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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.
Neo: Never. I'll never be assimilated. You've failed, Agent Smith. I am the One, like all the ones before me.
Agent Smith: So be it... One.
[rays come out of his hand, electrocuting Neo. One of the Agents turns into the Oracle, she comes, and throws Agent Smith into space, and dies. Oracle dies in Neo's hands...]
[Fade away]
[Drum music in Zion, Zionites having a rave party using Sentinel parts as percusion instruments.]
[Neo burns the body of Trinity, and she appears in yellow vapor form, as well as the Oracle, the Architect and even Tank]
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
-the "Trainman" was the gyrocopter guy from Mad Max
-the face from Tron
-the "face ship" modelled after the ships from Buckaroo Banzai
-Robotech/Macross mecha
-in the club... "CYPHERMEN" from THE INVISIBLES
-Monica Bellucci is a fox.
-in the Matrix... the programmers are all from India
-the "Merovingians" were a line of kings in Southern France before the Middle Ages who believed themselves to be direct descendants of Jesus Christ. the Catholic Church wiped them out along with the Cathars, Gnostics and the Templars.
-everyone needs to read THE INVISIBLES
-there was more but I forgot it on the way home.
. SLASHDOT: Home of the vicious nerd.
If I told you I have a ripe strawberry in my hand, you would have the well founded belief that it is red, because ripe strawberries are red. But if it were blue, it doesn't mean that your belief was unfounded, at least until you saw the strwbrry.
<impression type="Neo">
Whoa..
</impression>
which alot of the fighting effects came from.
1. The flying scenes.
2. The twins when they power up.
3. Kung fu and the visible impact waves.
4. People crashing through walls.
The only things missing from the film ?
1. Vegita
2. Kama Kama haaa.
3. Spirit Bomb
4. King Kai . Oh wait.....the Oracle...lol.
If DBZ is being made into a movie I recommend the Wachowski brothers.
There is no strawberry.
Well no one seems to have a problem with this in their own theology:
"Who created the universe?"
"God"
"Who created God?"
"No one."
"So if God just is, couldn't the universe just be?"
"No, that's silly."
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*!
Movie #1
What if what you think is reality is not real?
How would you be able to tell?
Movie #2
What if the person you think you are is not who you are?
Why do you choose what you choose?
Is there a choice?
Can I choose to have really long fight and rave scenes instead of looking at those questions?
How many useless characters can I fit in one movie?
Movie #3
How about if everyone talks about love and we blow shit up?
What if I focus on visual effects rather than story? Will anyone who matters notice?
If I'm out of ideas, can I rip off other movies?
Can I end a series while still making sure that I have an opening in case I need to make another movie to bring in more cash?
It's because he's part of the source. It's understandable why you'd miss the two lines of dialog where he asks the question you asked and the oracle gives the answer I just gave you considering how every explaination was just a side note between action and reaction shots.
And since he's part of the source, the "real" world (where the escaped humans hang out) isn't really the real world since he can only control what the source controls. Point for "matrix in a matrix" theorists.
I think what's mildly ironic is that the reason people hated Vanilla Sky is because the last 15 minutes they pretended the audience was full of morons and explained everything.
Matrix: Revolutions didn't do that. They gave short stark answers which answered the questions but in a way that left it open for interpretation.
What did Agent Smith do the the Oracle? You get all of 3 seconds of seeing her lying on the ground where the Agent Smith that took on Neo used to be standing. Sure they could have gone into extensive dialog about why he needed her to defeat Neo OR they could leave it open.
They did that with everything. The answers are all there. They just don't spell it out for you. If they had they'd just be wasting time repeating Matrix 1 and 2.
Personally, my theory is that they knew all the neat questions and how to "show" them as is good story telling but couldn't "show" the answers even if they really knew them. That's the standard problem with philosophy. Most of the great writters have a brilliant ability to ask deep questions in interesting ways but they never give you an answer. They just send you back down the mountain to seek it out yourself.
I'll definitly be picking up the DVD when it comes out. I think people went in with a mindset that is was all action and "sucked" and so, like you, weren't paying attention when answers where offered.
Reloaded was the same way. I went in for the action and picked up much more detail when I got the DVD and watched it more closely.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
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."