machine Mind. Just before Smith dies you see the cables into Neo light up. The Machine Mind is now connected to the Smith Network via Neo and can destroy it from the inside. The Oracle was the key to Neo realizing that he had to lose the fight to defeat Smith. She knew the Smiths were coming to "assimilate" her but stayed there and let it happen. The Smith that Neo fought was the one who had been the Oracle, this is provable because (a) it said the others were letting it fight him because it had forseen itself winning and (b) when the smiths died it was her body lying there. At the end of the fight the oracle/smith said that had forseen Neo was lying there while it said "Everything has to come to an end", but it seemed confused by this. This was a message for Neo from the Oracle. He understood that he had lose the fight and let Smith absorb him into the network thus giving the machine mind the backdoor it needed. This also fits the messiah theme, he let himself die in order to save humanity
In spite of what pwot thinks, the "Zionverse is inside a system" idea is still the best explanation of what happened in 2 and 3.
Com'n, we're expected to believe that Neo's "connection to the source" allows him to see humans that *think* they're Agent Smith, but not other humans? When he has no eyes!?
His "connection to the source" allows him to communicate wirelessly with the Matrix systems, even when in Zion sleeping, to give him premonitions in his dreams?
Give me a break.
There is no other explanation that doesn't invoke magic.
Property law should use #'EQ, not #'EQUAL.
Here's my little "what I might have done" twist on things:
a) The Merovingian would turn out to be in fact a previous version of the one, from "a much older version of the Matrix". Neo is the Matrix 3.0's one, this guy was from an older one. In fact he has better insight into this Matrix than Neo does, as an outsider. He's just decided there's no point to all this.
b) The reason he has is that no one is in fact unplugged - Zion is a spilloff Matrix for the people who must fight the system. In this matrix, the unease they still feel is masked by their fight to save the world, and they are thus rendered harmless. They also remove other disruptive elements from the Matrix, in essence being very unwitting house cleaners. This explains a point never addressed at all - when the one supposedly "work up" and freed the first people, how did they rebuild themselves from the physical state Neo started in? He needed extensive medical help to function again - the first people would have had none. Simple answer - no one has ever really woken up and formed Zion. If someone did wake up, they died. That machine that unplugged them, also took their head off for good measure.
c) Neo, like the previous ones, is in fact a program himself. He has no awareness of this, and his sentient mind fully believes he is human. The Merovingian knows he is a program, and that is a further reason the fight is of little interst to him. Neo, the new one, has no such insight and in any case is built so he will fight for humanity. This is part of his function as the one program. He is "seeded" into the Matrix to bring about a necessary reprogramming, as the system has built to a point of instability where matters must be restarted now in order to maintain full control. (Think Windows box - saving work and rebooting, because you can tell it's about to go unstable on you.)
d) However, the One has a couple unintentional side effects - a) it overwrites a part of an agent program, creating a virus and b) develops a deep relationship with Trinity. Now the @#$@# has really hit the fan, and data corruption begins to take place.
e) The Merovingian, interested in his own existance and well versed in the Matrix, is now under threat from the virus program. He is compelled to prepare for war. He check codes and prepares to isolate certain sections of the Matrix he controls, but then he stops. An amused, ironic smile comes over his face, and he turns toward a door, fishing out a key.
f) Smith the virus corrupts the system - the Matrix more easily, but subtle effects begin to seep into the more heavliy shielded "real world" environment. Initially Zion appears to be helped by this, since the real world programs like the sentinals are not prepared for this kind of attack and are the first things to fail. No one understands it but the conclusion is Neo somehow did it. Big party starts, but then odd things happen - lights begin to behave sporadically, computer systems begin to show flashes of Smith's face, and the weaker people mentally begin to show faint signs of Smith's personality. Neo, as a program, also comes under attack sooner than the human minds but is better able to protect himself. He contacts the machines directly using his still not understood powers and proposes the deal. It is accepted and he enters the Matrix, to deal with the virus at its source.
