Matrix Reloaded

Architect: When you strip away one level of false virtual reality, you find another level beneath.

Still sleeping in your cozy Cybernetic Cocoons?

Neo day time programmer & night-time hacker gets a message from Morpheus to follow the rabbit into the hole. Helped by the philosopher-warrior Morpheus and latex clad Trinity (who is definitely worth dying for) Neo realizes that the world as we know is a myth, a dream induced into the human mind by a program (Operating System) called ’Matrix’.

The reality is human world has been over-run by intelligent (A.I.) machines, who have converted the human body & it’s electrical impulses into a battery to power them. In order to keep the batteries in shape & functioning ’Matrix’ induces a hallucination of 21st century Earth into human minds. But Matrix plays by the rules. If you die in the dream, you die in reality!! Except for the ’Agents’ (anti-virus software) who can bend the rules to certain extent to correct/delete the ’Aberrations’ (viruses) like Neo, Morpheus & Trinity. They are lead by Agent Smith.

After getting (nearly) killed by Smith, Neo realizes his true-self & the reality of Matrix as nothing but a machine code of 0’s & 1’s. He destroys Smith (version 1.0) & realizes the truth about Matrix. For a change the ’Agents’ run away. The lady Oracle’s Prophesy about the The One who would lead humans to freedom from the enslavement of the machines seems to coming to true.

Morpheus : No one can tell you what the Matrix is. You just have to experience it to know it

Ready to take the Enhanced Blue Pill?

Reloading.... 25%... 50%... 75%...100% Done... Enter user id & password

Six months later... Neo & his team have liberated 250, 000 (0.25 MB) of humans from the Matrix. The renegade humans have taken shelter in the subterranean city of Zion close to Earth’s core. Apparently safe from the prying eyes of the machines & the Sentinel army , the Octopus shaped machines designed to destroy Free humans & their ships.

But not for long... the machines have located the exact co-ordinates of Zion & have started digging deeper & deeper into the Earth to reach Zion & exterminate the army of free humans. According to Morpheus the humanity has only one hope... NEO (The One) who will fight & destroy the machines. But not everyone in Zion seems to agree, including Morpheus’s arch rival Lock who is a competitor to Morpheus not only in beliefs but also for the attention of Niobe who is really worth drooling for ;-)

With only a day remaining for the defining moments of confrontations between man & the machine, the Council of Zion decides to approve Morpheus’s expedition to Earth (and into the Matrix) to establish a link with the Oracle. Morpheus with his team & a new navigator Link leaves for Earth in his ship Nebuchadnezzar.

More horrible things have been happening in Matrix. Agent Smith (version 2.0) has resurrected again, breaking the rules of Matrix (free Agent) as a Rogue program capable of replicating itself making in-numerable clones/copies in no time... infecting & transmogrifying any program, any human conscience into a copy of himself. Neo also has been seeing nightmares of Trinity dying in a fight with Smith. Is it a dream or a Prophesy?

Even the Oracle refuses to answer. It is only ’The One’ who needs to make the choice. Only hint she drops is the Key Maker holds the keys to the Source. The Key Maker is held captive by a French-speaking Italian Free agent Mafia boss Merovingian. He has a highly accented sexy moll PersePhone (who is definitely worth dying for ;-) ) & Albino twin brothers (Ghosts!!) as the body-guards.

Is Neo able to rescue the ’Key Maker’? Were Morpheus & team able to trace & enter the Source without getting tracked by the Matrix? Does Neo’s nightmare come true? What is the choice offered to Neo by the Architect? Who is Architect? What’s his relation to the Oracle? What is Neo’s role in the Matrix scheme of things? Does the Prophesy come true? Is Neo ’The One’? Does he save Zion?

Watch the movie... and of course keep dying for ’The Matrix Revolutions’ in the divine Coma.

Matrix eXPerience

Matrix 2.0 makes Matrix 1.0 SFX look like amateur attempts at Special Effects.

1) The Scene where Neo fights 100 Smith-clones in the square is to be seen to be believed. Esp. the scene where Neo is over-powered by the clones & Smith tries to convince Neo of his defeat. The way Neo gets up... fantastic ( even The Hulk can’t beat it)

2) The 14-minutes long chase scene on the ’Freeway’ between Morpheus, Trinity & the Key Maker, chased by The Ghosts & Smith. The fight on top of the 16-wheeler truck. The Grand finale of the two trucks colliding... the shockwave making it through the 16 wheeler... blowing it apart!!! [ Will be long discussed like the ’’Bullet Time’’ scenes in M1 ]

3) Neo’s flights of ’Fantasy’... esp. the Final flight where buildings get blown away by the centripetal force... can give complexes to ’The Man of Steel’, Superman himself.

Of course The repeats... stopping the bullets, Bullet Time scenes, Matrixian Extreme Martial arts...

Main Casting

Neo : Keanu Reeves

Trinity : Carrie-Ann Moss

Morpheus :Laurence Fishburne

Niobe : Jada Pinkett Smith

Persephone : Monica Bellucci

Oracle : (late) Gloria Foster

Agent Smith : Hugo Weaving

Twins : Neil and Adrian Rayment

Direction

Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski brothers do a terrific job again. The dialogues are witty with a generous splattering of mix of Eastern mystical philosophies & cyber-culture to keep the fans hooked. The chase sequence has been the most innovative & exciting chase scene ever secene on the Silver Screen. I find it strange when people call it dragging !!??

Of course the pauses in Morpheus’s dialogues could have been edited out a bit & the ’Temple Dance’ in Zion / Love making between Neo & Trinity ( remember it is ’R’ rated ;-) ) could have been edited out without effecting the movie.

The Abrupt ending (in LOTR style) may disappoint many. There isn’t even a book to fall-back on :-( . But that also makes it worth waiting for M3 ;-)

Philosophy

No discussion on Matrix is complete without discussions of it’s philosophy

1) Is Matrix finally failing? Smith 2.0, Twin Ghosts etc. are Free agents no longer bound by the rules of Matrix!!

2) What is the significance of Smith sending Neo a ’Spoon’? What did the Oracle send Neo? Why?

3) Why does the Oracle offers Candy to Neo? What is the significance of the candy?

4) Which is the truth? The law of Causality : Cause & effect, or the Choice

5) Does the male ’Architect’ playing a greater role than the mother ’Oracle’ has consonance in ’God the Father’ philosophy/religions supplanting ’God the Mother’?

6) What do the ’Keys’ signify? What is the meaning of the ’Backdoor’?

7) The significance of most of the population & majority leadership of Zion being blacks? (Why does every white-skinned writer refer to it???)

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