CONFESSIONS OF A RUM-ADDLED MIND, Issue #5

"The Matrix Reloaded" (my rate: 4/5 *'s)

*** WARNING: SPOILERS, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ***

You need to play "Enter the matrix" to get the whole scoop.

PROS
-Incredible special effects, a little over the top, but we're not exactly modeling reality, right?
-The best traffic chase since Ronin.
-Powerful characters that really flex their muscles, a little too much so...but the main "matrix" is becoming more artificial, no? There's nothing that Neo CAN'T do at this point...even resurrect and fly.

CONS
-Slow first hour. The pacing was agonizing, perhaps part of a buildup. They spent 10min emphasizing how the new operator's wife didn't think he was coming back, but would rather suffer brother dozer's fate.
-Sloppy editing for inter-action scenes, but again, this ties into the game.
-Cheesier dialog than ever before..."Goodnight, Zion"

Points to consider:
-Greek mythology names, no ties to the original tales from what I gather. i.e. Niobe, Persephone.
-The final 72 hours is really a contest between man and machine, after which time 14 individuals rebuild Zion and begin again. Does this make Neo the new governor? Was the old governor who spoke to him in the machine room the old "ONE"?
-The architect is the father of the matrix and the oracle the mother. The prophecy is another form of control to force the rebels to pursue the same goal in each new version of the matrix.
-Morpheus does not like the idea of fate [1] but risks everything for the sake of the prophecy, an inherent promise that is almost a "program" of his own. The prophecy is dictated by a computer program, the oracle, supposedly not connected to the matrix. The architect scoffs at Neo's reference to the oracle and the prophecy.
-Each time Zion is destroyed, the matrix is revised. This is the 6th iteration, the first being too utopian a society to be accepted by the populace [1].
-The French "program" in the restaurant delivers a speech on "cause and effect" and implies that even the rebels do not enjoy free will. They follow orders given by...the machine? the architect? the oracle.
-The year is even later than the rebels anticipated.
-Upon choosing not to rebuild Zion, but rather face total annihilation, Neo is capable of disabling sentinels on the earth's surface with his bare hands. Did his encounter with Smith make him more intimate with the machine or is the "real world" as the rebels know it simply a "meta-matrix"? Therefore, the matrix is a matrix within another matrix, so the rebels are NOT free, but in the first tier of a two dimensional simulation.
-While on the earth's surface, Neo suggests "something is wrong, something is different". Is something different from the "real" world with which he is familiar? Did they enter a "meta-matrix" at some point in the movie? One that wasn't inherent from the start of the first movie?
-If a "meta-matrix" exists, are the machines merely simulating a rebellion to become better prepared for the real thing?
-Smith's encounter with Neo has freed him from the matrix program and he has evolved into a virus, much to the irony of his speech to Morpheus in the first movie. Neo's dream came true and he "jacked-out" of the matrix and into a human host, intent on killing Neo. That host was recovered at the end of M:R.

-Neo receives a gift of a spoon in the "real" world, Zion actually, that he is supposed to know the meaning of. Does the same philosophy apply and therefore support the meta-matrix theory?

-Duke