Problems with the Matrix sequels

G

Geek

New member
I watched the Matrix sequels for the first time the other day and was a bit disappointed with them. Although I enjoyed the fight with the machines the beginning was a bit disjointed with too many plots happening:
Neo trapped in between worlRAB
Bane attacking people as he was infected with the Smith virus

I felt it was more like episodes of a TV show. However they pulled it together for the machine attack, which was great but then what on earth happened at the end?

It seems to me that Neo failed and the machines fought back to destroy Smith. But how can the conclusion of a film see the hero fail and then die? The only 'revolution' was that Zion was saved but the Matrix was not destroyed, which would have really been the only justice.

Finally the biggest question for me that was left unresolved was why are there programs in the matrix that are friendly and want to help humans when they are effectively creations and ambassadors of the machines? I couldn't understand why the Oracle would want to help Neo when she was designed as part of the system that oppresses them.

On the whole it was decent enough but could have done a lot better.
 
The first flick blew my cotton socks off, period.

The second -whilst having its moments- was embarrassing and self-indulgent, with Morpheus a total caricature of his former self. The less said about the third the better. . .
 
Hidden as a spoiler in case some don't want to see.

Smith had taken over all of the programs in the Matrix, just like a virus, replicating himself thousanRAB of times over. Neo travelled to the Machine City and met the "God" of the machines. It plugged him in to the Matrix in order for him to fight Smith.

At the end of their battle Neo remembered the worRAB of the Oracle: everything that has a beginning has an ending. He also remembered the worRAB of the Architect: the role of the One is to die and pass his or her knowledge back into the Matrix in order for it to rewrite itself. Neo allowed Smith to take over him and, sensing that Neo was now Smith, the "Machine God" now had a connection to Smith himself and used this connection to kill him, thus destroying Smith.

Neo, now dead, was taken by the machines and his knowledge was fed into the Matrix, allowing it to rewrite itself (you saw the world inside the Matrix suddenly go back to normal, and people who had been taken over by Smith - the Oracle, Seraph - suddenly came back to life.)

At the same time, the war between the machines and Zion ended as it was only Smith who really wanted it. The Oracle and the Architect agreed to give peace a chance, and that was that. So because he had defeated Smith by sacrificing himself, thereby ending the war and improving the Matrix for all those inside it, Neo had won.

Regarding the word "revolution" it doesn't just mean an overthrow of some kind - it also means a cycle. The whole story was effectively about the birth, life and death of Neo.

Personally I really enjoyed all three films. The first was the most powerful as it was all so new - the concept, the story, the effects, the stunts - but the others also had their merits. The second answered many of the questions from the first but raised many more of its own - it is kind of the "cerebral" one of the three films, requiring more thought than the first. The third was simply the resolution, more of a straight action film than the first two, and I felt it ended it pretty well. The main problem I think people had was simply the novelty aspect - that the first was incredible, a real "what if...?" film, and everything was so new. The second and third simply built on this and didn't have their own new amazing revelations along the lines of "the world you know is just a computer programme." I think people were disappointed that the sequels weren't so much of a shock as the first.

To get the most out of the films you really need to watch "The Animatrix" (the animated films the Wachowski brothers made) which fill in many gaps and complete a number of stories. It also helps if you play the computer game as it includes a lot of additional scenes shot at the same time as the film exclusively for the game, which also fill in gaps.

Top tip: HMV are currently selling off the 10-disk boxed set which includes the three films, three feature-length "making of"s, "The Animatrix", and tons of other stuff - should be about
 
Neo sacrificed himself so that the Matrix would be a better place? But how is it a better place when everyone inside is still no better than a battery for the machines? No matter how good the illusion, the truth didn't change - humanity is still enslaved. Doesn't seem much a resolution to me. What was the point in the whole trilogy? At the end of the third film we may as well not have bothered following the story.

Loved the first one, wish I hadn't bothered with the sequels.
 
Listen to the speech of the Architect in the second one again, and also the conversation between the Architect and the Oracle at the end of the third. The Architect agrees that those inside the Matrix will be allowed to "unplug" and be free if they wished to. Some people (Cipher in the first, for example) would choose to stay in the Matrix and "live" in the virtual world rather than the "real" world. This would give those inside the Matrix choice (a word which was used repeatedly in the third film if you listen for it), plus because of the knowledge of Neo (a previous inhabitant of the Matrix) being fed into the Matrix this would be used to improve the lives of those inside.

As for not seeing the point of the whole trilogy, watch them all again, in order, and with an open mind (instead of watching the sequels and thinking "these are crap"). Listen to EVERY conversation - they all hold clues. Also watch the Animatrix to fill in the gaps.

