The Matrix Reloaded (full spoilers)

I'm a little annoyed by the dismissive tone of "pop philosophy" in the reviews (for the first one too). I mean, this is philosophy in action for a mass audience!

Reminds me of the reviews for Waking Life. Critics get very impatient with that stuff for some reason. I still don't get the hostility to any of the stuff said in Reloaded, since I found most of it very compelling. Then again, I read that kind of stuff for fun, so maybe it would be annoying to someone without an interest in it.

a transcript of the scene in question; not bad for a two-minute scene:

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte484v/wakinglife/neohumanguy.html

The rest of the site, including an overview of the film:
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte484v/wakinglife.html
"

Neo fighting 100 Smiths was purely for fun, its funny people have such a hard time accepting that. surelt this is in the tradition of martial arts films and anime. it was possibly about honour and respect and a statement of intent by both parties. neither thought there would be a real outcome by fighting, but it was a chance to 'touch base' and showcase what they'd learned...as the Oracle's aide did a similar thing by fighting Neo to 'make sure you were The One' and Neo jokingly replies 'you could've just asked'...but that would've been boring! and if you were bored by Neo vs 100 Smiths then you might just be bored of life...and martial arts tradition possibly.

Good essay here:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/reviews/unloading_on_the_matrix_reloaded.shtml

i actually think the multiple smiths is meant to be some sort of thematic or conceptual point, tho i have no idea what. it's interesting that, finally being "free", he takes it upon himself to reproduce as much as possible, much like a virus (which is what he calls the human race as in part 1). if part 3 fails to develop this then i will be willing to call it pointless.

i didnt really care for any of the action scenes in either of the films, and action in general usually tends to bore me. martial arts stuff needs to be pretty for me to care, and too often in this film it fails to do that. but i really loved everything else, esp the belluci scenes.

ala parallel universes? i must admit the whole 'this is version 6.0' thing bugged me a bit but its also quite cool - so The Oracle is a program and not an original human as was suggested in the first film, The One is also a Machine concept created to initiate the destruction of version 6.0 of The Matrix after The Architect (a machine himself i guess?) realised that humans in The Matrix were being given too much choice about their lives and there were too many bugs in the system (ghosts, rogue programs like Agent Smith etc.)...so perhaps in the third film Neo may have to resort to his 'original human' self in order to destroy the Machines (for to do anything else would just mean he is following their protocol or something? tho maybe not, as it looks like he wasn't supposed to carry his power into reality and destroy the Sentinel as he did?)?

other things i'm too dumb to work out: the guy who survived and is opposite Neo on the operating table at the end, i missed out on who this guy is exactly somehow. he was the guy on the same team as the one who cut his hand and was gonna kill Neo early on? was this the same guy taken over by SMith in Neo's dream at the start? or was it that ugly bloke himself who was the one Smith took over? so that was not strictly a dream? ack....also is Naiobi (sp) dead or not? i have to see this film again obviously

funniest part of the movie

*Once again, the responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "You can't control me! F*ck you! I'm going to kill you! You can't make me do anything!*

With all the middle-finger action.

If you've seen Bound this wouldn't surprise you.

Slo-mo action + lame philosphy lectures:
The Matrix Reloaded vs Chariots of Fire
FITE

1. So the Architect is the father of the matrix and the Oracle is the mother, right? This is not explicitly acknowledged by the Architect but let's assume so. She has said that she's a program, but she has also said that you can't necessarily believe what she says.
a. So her motivation all along has been to get neo back into the mainframe so that the system can be rebooted (so to speak) and zion can be destroyed. So she's bad?? I say that that was her purpose in the previous five matrices but that she has recently gone rogue for this one...she says in the park-bench scene that 'you've convinced me, Neo' or something to that effect. (this scene has way more useful information than I thought the first time.) I don't see what exactly he's convinced her of but whatever. Still possible that she hasn't gone rogue at all...

2. Mr Smiths. Definitely rogue, explicitly pointed out by lack of earpiece. I'd go for the virus theory as well. He's out to cause trouble, but still has scraps of his prime directive to neutralize Neo. This is the first time such a thing has happened--that is, it didn't happen in the previous versions of the matrix...think back to the scene where Mr Smith drops off his earpiece and then the other three agents come in and fight Neo...one Smith says 'that happened as expected'...the other: 'it's exactly as it was before'...the first: 'well, not exactly'...*evil chuckles.*

3. Merovinginian et al: He is a powerful program who wants more power. By his nature he does not want a disruption in the status quo unless it brings him more power. He has been around for previous versions of the Matrix. I guess that he's making it hard for Neo to reach the mainframe (by keeping the Keymaker captive, etc) because then he'll have to start from scratch. I'm thinking of him as a brilliant industrial baron who could probably build an empire if he was dropped on a desert island naked if it came to it, but he'd much rather keep all the power he's accumulated.

And then the bit at the end where Neo repels the squiddies through the sheer force of his mind or whatever, I'm guessing that somehow he's still in the Matrix. Either the whole of Zion and the scorched world is just another level of the matrix or somehow they took a wrong turn through all those doors and entered a replica of the real world. I'd guess the first option really. Classic sci-fi plot device; leave you wondering at the end what world is really the dream world.

I think they (or at least Neo) are still stuck at the Merowingian's place because in the Superbowl trailer Trinity says "you give me Neo or we all die right here, right now" to the Merowingian.

As a film, this was quite good. As the first half of a film, it might well be excellent. As an episode of The Invisibles, it's great.

Trinity says "you give me Neo or we all die right here, right now" to the Merowingian

Well, she says it, and someone else (who may or may not sound like the Merovingian) replies. The actual scenes could be at opposite ends of the movie.