g) Big fight. Neo holds his own against one of the Smiths (movie fight was OK here, except after crater impact Neo shows brief program characteristics as he rewrites routines to repair and strengthen himself, and gets up stronger). Both programs are rewriting themselves as they fight, and as the Matrix becomes more and more tasked action outside Smith and Neo slows down.
h. (In reality humans aren't power sources BTY - their brains are the hardware of the Matrix. The brainpower not being used in their Matrix existance is used to power the system - the brain being the one thing beyond the machines to duplicate. As their
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
The answer is that writers-directors did not know enough philosophy to answer those questions. So they didn't.
Instead, they fell back on CGI effects and hoped that those lesser educated individuals would be sufficiently satisified with those to pay the ticket prices.
There are no deeper questions unanswered. It is a badly done movie where the writers-directors focused more on visual effects than on content.
As was noted in the into to that article, any movie you thought you'd be seeing would have been better than the one they produced.
But it's also said they have "a form of fusion." That would lead me to believe that they know of nuclear technology. They at least have to fake the existence of nuclear technology for the humans, as isn't it a nuke plant that Niobe & crew infiltrate in Reloaded?
It doesn't even have to be nukes. Very large conventional explosives (think MOAB) would probably do the trick, too. Even if you can't kill all the humans with the blast, at least you can bury them and prevent them from ever leaving the cave.
The answer is, the machines didn't use nukes or gas or anything because the writers are dense. It's the same reason the aliens in Independence Day didn't just pelt the next planet they want to invade (Earth) with neutron bombs (or even nukes) from space a hundred years before they arrive. And, why did they need to use the human's satelites in order to communicate with each other? Answer, because it's a lot more exciting to see space ships fighting F-15, and hordes of squid robots fighting 'Mechs.
Oh, and those 'Mechs were the stupidest thing I've ever seen. You've got all this metal and armor...but none of it is protecting the freaking pilot. Also, if the Mechs are only going to be on flat ground....why use legged machines? Isn't that just another easy point of failure? How about treads instead.
Finally, in the first movie, the EMP was "our only weapon against the machines." So, now, sixth months later, they realize, "oh, machine guns can blow them up, too." Huh? And since the EMP is so incredibly effective, lets make sure they're only on our ships, and let's not keep any around the perimeter of our base.
Plot holes abound.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
I would agree, the Matrix-in-a-matrix wasn't disproved, they didn't seem to answer it.
Except in one point in the opening credits.
The camera zooms in on one of the matrix letters falling down the screen, it keeps zooming in, and zooming in and lo and behold appears a fractal, and it zooms into the fractal even more, and eventually more matrix letters appear inside the fractal. I felt this was implying a matrix-inside-a-matrix.
In fact, its the only explanation I've heard that makes sense
Did the panners SEE this movie? We thought it was great. Confusing to follow -- we purposefully had a movie and then dinner so we could talk about it -- but rewarding and satisfyingly concluding (the whole universe doesn't have to end just to provide closure, people).
The action was awesome, so was the passion and interpersonal storyline. Neo and Trinity, Morpheous and Nairobi (sp?), Link and his wife (names?), Morpheous and Neo and Oracle, Frenchman and his wife/trophy, Agent Smith and Neo, Oracle and Architect, and even Machines and Humanity. Character development was good, too: the young boy rescued by Neo, between I and II, who idolized Neo developed very well, for example.
At the point Neo made his bargain with the Machines and let Smith infect him I turned to my wife, who I met in a 2 year post-undergraduate degree Bible school, and said, "He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf..." (2 Cor 5:21a) and "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3/partial): that is, Neo localized Agent Smith and, being physically plugged in, even though he could possibly make it into the Matrix without the plugs, he sacrificed himself to terminate the viral agent of death. BTW, If this doesn't sound familiar, look at this:
And there was much other philosophical treats scattered throughout -- love and karma, just words but given meaning by what they are connected with (the latter so very relevant to Slashdotters, especially those remembering Signal11 and the karma whore wars...In short, once again I think reviews are useless (except in the case of Ben & JLo flicks) and I regret being influenced in the least by the nay-sayers. I think people pan movies like this just because its easier than admitting, "I need to see it again and ponder for a while what it all means."
