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I saw somebody mention things about religion and matrix
http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/051803matrix.htm
CORPORATE MOFO
reloads
THE MATRIX
by
Ken Mondschein
Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the first film�it was the metaphysics that bothered me. The first Matrix was such a neat allegory of Gnostic philosophy, I was more concerned with how the Brothers Wachowski could successfully extend the metaphor into three films than whether they could pull off even more virtuoso examples of cinematic ass-stomping. What was mindblowing about the first movie, after all, wasn't the fight choreography or bullet time, but its brave assertion that the banal, day-to-day reality we live in isn't the real world. In that sense, all the wire-fu was just the candy coating on the red pill the filmmakers were offering to every high school student and cubicle slave in the world. (Though, since I study martial arts myself, I found the idea of kung fu as being metaphorical for something happening in hyper-reality, a la Thibault's mysterious circle, to be pretty darn appealing.)
Thankfully, Reloaded more than allayed my fears, even if it seems that half the reviewers either didn't understand what the Wachowskis were getting at, or else were only paying attention during the highway chase. Watching the movie, I was personally less impressed by the fists of digital fury than by the Brothers' evident familiarity with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theology of Origen of Alexandria. Seen in the light of the books they're referencing, the movie's plot is brilliant; of course, to the non-initiate, the characters' actions and dialogue seems arbitrary and incomprehensible, and the exposition is just filler between car crashes. It would seem, therefore, that a bit of exegesis of The Matrix: Reloaded is warranted. But be warned: If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read on. There are some major spoilers.
Much like that other great Keanu Reeves vehicle, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, The Matrix: Reloaded centers around the hero's journey into the Underworld. Frazier, in The Golden Bough, notes that it is a prophetess�in this case, the Oracle�who sends the hero off on his journey, from where he returns with special knowledge. And, of course, that's just what Neo does, though it would have been a while lot more amusing if he'd had Alex Winter along. (The Oracle probably isn't entirely benign, by the way, even though she may not consciously intend any harm: She is, after all, the one who sent Neo on the path to the Core.)
Neo's first task is to rescue the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim, doing his best Rick Moranis impression) from the Merovingian, who is a daemon�in both senses of the word�left over from a previous version of the Matrix. (The Merovingians were the ruling Frankish dynasty; they were succeeded by Charlemagne's family, the Carolingians, and then by the Capetians, who thought they were descended from Christ.) The guy in the health food store where I buy my granola and soy milk thinks that The Merovingian was one of Neo's predecessors, but all the explanation I need, as well as the way I understand his obvious fascination with human pleasures, is found in Genesis 6:4�"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. . ." According to various sources, including Kabbalah, this mating of men and angels (here, a computer program from an earlier version of the Martrix) is what produced various monsters, such as the vampires and wraiths that serve the Merovingian. Dante, bringing a Christian sensibility to the proceedings, placed these monsters in his Inferno. Thus, though the Merovingian is sort of an antediluvian remnant of the former world, he's also (as is shown by the fact that his wife is named Persephone) kind of like Hades, the holder of the keys to the underworld. What the Keymaker does, much like the golden bough the Sybil gives Aeneas, is open doors and permit Neo access to the underworld�or, in this case, the Core.
After the requisite battles and explosions, Neo gets into the Core and finds The Architect. Considering that The Architect built the Matrix, you might think that he's God. Of course, he's nothing of the sort. In Gnostic theology, it is Satan, not God, who has created the world in order to imprison humanity. It is also the Architect who is unleashing the Sentinels to destroy Zion; that is, beginning the Battle of Armageddon. It is my prediction that in the third and final film, it will be revealed that there is a power behind the Architect, and that he is the one who sent the One into the Matrix. It is also my prediction that this guy will look a lot like Neo.
The important thing is choosing what to believe from the raft of condescending exposition that the Architect inflicts on Neo. He says, basically, that though ninety-nine percent of humans believe in the illusion of the Matrix, there is that troublesome one percent (comparable to the few awakened Gnostic true believers) who refuse to believe in the created world. This tends to produce massive amounts of instability, and crashes the system. (Not coincidentally, most of the people in Zion seem to be black or Hispanic, which makes perfect sense: If you're a white suburban Matrix resident, driving your Matrix SUV to your Matrix golf club, why doubt the nature of reality?) The solution is that they allow the dissidents to escape to Zion, which they can then periodically destroy. They have also created the Prophecy of the One, who is in fact a device sent by the machines into the "real" world so that his knowledge of humanity may be integrated into the system in order to further perfect the Matrix-illusion, and then allowed to re-start Zion so that the cycle can begin again. The idea of multiple creations and a cycle of created and destroyed worlds is, needless to say, also found in theologies as wildly variant as the Mayan and the Buddhist.
