Free your mind 3/27

Here’s a little dirty secret of mine: I liked the Matrix sequels. Go ahead, harrumph for a bit. I understand.

Finished? Still here?

Ok, so here I go…

I think many people were disappointed with the sequels because they didn’t really pause for easy answers or seemed to borrow too much from other material.

I think it was just Keanu. I’ll admit he kind of takes away from the movies somehow after the first one. Perhaps it was the time between the first movie and the second movie that did it, but somehow he felt like a guy playing Keanu as Neo. A sort of meta-caricature of Keanu being Neo in a Matrix movie spoof that isn’t very good. Imagine if Mad TV spoofed a Saturday Night Live skit about the Matrix and used Keanu to spoof himself in the spoof of the spoof.

Woah.

Since we can agree that Ted Logan reared his ugly head and perhaps spoiled The One for us all, I’ll move on. I don’t think it was Keanu’s fault, really, but that’s a blurb for another day. (Hopefully that day won’t come soon).

Here’s my theory and I hope someday you have the time to try this: The Matrix is meant to be viewed as a six hour film.



I think the whole is greater that its parts and is much more than a kung-fu film with a green filter on the lens. Aside from the heavy Hindu and Buddhist overtones there were smaller connections from film to film. I think my favorite prediction made by a character in the first film was from Agent Smith who claimed that Neo’s death by his hands was inevitable. Sure enough, Smith killed him.

That the Architect and the Oracle were opposites in terms of how they did things, order and chaos, yin and yang, was not lost on me. Through 5 iterations of the Matrix they worked against each other - one trying to balance, the other to unbalance – until the 6th version of The One appeared and made a choice they did not see, he chose love over humanity. Was that their goal all along; to move machines and man back into the same room together? Or was that only the dream of the Oracle?


Think about this, Neo is told from day one what he will and must do. He even meets a machine in the train station that tells him about karma (though many say it’s closer to dharma but so what) and he does not fear for himself or his future because he is doing what he was meant to do. By the way, as a recycling machine, does anyone else think it was he who carried Neo away at the end? Neo knows what he has to do and in the end, despite fighting against it (rescuing Trinity in part 2) he must face his destiny anyway by the end of part 3.

There are deep things happening here. Man and machine, even after a great war, are still dependant on one another. Even the Machine God (Deus Ex Machina – that’s really its name) can’t beat Smith without using Neo as some kind of connector to him. There are cycles and destinies in the Matrix that are almost all traveled and fulfilled.

Just like the Architect and Oracle, Neo has a counterpart in Smith. It’s hinted at that once the 5 previous “Ones” chose to reset the system and spare humanity from extinction, Smith is reset as well. However since this sixth Neo chose to save one instead of many, the Smith grew out of the Machines control. Since the Architect always calculated that he would choose humanity over himself (Neo that is) I guess he didn’t whip out his calculator to see what would happen with Neo’s negative, the Smith program. Perhaps he couldn’t account for the Oracle and her “chaos” but whatever the case, Neo balanced the equation for him; the Deus ex Machina hit the total key and just like that, a new world is born. Chaos and Control, their strugle creates new life. Kandinsky would be thrilled...

Consider too that while the movies focus on eastern philosophies the western myths were covered as well. Try renting The Animatrix and watch the Second Renaissance segments (there are two). The rise of the Machines over man has some blatant Revelations imagery and symbolism. As in that whacky book you see a blackened sky, huge beasts, a new Earth, the end of man and their “rapture” to the Matrix; they even threw in a trumpeter for good measure. The Merovingian seems to cover the role ofa Judeo-Christian Satan, complete with his own Persephone and focus on free will (lack thereof) and earthly pleasures. He even prefers the Matrix to the Machine City 01 as he likely prefers to rule in Club Hel than to serve in - well you understand if you remember your Milton.

Look, there are a gazillion things to go over in terms of the themes in the movies, but I just want to reiterate my point one more time. The movies are better as a complete trilogy than as individuals. There are things in them that go beyond chases on a freeway and form a much more complex tale than it lets on. If I can BS my way this far down a page imagine what a real mind can do with the elements present in the 3 movies.

Just try not to focus on Keanu and you’ll be fine.