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
The matrix within a matrix theory was well founded, but it proved wrong.
It did? What proof did you see? I saw nothing. In fact if its supposed to be a scifi film instead of fantasy, a matrix within a matrix still seems to be the only explanation that fits.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I enjoyed all three movies. Far and away my favorite was the first. Reloaded and Revolutions were pretty good. If anything Revolutions tied up the story too tightly - and we are all so used to being left guessing.
Two comments: First, this movie felt like a two hour conclusion, with no introduction, no rising action. It was as if it was literally the resolution of the second movie.
Second, A lot of the griping I've read is of the "it would have been better if" variety. Movies are frusterating in this respect - after the first movie in a series, everyone has preconceptions of the way the story will flow.
-- $G
You nailed it.
I'll go even further and say that things were explained. These movies are the most intellectual action movies that have ever been released, and I doubt we'll have the opportunity for such things to be made ever again.
The Oracle said the power of the One reaches to the Source. This is why he can feel anything connected to the Machines, including Smith in the real world. That seemed obvious.
Smith entering Bane is less obvious, but I figure if they can download training programs or connect to a virtual reality, programs can also hijack a brain through those same ports.
As for how Neo actually destroyed Smith, it is implied, not explained...things aren't spelled out for the idiots. You can draw endless conclusions. The Oracle said Smith is Neo's opposite, his negative...1 + (-1) = 0. Or you can say once Neo was destroyed, the equation had to "rebalance" itself again, killing Smith.
Hell, look up what the name Sati means and find out the deeper meanings of that ending.
But people don't look at it that way. The thing I find most interesting is that most reviews say it's better than Reloaded, yet give it a worse rating than Reloaded (RottenTomatoes has Reloaded at something like 76%, compared to the 36% of Revolutions).
People just didn't like that it wasn't a Hollywood ending. I will say that this movie has the most hidden religious and philosophical imagery I've ever seen...it's all way more subtle than Reloaded (who noticed the glowing cross and wings when Neo was killing Smith? Who noticed the Fibonacci sequences in the intro, and the reveal of the Machine City? Who noticed that bizarre "goathead" symbol in the Matrix code when the intro finished?).
"Sufferin' succotash."
You're right to see symbolism, but it's not quite that simple. Smith is not the Anti-christ so much as Death. That's why he's always talking about the inevitable. This is also why Neo eventually destroys Smith by accepting Smith, which is supposed to be similar to Jesus accepting his fate (to die) in order to destroy death (allow eternal life in heaven) for us.
Now, the metaphor is strange because Neo does this after he's already died, been resurrected, and travelled through hell (many people have correctly noted that Reloaded is obviously about Neo in hell)
Part of what makes the comparison to the bible tricky is they've favored Greek mythology and gnostic traditions over Catholicism.
The "Machine World" is heaven, and machines/programs are Angels of various kinds (i.e. good and bad, demon and angel, in the Greek sense of "daimon"). The architect is Satan, which is why Reloaded quickly takes on a Dante-esque meanings. Trinity is less Mary Magdaline and more Beatrice (though perhaps inverted).
But here's where it gets gnostic. The gnostic Christians invert the traditional Jewish traditions in multiple ways. The strict, angry, jealous "God" of the old testiment is actually revealed to be evil. This "God" is a very powerful being that believes himself to be God and be in control, but he is not. He is closer to Satan. This is the architect.