The idea that the Prophecy�and Zion�were just another means of control is lifted right out of French philosophy. The first movie made use of Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; this movie seems to be dipping into Foucault and Derrida, who wrote that the systems of power and control are all-pervasive, and language is one of the ways they make their influence felt. The Prophecy is, like all prophecies, speech, and thus language. More importantly, it is a religion, and, as John Zerzan writes, the purpose of a religion is to manipulate signs, that is, words, for the purpose of control. Zion is the longed-for millennial promised land; by keeping the war between good and evil foremost in their hearts, even the freed humans are kept from doubting their own world, from thinking too hard about why things are the way they are.
Understanding why things are the way they are requires an understanding of another holy text: Asimov's Laws of Robotics. The machines, as demonstrated by Smith's need to try to kill Neo even after being "freed," don't have free will. (Likewise, in Gnostic theology, angels and other such divine beings also don't have free will�only humans do.) The bit about the machines needing human bio-energy to survive, as Morpheus (the dreamer) explained in the first movie, is bullshit. The machines keep humanity alive but imprisoned, even after taking over the world, because they were created to serve people. In other words, the machines would like to destroy humanity, but they CAN'T. Instead, they need a human to make the choice.
As the Architect reveals, Neo is not the first One, but rather the sixth. Why the sixth? The answer is that Neo's five previous incarnations represent the Five Books of Moses that make up the Old Testament. Neo (representing Christ, and thus the New Testament) differs from his five predecessors in his capacity to love. In the work of Origen of Alexandria and other Church Fathers, it is love ("eros" in Greek) that compels Christ to come down from the heavens to redeem humanity. Furthermore, "neo" means "new"�as in "New Covenant." In Neo, the machines have finally found the iteration of the One who will make the illogical choice of saving Trinity and dooming humanity. [Note to the theology geeks who've been e-mailing me: I know the difference between eros and agape, but Origen used both terms for reasons I'd have to delve into pre-Socratic philosophy to explain.]
This is the Architect's real purpose in giving Neo a choice between two doors. At once all human and all machine, rather than being a device to refine the Matrix into a more perfect simulation of reality, re-found Zion, and thus continue the endless cycle of death and rebirth�as the Architect says he is�the purpose of the One is to be manipulated into destroying all of humanity. However, not having free will themselves, the machines are not able to comprehend it in others�and thus Neo, being also human, is a bit of a wild card. It is Neo's destiny�as was Christ's in Origen's theology�to break the cycle of death and rebirth, and offer humanity a new future. This is shown by the fact that, by the end of the movie, Neo (and also, incidentally, Smith) gain power over machines in the "real world"�which shows that he has power not only over the first�level simulated world of the Matrix, but also the second-level simulation of Zion.
