Chris May

I saw The Matrix Reloaded again last night. On opening night I saw it with my brother, so last night I went with my wife, who couldn't stay awake for any of it. I must have had to wake her up, literally 20 times. We went to a 6:35 showing for christ's sake! I don't understand it.

Anyway, I was hoping that, after seeing it the first time, I would pick up some more on what is really going on.

There is a really interesting story on the Matrix, and its relation to different philosophies here, worth a read.

I have to say that, all the people that said that some scenes were too long, who I disagreed with at first, might have been on to something. I was definitely longing for a fast foward button during a few scenes (the dance scene for sure).

Unfortuntaly, I didn't really leave the theater with any extra insight. I noticed that the Merovingian frequently says something to Neo about his "predecessors". I didn't pick up on that the first time.

I also tried to pay extra attention to Neo's conversation with The Architect.

A couple of things...

If 99% of people accept The Matrix, and only 1% reject it, then if there are 10 Billion people on earth, wouldn't there be 1% of 10B = 100M people in Zion? Or maybe because they keep killing them off every now and then, they keep Zion to under 250k. What is with Smith copying himself over everyone? In the next Matrix, will everyone on earth be Smith? Just an idea.

Someone suggested that the Merovingian, was one of the earlier "Ones", and I noticed that his wife tells Neo "he used to be like you." But I don't think that is the case.

The Oracle is guarded by that chinese guy, who says he protects "what matters most". That seemed odd, so I wonder if we will discover some more meaning to that later.

The architect should want Neo to take the door back to the core, so that the Matrix can be updated, so that the process can start over, but he seems pleased that Neo's love for Trinity is going to force him into making the other decision. Why? According to him, that would send a shock wave through the matrix killing everyone. First, why would that happen? If Neo doesn't submit to the "restarting" of the process, why does the Matrix go offline? Doesn't make any sense. Second, if Neo's decision means that the machines are going to lose their most important power source, then why does the Architect seem to push Neo in that direction? Again it doesn't make sense.

The architect tells Neo that "Trinity is going to die, and there is nothing you can do about it", but Neo does in fact save Trinity, so what does that mean?

If Smith is against the machines as much as he is against Neo, then why did he sabotage the humans attack in the real work?

Is the "real" world just another level of the Matrix? When Neo realizes he has powers in the "real" world, that was my first though.

I really hope that the finaly move, which is going to be out in a few months (great idea by the way), doesn't kill this momentum with a stupid ending, like it turns out that Neo is the only human alive, or that the whole thing was some kind of experiment by some scientists on Neo, or whatever. Basically if the final movie ends with a "gotcha", or one of those "it's over but it's not really over" endings, then I will be seriously pissed.