This "God" has a "sister". I think the name of this sister is sometimes "Logos" or "Sophia", depending on your source, but the basic idea is a being related to thought, reason, wisdom, but contrary to order. This is the being, often thought in Catholicism to be Satan, that gives Adam and Eve the apple, but in this belief system she is good. The "God" says she's evil for disrupting order, but in truth she is bringing the "God's" creation closer to the will of the *real* God, and therefore is making creation more perfect, by bringing intelligence, purpose, will, and wisdom to man. This is obviously the Oracle.
As I said, Smith is the angel of death. He makes everyone equal, bringing the inevitable conclusion to each person.
This would most likely make the Source the *REAL* God, but how could it be the God of men, too? Strangely, there are implications of men as machines as well. First of all, the questioning of free will, which goes on throughout the trilogy, plays a role here. Philosophies that profess that men have no free will, which is how the Architect (Satan) would have it, describe men as mechanical devices, merely responding to stimuli in pre-programmed ways.
Also, in one of the great mis-heard quotes, the Oracle claims that Neo is between "this world and the machine world" meaning between the Matrix and the Machine World. The "real" world is discounted in his transformation here. The problem is that he "was not ready", meaning that it was a transformation bound to happen. His destination, in the end, is not death, but the machine world. What do the Wachowski's mean by all this? No idea.
Just got back from seeing the movie. First of all, the movie kicked ass. It beat the shit out of the second one. So why does everyone hate it?
The reason is pure, flat out, in your face, ignorance and hypocrisy. Ignorance is not knowing what the deal was after seeing the first movie - filled with symbolism and blatantly obvious references to the culmination in Revolutions that pissed everyone off. It is proof that they hate without knowing, which brings us to hyprocrisy.
The story ended with a definative answer to the deeper questions asked throughout the trilogy, and people hated the answer that was provided. They hated it because of prejudice and intolerance, which is exactly why they claim to hate that answer in the first place.
As well put by the movie, the two most important things in human experience are belief and choice. Don't let anyone take either away from you. See the movie and decide for yourself.
who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
My take was that by letting Smith take over him, Neo was then a part of every Smith. Neo then destroyed every Smith from the inside.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
Ok, first of all, let me just feed my ego and post this link. This is the post that I made on the subject right after Reloaded, and in it I pointed out that they *would* do the god, Christ, and reunification of man and machine plot. There, now I feel better. :)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=65437&cid=60 36 019
That being said, let me just point out the main reasons this Trilogy has been ruined as a major piece of sci-fi. Note that I didn't say it made the thing sucked completely and horribly; there is a difference. The series is still awesome for what it offers, but there were many (including myself) who had expectations of sci-fi (logical) purity. Those expectations simply weren't met.
Some will argue that the Trilogy put forth the ultimate in depth and philosophy, and that the reason so many complain is because they aren't smart enough to get it. This is utter crap. People who believe this have missed the boat, and I encourage them to read something like "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" in order to see what true sci-fi is.
In my view the difference is this: while true sci-fi asks you to believe something extraordinary, it takes great care not to break the rules that it lays down for itself. And once you accept the principle thing they are asking you to believe, you can then pursue the rest of the story as if it is more or less true science. *THAT* is, in my opinion, *true* sci-fi.
My contention, and the contention of many others, is that this Trilogy is nothing more than a collection of very cool concepts drawn from mythology and philosophy, wrapped up in an attractive action/marital arts/special effects shell. Again, this is a winning combination if you accept it for what it is, but it should *not* be mistaken for true sci-fi genius. Here's why:
1. The energy source issue is lame at best. It just doesn't work. You can keep a human vegetable alive for years with very little going on in their brain. THEY DON'T NEED THE MATRIX to keep bodies alive. If you grow humans and make them into idiots with a minimal amount of brain activity, you can just feed them for decades and they will produce all the power that they would in the Matrix. The fact that they are living out a 9-5 job in the Matrix isn't going to generate the machines any more juice than just keeping them alive. Hell, even if it DID generate more energy, would it be so much that it offset the expenditure of maintaining the Matrix? I think not. Either way, this power source issue is the ENTIRE reason for the movie. Without the use of humans as batteries there is no Matrix, no Neo, no Zion (read on to see why there would be no Zion). The entire Trilogy rests on the energy issue, and it doesn't hold water.