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| Originally posted by SebTheDJ I saw somebody mention things about religion and matrix http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/051803matrix.htm CORPORATE MOFO reloads THE MATRIX by Ken Mondschein Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the first film�it was the metaphysics that bothered me. The first Matrix was such a neat allegory of Gnostic philosophy, I was more concerned with how the Brothers Wachowski could successfully extend the metaphor into three films than whether they could pull off even more virtuoso examples of cinematic ass-stomping. What was mindblowing about the first movie, after all, wasn't the fight choreography or bullet time, but its brave assertion that the banal, day-to-day reality we live in isn't the real world. In that sense, all the wire-fu was just the candy coating on the red pill the filmmakers were offering to every high school student and cubicle slave in the world. (Though, since I study martial arts myself, I found the idea of kung fu as being metaphorical for something happening in hyper-reality, a la Thibault's mysterious circle, to be pretty darn appealing.) Thankfully, Reloaded more than allayed my fears, even if it seems that half the reviewers either didn't understand what the Wachowskis were getting at, or else were only paying attention during the highway chase. Watching the movie, I was personally less impressed by the fists of digital fury than by the Brothers' evident familiarity with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theology of Origen of Alexandria. Seen in the light of the books they're referencing, the movie's plot is brilliant; of course, to the non-initiate, the characters' actions and dialogue seems arbitrary and incomprehensible, and the exposition is just filler between car crashes. It would seem, therefore, that a bit of exegesis of The Matrix: Reloaded is warranted. But be warned: If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read on. There are some major spoilers. Much like that other great Keanu Reeves vehicle, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, The Matrix: Reloaded centers around the hero's journey into the Underworld. Frazier, in The Golden Bough, notes that it is a prophetess�in this case, the Oracle�who sends the hero off on his journey, from where he returns with special knowledge. And, of course, that's just what Neo does, though it would have been a while lot more amusing if he'd had Alex Winter along. (The Oracle probably isn't entirely benign, by the way, even though she may not consciously intend any harm: She is, after all, the one who sent Neo on the path to the Core.) Neo's first task is to rescue the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim, doing his best Rick Moranis impression) from the Merovingian, who is a daemon�in both senses of the word�left over from a previous version of the Matrix. (The Merovingians were the ruling Frankish dynasty; they were succeeded by Charlemagne's family, the Carolingians, and then by the Capetians, who thought they were descended from Christ.) The guy in the health food store where I buy my granola and soy milk thinks that The Merovingian was one of Neo's predecessors, but all the explanation I need, as well as the way I understand his obvious fascination with human pleasures, is found in Genesis 6:4�"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. . ." According to various sources, including Kabbalah, this mating of men and angels (here, a computer program from an earlier version of the Martrix) is what produced various monsters, such as the vampires and wraiths that serve the Merovingian. Dante, bringing a Christian sensibility to the proceedings, placed these monsters in his Inferno. Thus, though the Merovingian is sort of an antediluvian remnant of the former world, he's also (as is shown by the fact that his wife is named Persephone) kind of like Hades, the holder of the keys to the underworld. What the Keymaker does, much like the golden bough the Sybil gives Aeneas, is open doors and permit Neo access to the underworld�or, in this case, the Core. After the requisite battles and explosions, Neo gets into the Core and finds The Architect. Considering that The Architect built the Matrix, you might think that he's God. Of course, he's nothing of the sort. In Gnostic theology, it is Satan, not God, who has created the world in order to imprison humanity. It is also the Architect who is unleashing the Sentinels to destroy Zion; that is, beginning the Battle of Armageddon. It is my prediction that in the third and final film, it will be revealed that there is a power behind the Architect, and that he is the one who sent the One into the Matrix. It is also my prediction that this guy will look a lot like Neo. The important thing is choosing what to believe from the raft of condescending exposition that the Architect inflicts on Neo. He says, basically, that though ninety-nine percent of humans believe in the illusion of the Matrix, there is that troublesome one percent (comparable to the few awakened Gnostic true believers) who refuse to believe in the created world. This tends to produce massive amounts of instability, and crashes the system. (Not coincidentally, most of the people in Zion seem to be black or Hispanic, which makes perfect sense: If you're a white suburban Matrix resident, driving your Matrix SUV to your Matrix golf club, why doubt the nature of reality?) The solution is that they allow the dissidents to escape to Zion, which they can then periodically destroy. They have also created the Prophecy of the One, who is in fact a device sent by the machines into the "real" world so that his knowledge of humanity may be integrated into the system in order to further perfect the Matrix-illusion, and then allowed to re-start Zion so that the cycle can begin again. The idea of multiple creations and a cycle of created and destroyed worlds is, needless to say, also found in theologies as wildly variant as the Mayan and the Buddhist. The idea that the Prophecy�and Zion�were just another means of control is lifted right out of French philosophy. The first movie made use of Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; this