Can't Wait for Revolutions

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2003)

The Matrix-Reloaded
The most intriguing attribute of the first film was its ability to allow the viewer's predisposition to define the film's message. It forced the audience to juggle many thoughts and observations without letting us resolve them into simple plot and character devices. The film's most powerful statements were never directly stated at all. Like a good mystery, clues were given but the truth remained hidden - often in the viewer himself.
The extreme popularity of the first Matrix film handicaps the second installment. Two clichÃ©s describe the situation perfectly: 1) "familiarity breeds contempt" and 2) "expectation is the death of happiness." The success of the first film earned the Wachowski brothers the right to paint with many more colors but the size of the canvas remains fixed by the first film. Tough job and a job well done!
Just like the first film, The Matrix - Reloaded asks questions and promotes themes. Although the dialog sounds like freshman philosophy students the messages are not trivial. The focus remains on asking the right questions rather than finding the right answers. At the risk of creating a diatribe here are some themes well handled in this film.
1. Cyber Integration: The implications to integrating the information network with everyday life has vast consequences. The definitions of privacy, power, skill, defense, and currency will change drastically as their traditional boundaries of influence morph to accommodate a new paradigm (as I said, freshmen philo).
2. Machines Have no Passion: Machines and their attendant programs know only their purpose. Even the Oracle cannot transcend her purpose, but, the humans in Zion can revel in public passion and private intimacy. Great juxtaposition!
3. Philosophy vs. Spirituality: While the machines understand and design philosophical constructs they lack the ability to synthesize spirituality. They simply do not understand a purpose greater than themselves let alone submitting to a higher power.
4. Freedom of Choice vs. Predestination: Philosophers have argued these ideas as a zero-sum game in which the two cannot coexist. The conversation between Neo and the Oracle does not avoid this question.
5. Death: Is the world so constrained that death is merely deletion from the matrix?
6. Love is a Choice: Neo must choose between love and purpose. He chooses to prioritize love over duty and willingly endangers himself and Zion. This is not a zero-sum game.
7. Winning the War Is Not Destroying Your Enemy: Man still depends on machines in Zion, the machines still depend on man in the Matrix. Coexistence seems necessary.
In conclusion, The Matrix and its sequels are e-ticket rides I want to enjoy repeatedly. Can't wait for Revolutions!