Saturday, 24 May 2003

Matrix

So we saw Matrix 2 today. I'm not quite sure what to think of it. Maybe I expected a little too much, I don't know. The action scenes were of course great. Even though I did not like the artificial bullet time they used sometimes (like in the "Neo vs. 100 Agent Smiths" scene). I wouldn't have minded the fake faces on the Smiths but that even Neo was computer generated from time to time really sucked. It just didn't look convincing. Also some of the scenes where a little too drawn out (like the sex/dance scene and even the Neo vs. the Smiths one) and just when the movie began to get really intense and interesting: to be continued...

Of course I realized that there would be some kind of cliffhanger but I did expect to at least have some kind of semi-ending. But maybe after we've seen the third one everything will be clear. Generally it felt like the movie raised more questions than it answered. Naturally the second part of a trilogy is always tough to do because it is so, well, inbetween things. It's the part after the grand opening and before the grand ending. It's the part where they explain things that haven't been explained before and that has some character and story development.

That it did quite well, IMO. I liked that we got to see Zion and even parts of the inner workings of the city. But I thought that the whole spirituality thing was a little overdone. But maybe that's just me.

There were a lot of things I did not understand. The whole architect/oracle/keymaker thing for example. Looks like the Oracle lied all the time and was just a means to get Neo to do the thing he was meant to do: destroy and then rebuild Zion to keep the Matrix alive. Okay. But what about Agent Smith? How does he fit into the picture now? He states that he is free now. But to me it still looks like he is trying hard to keep the Matrix alive by killing Neo. Hm, or maybe he wants to kill Neo so he cannot help destroy and rebuild Zion? That would, if I understand the architect's speech correctly, result evidently in the destruction of the Matrix because the future "anomalies" (i.e. the future "Ones") cannot be controlled anymore. Hmm. And then what about the French guy and the freaky twins. Were they also just agents sent by the architect that helped keep Neo on track? Or were they rogue programs?

I see there is a lot of philosophizing to be done about this film. Oh, I just remembered a thing that I really, really liked. All the metaphors they used for computer terms like backdoors and keymaker. That was so good. Okay, maybe it's just me geeking out here but I really liked how they realized this. It reminded you again that the Matrix is after all just a computer program.

And what about this Neo stopping the machines shit in the end? Is Zion after all just a second Matrix to fool the people who cannot believe in the first Matrix?

These were my random thoughts on Matrix 2. I think I will watch it again in a week or two when everything has settled down in my mind a bit. Maybe then I can see and understand more.

Btw, I like the interpretation in this transcript of the architect's speech (found by my friend Jesse) that the reactions of the Neos on the monitors are in fact the reactions of the other Ones that came before Neo.

  Posted by Edda at 04:00 CET