movie seems to be dipping into Foucault and Derrida, who wrote that the systems of power and control are all-pervasive, and language is one of the ways they make their influence felt. The Prophecy is, like all prophecies, speech, and thus language. More importantly, it is a religion, and, as John Zerzan writes, the purpose of a religion is to manipulate signs, that is, words, for the purpose of control. Zion is the longed-for millennial promised land; by keeping the war between good and evil foremost in their hearts, even the freed humans are kept from doubting their own world, from thinking too hard about why things are the way they are. Understanding why things are the way they are requires an understanding of another holy text: Asimov's Laws of Robotics. The machines, as demonstrated by Smith's need to try to kill Neo even after being "freed," don't have free will. (Likewise, in Gnostic theology, angels and other such divine beings also don't have free will�only humans do.) The bit about the machines needing human bio-energy to survive, as Morpheus (the dreamer) explained in the first movie, is bullshit. The machines keep humanity alive but imprisoned, even after taking over the world, because they were created to serve people. In other words, the machines would like to destroy humanity, but they CAN'T. Instead, they need a human to make the choice. As the Architect reveals, Neo is not the first One, but rather the sixth. Why the sixth? The answer is that Neo's five previous incarnations represent the Five Books of Moses that make up the Old Testament. Neo (representing Christ, and thus the New Testament) differs from his five predecessors in his capacity to love. In the work of Origen of Alexandria and other Church Fathers, it is love ("eros" in Greek) that compels Christ to come down from the heavens to redeem humanity. Furthermore, "neo" means "new"�as in "New Covenant." In Neo, the machines have finally found the iteration of the One who will make the illogical choice of saving Trinity and dooming humanity. [Note to the theology geeks who've been e-mailing me: I know the difference between eros and agape, but Origen used both terms for reasons I'd have to delve into pre-Socratic philosophy to explain.] This is the Architect's real purpose in giving Neo a choice between two doors. At once all human and all machine, rather than being a device to refine the Matrix into a more perfect simulation of reality, re-found Zion, and thus continue the endless cycle of death and rebirth�as the Architect says he is�the purpose of the One is to be manipulated into destroying all of humanity. However, not having free will themselves, the machines are not able to comprehend it in others�and thus Neo, being also human, is a bit of a wild card. It is Neo's destiny�as was Christ's in Origen's theology�to break the cycle of death and rebirth, and offer humanity a new future. This is shown by the fact that, by the end of the movie, Neo (and also, incidentally, Smith) gain power over machines in the "real world"�which shows that he has power not only over the first�level simulated world of the Matrix, but also the second-level simulation of Zion. |
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| Originally posted by occrider Wow ... interesting take on the movie. Definetely makes you think. I just hope that we don't come away from the third movie scratching our heads and coming up with 50 different theories to the question of "what is the matrix?" haha. |
anyone heard about matrix spawning real life murders? So far, 2 murders dealt with psychologically disturbed people who believed they were in a matrix.
Even those two guys that went shooting people in Washington DC, the son reportedly said that he went on a shooting rampage to exit the matrix
yep, saw the matrix 2 days ago.. for the 2nd time ! oH yEAh!
i liked the movie overall, but i thought that compared to the first part it had too many major flaws. although i was really really tired to tell / comprehend...
it seems to me that the movie got commercialized - they saw how popular all the special effects from part i were and they incorporated more of them into the second part
SPOILERS!!
for example, neo stopping bullets, ripple effect, green matrix outlines of people, kung fu fighting... i think the first 45 or so minutes of the movie are totally pointless and stupid... party? commanders? the sex scene? wtf? when morpheus was standing in that other commander's office, i felt like i was watching star trek.
why would they ever make cliched subplots in the matrix, such as the niobe conflict? plus wtf is up with neo being the superman of the 21st century?
i think the movie should've started with the oracle scene. but on the other hand, the third part is where everything will be explained and where it will end. this was just a pre-story, which was packed with random special effects and marketed as a movie. i feel that the third part will be much better. my friend said i should've watched the animatrix before i saw Reloaded, it explains some stuff too. i can't believe though that spiderman still beat reloaded in terms of grossing money...
anyway, i was so wiped out during the movie, not only did i not catch the plot, i forgot what the hell happened. lol. anyway, i'd wanna see it again, not so much for the special effects, but to understand it more.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by djSlain anyone heard about matrix spawning real life murders? So far, 2 murders dealt with psychologically disturbed people who believed they were in a matrix. Even those two guys that went shooting people in Washington DC, the son reportedly said that he went on a shooting rampage to exit the matrix |
) that they are in the matrix, and people are also idiots for believing that the movie has influence on people.
<----- btw, this smilie thinks he�s in the matrix. He might have been influenced from the movie�
K matrix is like my god, and i get all crazy when people hate on it, I have seen reloaded 4 times in theatres all ready.
I have noticed a trend all the people that didnt like it did not understand the plot at all. I will post to try and show you how fucking crazing this second matrix actually was because the plot is more mind bending than the first.