2. The second major problem lies in the fact that you can't build a f*cking city that deep inside the earth. Ask any scientist who's versed in the matter; it's not possible. Again, they are asking quite a bit of the viewer in this regard.
3. They never covered how Neo, a flesh and blood human, is able to exert control over machines in the real world. You see, what they did was switch everything up on us. This started as a sci-fi movie - the scorching of the sky, the underground city, and the war vs. the machines. This was the plot originally, and I think it was a good one. The fact that there was a false reality where the computers kept humans was very cool, and the fact that you could do cool shit while in the Matrix was cool. But the whole thing was laid out as science. Morpheus asks if Neo thinks he's breathing air in the simulation. Logic guided that. The fact that you have to "believe" about the jump program, again, guided by logic. At that point, they hadn't broken their own rules (even though the initial things they were asking you to believe were massive). The problem, however, is that they ended up, in the third movie, with Neo as a Christ figure who could blow up machines with a mere thought. Huh? How so?
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
Anyways, my point is that it all comes down to Suspension of Disbelief, and if you (the audience, not you personally) can't grok that then why are you watching Science Fiction in the first place?
Every science fiction or fantasy story has one or more "gimmes," "facts" that you are just supposed to accept as being part of that universe. Once those gimmes are established most fantasy and all science fiction is supposed to follow those rules. If all of the sudden the author changes the rules in the middle of the book (or even worse, in the last chapter when the hero's life is on the line) then the audience can quite rightly expect a _really_ good explanation as to why the rules were changed or feel free to cry foul.
The big gimme in the Matrix is that humanity has been enslaved by machines, but most of them are kept in a full senses virtual reality so they never know. Inside the matrix people who know what they're doing can fudge the laws imposed by the computer to allow superhuman abilities, but outside the matrix everyone is normal and real world physics applies. Then all of the sudden Neo breaks that rule, just when everyone is about to die he does what we have been told up to this point is impossible. The audience deserves an explanation for how this happened, and they deserver a better explanation than "he's connected to the Source," which means what exactly?
On the other hand in Dune the gimme, established from the very begining, is that Spice changes human perceptions of space and time, and allows some of them to warps space to allow FTL travel. It's mentioned quite frequently that the Bene Geserit(sp) were trying to breed a super-being of some kind, so when Paul begins to manifest strange visions and have prophetic dreams it fits withing what we have been led to expect. The ability to see the future when exposed to Spice is impressive, but certainly not outside the range of possibilites we have been led to expect.
Likewise, when Paul is blinded his ability to have visions of the future a split second before they happen and thus "fake" vision is impressive, but completly within the bounds of the rules originally established for that universe.
Yes, in the end it's all science fiction, and we're supposed to suspend our disbelief, but breaking your own rules without good cause is neither good science fiction nor good storytelling.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Alright. I really did enjoy Revolutions. It was fun, for the most part unexpected, and handled the ending pretty well. The ending didn't really surprise me, though,
But what's really eating me over the last few days is to the levels the fans are elevating these movies to, and anyone who disagrees "doesn't get it' or "can't use their brain." It's the exact same kind of self-importance I've been seeing for years from Evangeline fanboys.
The first Matrix movie communicated philosophy ideas to the general masses. The sequels however, if you read most of the posts by people picking the apart, are more or less just allegorical name-dropping for experts in world religion. Rather then communicating it's themes to the audience, it expects you to familiar with a lot of things already. Kind of like Kill Bill and it's constant nods to Asian movie geeks. The exact reason I liked Kill Bill, but you don't see me going around criticizing the film tastes of anyone who didn't recognize the yellow jumpsuit, or think "Takashi Miike" at the sight of all the blood.
