We don't need another messiah complex!

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2003)

As we can all agree, the first Matrix was the sh*t. Saw it in the theater about three times dragging different people with me each time. The second and third installment are a disappoinment. A bit too convoluted, zero character arcs with emotional depth etc (I only say that looking at the story-line from a screenwriter perspective),...but I can let that go because the 2nd & 3rd flicks are just franchise money-makers (everybody gets Pimped, it's America). My biggest problem is the idea that in this world, there can only be one Messiah. And everybody waits around for this candy-ass Neo to do something. My one wish would have been if the Brothers W would have at least hinted at a better philisophical stance that would intergrate the concept of "God is in you" for everyone. That way, all the people in this artificial world could be just as powerful as Neo. That would make me stamp the series as classic. People may point to Star Wars and say that the Luke Skywalker character was "Messiah-like", but I would argue that there were a lot of Jedi's around just as powerful as Luke, and he had to have the help of a lot of folks to beat the empire. But not Zion! These Mofo's have been fighting the machines since way before Neo was a constructed program, and they waste a whole movie (nay, 2!) waiting for his passive ass to sit around and think about his choices. Bitch, pick up a weapon and help people "do" something! Stop waiting for one man to save everybody. Save yourself. Of course I will probably check out the anime stories and talk to hard-core fanatics (whoops! Fans.)and get their take. But for me personally, regardless of the Gobbly-gook, and contrived philosophical slants people want to give the last installment, (oh please let it be the end for real!) waiting for the ONE to show up, and only "one", is like black people ( and I am black, so no one starts tripping cuz I'm using a black folks analogy) waiting for Martin Luther King Jr. to save them from racism in the machine that is America. Folks in Zion gotta be like Malcolm X, "Stop singing and start swinging!" The power that was in Neo was in all those characters. Their "choice" was not to use it and waste time waiting for the next Messiah to show up. To paraphrase Zora Neale Hurston, The Gods are only as powerful as "we" make them. Here's to the God in all of you! And if we are truly living in the Matrix right now, when you see Neo, kick him in the ass for me!