SPOILER DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT
The Systematic Anomaly, the lovely huge ass architect speech that no one listens to explains a shit load haha.
Basically no one is free, Zion is all still part of the matrix, Notice how agent smith could teleport into the "real world" in Banes body, the scene that Neo "dreamed" it wasnt a dream because Neo "has the sight now" he can see what goes on in the matrix.
Basically, 99% of humans plugged into the matrix accept the original world placed before them, for the 1% that do not the machines have created the virtual reality simulation of the war which the machines had against the humans. Neo, and the concept of the one are all part of the matrixes programing to keep the Humans numb to the fact that they are not in reality, every 100 years the one surfaces, chooses the door on the right, picks 23 people 7 male 16 female to believe they are in Zion, hence the begining of the prophecy fromt he first starts, Morpheus stated "Originally a Human ran the matrix and could change it as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us" Reality this was the 5th one heha. The scenes which prove nothing is real is agent smiths transfer to zion, and the ending in which Neo stops the setnals, the reason he's goes into coma is pretty much the same affect as not making the first jump. He has to refree his mind.
The scene which bane was about to shank neo and the orphan sent him a spoon kinda has a double meaning, first it means nothing is real there in the matrix but IMO it also foreshadows what is later revealed by the architect that it is all just virtual reality, there is no war and there is no spoon hehe.
All this leads me to question the ending of the third film, if such a complex plot continues the only possible outcome i can see is global omnicide so it looks to be a bitching finisher, I hope this clarifys the plot for the haters out there Cuz everyone who hated it didnt understand it in the slightest.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by SebTheDJ I saw somebody mention things about religion and matrix http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/051803matrix.htm CORPORATE MOFO reloads THE MATRIX by Ken Mondschein Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the first film�it was the metaphysics that bothered me. The first Matrix was such a neat allegory of Gnostic philosophy, I was more concerned with how the Brothers Wachowski could successfully extend the metaphor into three films than whether they could pull off even more virtuoso examples of cinematic ass-stomping. What was mindblowing about the first movie, after all, wasn't the fight choreography or bullet time, but its brave assertion that the banal, day-to-day reality we live in isn't the real world. In that sense, all the wire-fu was just the candy coating on the red pill the filmmakers were offering to every high school student and cubicle slave in the world. (Though, since I study martial arts myself, I found the idea of kung fu as being metaphorical for something happening in hyper-reality, a la Thibault's mysterious circle, to be pretty darn appealing.) Thankfully, Reloaded more than allayed my fears, even if it seems that half the reviewers either didn't understand what the Wachowskis were getting at, or else were only paying attention during the highway chase. Watching the movie, I was personally less impressed by the fists of digital fury than by the Brothers' evident familiarity with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theology of Origen of Alexandria. Seen in the light of the books they're referencing, the movie's plot is brilliant; of course, to the non-initiate, the characters' actions and dialogue seems arbitrary and incomprehensible, and the exposition is just filler between car crashes. It would seem, therefore, that a bit of exegesis of The Matrix: Reloaded is warranted. But be warned: If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read on. There are some major spoilers. Much like that other great Keanu Reeves vehicle, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, The Matrix: Reloaded centers around the hero's journey into the Underworld. Frazier, in The Golden Bough, notes that it is a prophetess�in this case, the Oracle�who sends the hero off on his journey, from where he returns with special knowledge. And, of course, that's just what Neo does, though it would have been a while lot more amusing if he'd had Alex Winter along. (The Oracle probably isn't entirely benign, by the way, even though she may not consciously intend any harm: She is, after all, the one who sent Neo on the path to the Core.) Neo's first task is to rescue the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim, doing his best Rick Moranis impression) from the Merovingian, who is a daemon�in both senses of the word�left over from a previous version of the Matrix. (The Merovingians were the ruling Frankish dynasty; they were succeeded by Charlemagne's family, the Carolingians, and then by the Capetians, who thought they were descended from Christ.) The guy in the health food store where I buy my granola and soy milk thinks that The Merovingian was one of Neo's predecessors, but all the explanation I need, as well as the way I understand his obvious fascination with human pleasures, is found in Genesis 6:4�"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. . ." According to various sources, including Kabbalah, this mating of men and angels (here, a computer program from an earlier version of the Martrix) is what produced various monsters, such as the vampires and wraiths that serve the Merovingian. Dante, bringing a Christian sensibility to the proceedings, placed these monsters