Review of The Matrix Reloaded (2003) by Necromus — 06 Dec 2012

Alright, I admit after seeing this in the theater the first time I walked out of the theater at the end with mixed opinions. I basically told everyone I wasn't sure if I liked it I'd have to see how they end it in the third movie.

But after seeing the final part and then watching the entire movie trinity in order a second time later this and the last one have grown on me. The entire trinity is imo pure genius and has a profound philosophical/spiritual message but it is not obvious what this is.

The second and the third movie are especially difficult to understand. Let me just speculate, if we look at Hindu cosmology (from which Buddhism also later arose) then possibly The Architect, Merovingian Frenchman and The Oracle represent the Hindu God Trinity: The Architect = Brahman the Creator, The Merovingian = Vishnu the Preserver (since he likes to preserve things from former Incarnation of the Matrix and The Oracle is Shiva the Destroyer (because she wants to destroy the old ways and bring about the new way of peace and she's also constantly smoking cigarettes which is a self-destructive habit).

But that's just my opinion, feel free to interpret the trilogy however you want. This movie basically breaks down many assumptions we have about the matrix we gained in the first movie. The part where Neo is able to stop the machines in the real world is really confusing to the viewers too.

How he does this is never clearly answered even in the third movie. Three possible theories I have are: 1) Zion and the outside world are just another layer of reality inside the matrix created to fool the people who escape the inner layer of the Matrix that they are free.

2) Neo is actually a machine himself (or possibly the cookie the oracle gave him lets him carry a machine program somehow, after all in computer lingo a "cookie" is a small piece of data you give to a user visiting your website so you can track them), 3) Neo has achieved enlightenment inside the matrix but a side-effect is that he's also achieved enlightenment in the real world, in Buddhism for example it is said there are high-level monks that can bend reality melting snow with their minds and/or make thing materialize out of thin air, etc.

. It's possibly Neo's enlightenment lets him do something similar in the real world. Any of these explanations work but we never really know what the creators of these movies really intended since they have stated they would rather let us figure out things for ourselves.

Other than being confusing for the viewer one other part I didn't like was the love-making scene between Neo and Trinity, the reason is the way it broke out into the cheesy Rave/techno style music. This should have been some Enya/Tantric spiritual style music imo, the rave music just made it really cheesy.

The fight scene with Neo and the multiple Smiths went on way too long too. But overall this was a great movie. I give the entire trinity 10/10 but this movie I give a 9/10.