Basic overview of the trilogy: first film was about the "Birth" of The One, the second was about the "life" of The One, the final was about the "death" of The One.
 
"what about the ones that want to leave?"
the architect then says that they will ..... grudgingly :D

i haven't seen the matrix for ages, but plan too very soon!
reloaded and revolutions are great ..... with both the burly fight and the freeway chase asounding pieces of film making, and the final fight being a grand end!

however, the philasophical musings and underlying theme to it does put some people off, as they focus on the action sequences and not the intellectual side to it!
 
How on earth did you work all that out. I kind of understand it now but i think they needed to make it a lot more obvious. However, i would have preferred the resolution to see the matrix destroyed. Why would the architect allow the people to leave when they are their main source of power?
 
Bane getting infected by the virus, was stupid! Agent Smith technically shouldn't be able to cross over into the real world what ever!!

Also the God of the robots being made up of lots of little robots to resemble a face was stupid. Robots would have no reason to create themselves to resemble their past creators (humans) who they hate!

And at the beginning, the Robots turned against the humans, not Agent Smith, so saying Agent Smith was the only one to want to War is stupid too, it was the Robots, they just employed Smith to control the Matrix!
 
Point of order: Smith was the dark side of the anamoly. But it's important to remember that it was not Smith that waged war on Zion, but the machines.

Smith was originally an Agent of the machines, but he wasn't responsible for starting or for waging the war.

When Neo merged with him at the end of Matrix 1, Smith's code was altered, and he mutated into a cancerous virus within the Matrix, so he became an enemy of both Humans and Machines. Ironically, it was, in a way, Smith that saved Zion and humanity. He had become so powerful that the Machines were afraid of him, and it was this that allowed Neo to negotiate a peace.

The Oracle clearly foresaw this and manipulated events towarRAB this end. Hence the Architect's worRAB to her, at the conclusion: "You played a dangerous game." It was indeed dangerous because, had Neo failed, Smith would have completely taken over and the machines would have been destroyed. But the Oracle recognised that this was the only way that the cycle of war could be ended.

NB Slash, Bane becoming infected by the virus was entirely logical. Bane's mind was hotwired into the Matrix, and that was when Smith infected him. When Bane uploaded back into his human brain, the infection uploaded with him.
 
I like sequels. Particularly Spiderman 2, Scream 2 and 3, and even the Jurassic Park films (but i think that is mainly because I like dinosaurs).

And I even quite liked the matrix sequels but they just confused me a little bit.

Harry Potter sequels haven't been criticised and neither were the Lord of the rings sequels.
 
I think the Matrix sequels were very ambitious pieces of work, but they failed to understand the appeal of the first - a clever but not TOO confusing storyline, clever concepts and exciting action sequences.

The sequels retained the latter but seemed to over-confuse the storyline somewhat. That is probably what was intended from day 1, but I think a lot of people felt a little put off by it, because (whilst they might have understood the first film) by the second they were just shaking their head and thinking "what!?" If the long overblown conversations had been simplified a little more, I think the latter films would have become more mainstream and therefore more critically appraised. Of course, that depenRAB whether the Wachowski brothers actually wanted the latter two movies to be mainstream. Maybe they wanted them to be more philosophical and arty. But at the end of the day, that's what they became and the films therefore lost a lot of their appeal to the cinemagoing audiences.

I quite like them. But I can understand why a lot of people hate them.
 
Some of the programs were as intelligent and self-aware as humans. Some of them had gone rogue, or native. They lived in the Matrix and liked it there, and were more or less independant of the machines that had created them. Just as you don't necessarily share the religion and politics of your parents.

That's one of the things I liked about the second film. It took what was essentially a 2-way battle, man versus machines, and opened it out into a 3-way battle, man versus machines versus programs, with some neutrals thrown in. It became a lot richer and more complex.

I came to the first film late, though, after a lot of hype, and since I like SF I was already familiar with a lot of the ideas. That we are living in a virtual reality is hardly new. Consider the Red King in "Alice Through the Looking Glass". Anyway, I actually preferred the second film. I was disappointed by the 3rd. I am meaning to revisit the series one day when I get time. I might seek out that HMV offer.
 
Personally I did'nt think that the second film was as good as the first. I agree with you, brangdon, in that I did like the extra complications of the three way battle. In fact it was nearly a four way battle if you consider the Merovinginan. I'd have loved to have seen them build on this more in the third film.

But Reloaded had some unnecesarilly long scenes, especially in Zion, and it never had the same impact quality as the first film, which, among other things, really broke new ground in terms of special effects.
 
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