in his Inferno. Thus, though the Merovingian is sort of an antediluvian remnant of the former world, he's also (as is shown by the fact that his wife is named Persephone) kind of like Hades, the holder of the keys to the underworld. What the Keymaker does, much like the golden bough the Sybil gives Aeneas, is open doors and permit Neo access to the underworld�or, in this case, the Core. After the requisite battles and explosions, Neo gets into the Core and finds The Architect. Considering that The Architect built the Matrix, you might think that he's God. Of course, he's nothing of the sort. In Gnostic theology, it is Satan, not God, who has created the world in order to imprison humanity. It is also the Architect who is unleashing the Sentinels to destroy Zion; that is, beginning the Battle of Armageddon. It is my prediction that in the third and final film, it will be revealed that there is a power behind the Architect, and that he is the one who sent the One into the Matrix. It is also my prediction that this guy will look a lot like Neo. The important thing is choosing what to believe from the raft of condescending exposition that the Architect inflicts on Neo. He says, basically, that though ninety-nine percent of humans believe in the illusion of the Matrix, there is that troublesome one percent (comparable to the few awakened Gnostic true believers) who refuse to believe in the created world. This tends to produce massive amounts of instability, and crashes the system. (Not coincidentally, most of the people in Zion seem to be black or Hispanic, which makes perfect sense: If you're a white suburban Matrix resident, driving your Matrix SUV to your Matrix golf club, why doubt the nature of reality?) The solution is that they allow the dissidents to escape to Zion, which they can then periodically destroy. They have also created the Prophecy of the One, who is in fact a device sent by the machines into the "real" world so that his knowledge of humanity may be integrated into the system in order to further perfect the Matrix-illusion, and then allowed to re-start Zion so that the cycle can begin again. The idea of multiple creations and a cycle of created and destroyed worlds is, needless to say, also found in theologies as wildly variant as the Mayan and the Buddhist. The idea that the Prophecy�and Zion�were just another means of control is lifted right out of French philosophy. The first movie made use of Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; this movie seems to be dipping into Foucault and Derrida, who wrote that the systems of power and control are all-pervasive, and language is one of the ways they make their influence felt. The Prophecy is, like all prophecies, speech, and thus language. More importantly, it is a religion, and, as John Zerzan writes, the purpose of a religion is to manipulate signs, that is, words, for the purpose of control. Zion is the longed-for millennial promised land; by keeping the war between good and evil foremost in their hearts, even the freed humans are kept from doubting their own world, from thinking too hard about why things are the way they are. Understanding why things are the way they are requires an understanding of another holy text: Asimov's Laws of Robotics. The machines, as demonstrated by Smith's need to try to kill Neo even after being "freed," don't have free will. (Likewise, in Gnostic theology, angels and other such divine beings also don't have free will�only humans do.) The bit about the machines needing human bio-energy to survive, as Morpheus (the dreamer) explained in the first movie, is bullshit. The machines keep humanity alive but imprisoned, even after taking over the world, because they were created to serve people. In other words, the machines would like to destroy humanity, but they CAN'T. Instead, they need a human to make the choice. As the Architect reveals, Neo is not the first One, but rather the sixth. Why the sixth? The answer is that Neo's five previous incarnations represent the Five Books of Moses that make up the Old Testament. Neo (representing Christ, and thus the New Testament) differs from his five predecessors in his capacity to love. In the work of Origen of Alexandria and other Church Fathers, it is love ("eros" in Greek) that compels Christ to come down from the heavens to redeem humanity. Furthermore, "neo" means "new"�as in "New Covenant." In Neo, the machines have finally found the iteration of the One who will make the illogical choice of saving Trinity and dooming humanity. [Note to the theology geeks who've been e-mailing me: I know the difference between eros and agape, but Origen used both terms for reasons I'd have to delve into pre-Socratic philosophy to explain.] This is the Architect's real purpose in giving Neo a choice between two doors. At once all human and all machine, rather than being a device to refine the Matrix into a more perfect simulation of reality, re-found Zion, and thus continue the endless cycle of death and rebirth�as the Architect says he is�the purpose of the One is to be manipulated into destroying all of humanity. However, not having free will themselves, the machines are not able to comprehend it in others�and thus Neo, being also human, is a bit of a wild card. It is Neo's destiny�as was Christ's in Origen's theology�to break the cycle of death and rebirth, and offer humanity a new future. This is shown by the fact that, by the end of the movie, Neo (and also, incidentally, Smith) gain power over machines in the "real world"�which shows that he has power not only over the first�level simulated world of the Matrix, but also the second-level simulation of Zion. |
I'll say the 2 previous posts ^^ are pretty much right on point.