Not to mention that have you ever stopped to think if everything you read is intentional? I mean I notice this a lot with English lit classes I've had to take. Teachers will go on and on about the meanings and symbols in a book, but I often question weather this was intentional or not. I've turned in many projects in various media classes where the teacher or another student has found a "theme" or something in a work of mine that was never intended, simply because they were trained by years of analyzing literature to search for such things. Lately I've learned that using vague, abstract language goes a long way to aiding this.
I mean, take for instance whatever your least favorite movie is. I bet if I actually watched it, and thought about it enough, I could find some kind of deeper, metaphoric meaning, religious/literary/historical allegory, or symbolism to it, that certainly would redeem the movie to the point that if you still didn't like it, well then, you must just be not enlightened enough to understand...
Anyway, to sum it all up, remember. Liking of a particular media != an I.Q. test.
Man, I spent two weeks on a giant blackboard trying to write a major paper on "Hume's Fork" -- trying to dig my way out of solipsism of the mind, and even solipsism of the present moment. What a friggin mess.
Yes, it would make the story pointless. The reason why the Wachowskis are getting slagged for slinging Philosophy 101 is because they're introducing ideas without following them to their logical conclusions like good philosophers, or at least good sci-fi writers.
Everything being an illusion *is* the simplest explanation. When Descartes came up with Cogito Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am, or a more accurate sentiment: something thinking exists), he was expressing the only thing he knew for sure. And he wanted to believe in commonsense reality. He wasn't, however, willing to take it for granted.
I wish we could say the same of the Wachowskis, who, whether they know their philosophy or not, seem to like to raise some big questions and then answer them with action on the one hand and a little glib mysticism on the other. It all looks good, mind you. But for those of us who have thought these things through... well, it certainly doesn't help inspire answers to those questions in the HERE and NOW.
But then, maybe the Wachowskis are all just in my mind... in which case I designed two horrible sequels to a brilliant first movie. Uh... could someone plug me back in? I feel like a steak.
My take (and forgive me if everone realized this already) is that Neo is simply fulfilling his purpose, the same purpose that he delayed by choosing the other door in the Architect's room. The Architect was very clear that if Neo didn't choose to return to the Source, everyone in the matrix would die. Neo and Smith are linked, and Neo has to do this to get rid of Smith, to "rebalance the equation" (or whatever you want to call it). Trinity's death (yet again proving the Architect right, come to think of it) probably helped him realize the inevitability of his choice. Neo is vindicated, however, by delaying the inevitable long enough to broker a peace between man and machine, something the Architect didn't think possible (or useful, maybe).
Of course none of this answers your inquiry as to the actual mechanism by which Neo neutralizes Smith. It's likely the same way he could have restored stability by returning to the source in the first place (before Smith grew completely out of control, which as the Architect said, would lead to the destruction of the matrix). So I guess it would be some combination of options 2 and 3. Exactly how it happened I couldn't guess, but using the somewhat silly analogy to an unbalanced equation, perhaps it's analogous to cancelling terms. A philosophical interpretation that I read elsewhere suggested that by assimilating Neo and all that he represents, Smith lost his "the purpose of life is to die" belief and became enlightened himself.
I was confused as to how exactly Smith was stopped.
Right before Smith absorbs Neo, the Oracle talks to Neo from within Smith. That tells neo that even if smith absorbs you you can survive in him.
So Neo lets Smith absorb him, and then he does the same thing he did in the first movie after the "sleeping beuty" bit when he leaps into Smith: He destroys him from within.
And since all of the Smiths are connected, he destroys them all.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and sabotage them from within.
You can't take the sky from me...
I thought it was a great movie. Good vs evil, faith vs. freewill, love vs. hate, etc. Plus great visuals and humor. I will be purchasing the DVD on the day it's available. I was mesmerized. I hear a lot of disappointment in the reviews, I think, because there wasn't a 'somebody gets a medal' ceremony in the end. I actually went to the film expecting to be disappointed. It did not happen.
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.