I apologize if this post is a bit disjointed. Just a collection of random thoughts for right now…perhaps I’ll consolidate into somethign more coherent later.
First, some overall impressions:
1) Link – fun new character. I dug on him. I also really liked the French program (whose name escapes me) and the “guardian” guy for the Oracle. He was fun.
2) A common speculation right now is that Zion is actually a Matrix. That the Matrix we’ve been exposed to so far is a Matrix within a Matrix. I’m currently subscribing to that theory, for reasons that will come up later in this post.
3) Another speculation is that the Council was the “26” from the previous version of the Matrix. I think that’s pretty much a given, and not really speculation. I personally wonder if the Councilor that had the scene with Neo at the Engineering Level was “The One” from the previous versions.
4) Poor Trinity. Such a strong character in the first flick, and now demoted to “Neo’s love interest”. She got a couple bad ASS fight scenes though. And that motorcycle chase was the BOMB! Especially knowing that Carrie-Ann Moss is scared SHITLESS of motorcycles, and for a lot of the scenes, that was HER on that Ducati.
Other thoughts:
I think everyone who was expecting great things bought into the hype. The first one was NOT a fantastic film. It was a fun movie that I really enjoy, but nothing really earth-shaking in terms of STORY.
I went into this one hoping for a good shoot-em-up with some laughs and Carrie-Ann Moss in a leather fighsuit, and was not disappointed.
Set your expectations realistically, folks.
Also, I think people are setting the bar WAY too high on the effects…I’ve seen people complaining how HORRIBLE the “Burly Battle” was.
First of all…y’all are spoiled. You’re expecting the Wachowskis to work miracles. Some of the effects in that scene too TWO YEARS to render.
Secondly, I don’t mind some “over the top” effects *inside* the Matrix. It’s not the real world. Neo bends the rules to his whim, and Agents (like Smith) operate at a subset of the rules.
My friend Chris and I have a theory that the whole “humans as batteries” thing is a fake, and that the machines need the humans alive because it gives them purpose. This film was a lot about “purpose”. You do what you are supposed to do, etc, and the only machines we’ve seen so far are the ones that are a reaction to the humans – either they are involved in the Matrix, or they are involved with the policing or harvesting of the humans
Now, granted…since the movies are human-centric, it would make sense that we would only see the machines that interact with the humans – but what is the PURPOSE of the machines if there are no humans?
I really, really hope that the “humans as batteries” thing is all part of a second Matrix to give the humans in the real Matrix a purpose – it would be a great “fuck you” from the Wachowskis to all the naysayers.