I recommend this movie, for the eyecandy, finally for making a movie that makes u think without the usual predictable plot,
and for cliffhanging us like little kidz.
This is definetly the equivalent of the star wars of this new gen.
And the DVD box Director's uncut revisited/reloaded/revolution/bonus/animatrix special ed. 6 disc version
is gone be bigger than shit itself. 
This movie is very good, and smart.
peace
Reloaded is so amazing. I can't wait till Revolutions is out.
What are your theories about how Neo killed the sentinals?
I think it has to do something with the relationship between Neo and Agent Smith. Since agent smith was set free, Neo may have gained some attributed from Smith.
from what i hear (spoilers for revolution?)
(or philosophy)
There is a greater force than Neo and Agent Smith and it's the preservation of good versus evil and it's up to Smith and Neo to realize that they cannot destroy one another, but they can destroy the one who wants to destroy the matrix, and that is the architect.
Take in the american independence. It was created by England, but the americans led a "revolution" to their "Creater" who was king george i believe.
America was led by the patriots in a revolution to sever ties with their creater, the king of england.
Neo and Smith lead a revolution to destroy the architect and "revolutionize" the idea that this version (version 6) is not like the other destoryed versions, it's more than that. "revolution!"
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| Originally posted by JohnSmith holee crap, this movied rocked. spoilers my theory is that in the end, where neo stops the machines, it's because he is either still in the matrix, or it's a matrix WITHIN a matrix. |
you know what would really-really suck? if they ever came up with a matrix tv mini-series, especially a non-cartoon one.... i hope that never happens, hope wachowskis don't sell the rights of doing it.
The Matrix: Reloaded WB $91,774,413
I wish they would just put parts 2 and 3 together. Splitting the movies is a good way to capitalize but i think it would be nice to see the entire thing.
Im so owned by the movie. I actually expected a disappointment but GOD was it beautiful. Almost perfect. Sensuality, philosophy, art, and just cool action...cant get any better than this. The more I think about it, the less it makes sense but I think that hits the nail on the head. Think about OUR life, think, think, think...humans, planet earth, universe BOOM. The more you think, the less you udnerstand. Zion being part of the matrix...the machines themselves being part of one bigger matrix? I'm Matrixe'd!
Totally loved the speeches by the Oracle, the Archtiect and the French guy. At parts it seemed like some sci-fi verison of Alice in Wonderland. Just one little question:
Assuming everything is as we believe it to be until the Archtiect fucks up with our heads: Why do they have to leave Zion in order to get into the Matrix? Can the just stay in town and plug those calbes into their brains? Why get on the Nebuchanzer?
edit: just read that article, really interesting but I'd be disappointed if it turned out that Neo was indeed 'Jesus'.
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| i can't believe though that spiderman still beat reloaded in terms of grossing money... |
Saw it today, completely blew me away. The action scenes are by far the best, ever. One of my all time favourites, the plot is just so incredible.
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| Originally posted by Slag Reloaded is so amazing. I can't wait till Revolutions is out. What are your theories about how Neo killed the sentinals? |
cause and effect
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| Originally posted by BTG My theory is that there is endless matrixes...as in, there's a matrix for the matrix...etc..so everywhere can be 'hacked' i dont know how to explain it better than that. but thats just my theory. anyways.. the matrix is the star wars of our generation..h4x ;D |
Has anyone seen the movie "Thirteenth Floor"?
It's like a virtual reality within a virtual reality
i think it was made in the late 90s
So I don't think the Wachowski brothers would go in that direction, just because its been done before.
Or I'd at least be very disappointed if they went that way.
Wanted to see it today but tickets have been fully booked since yesterday 
(came out yesterday in uk)
how sucky!
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| Originally posted by Protege Not that surprising. matrix is rated R and spiderman is rated pg13. so everyone and their brother can get into spiderman and you have to be 17 (or know someone) to get into the movie. |
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