What did I think of The Matrix Reloaded? Well, what can I say but... "whoa!"

I'm the only person who finds that funny. The Keanu Reeves "whoa" thing. I make too much of it. But he does say it a lot. Didn't say it in The Matrix Reloaded, though, which was disappointing. :)

I'm not really sure what James found so confusing. For me, it answered a lot of the questions I had about the first film. But maybe that's just me. I don't know.

My main question about the first film was this: how did the rebellion start? They said it started with one man, but how was that possible? How did they build all that stuff? You're not going to find the parts for flatscreen monitors littered around a mostly destroyed planet, are you? How did one man get out of the Matrix, build enough stuff to get other people out, build a city and... everything else?

These questions meant I couldn't see The Matrix as a proper, in-depth, complicated and yet 'it all makes sense when you think about it' kind of film. It was kinda bogus. I know that when I try to write things, I tend to get too bogged down in the detail. I have to know how everything got up to the point where I'm writing from. Ali didn't have that problem with The Matrix, and she loves it. Now I've seen Reloaded, I can see the wood for the trees. Okay, so it's left me with questions (it must have left everyone on the edge of their seats!), but if they answered the first film's questions in the second film, there's a chance everything'll be explained in Revolutions. Most excellent!

I'll white the words out so that I don't spoil people who haven't seen it yet. Highlight all this stuff to read it.

What Reloaded explained, from the first film, is this. It explained how the rebellion started. I mean, it wasn't just one man. 'The one' and a bunch of 27(?) others were were set free from the Matrix in order to start Zion. The AI let them go, knowing that if they let the humans take the 1% that couldn't survive within the program go outside the program, they could easily wipe them out. They could destroy them before they became too powerful, and make them start again. The Matrix wasn't compromised, the 1% was destroyed, everything ran smoothly. Presumably if the AI was encouraging them to start a rebel city, it'd provide them with the means to do so. The means to make flatscreen monitors, for instance.

I mean, wow, the whole 'the one' thing was a lie! The AI made the humans think they were trying to save themselves, when in fact they were doing exactly what the AI wanted! As plot twists go, that's pretty non, non, non heinous. ;)

I think the whole lustful (but clearly besotted) Neo/Trinity relationship was only slightly unbelievable (as Daisy seemed to think) because of Keanu Reeves. Let's face it, he's not a great actor in some ways, but to give him credit, he does what he does well. He looks good in a long black coat, for instance.

Then we come to the end of the film. Someone raised the question, "Are they still in The Matrix at the end of the film? Is that why Neo can down the Sentinels?" Well, I have a theory. Smith kept saying that Neo took something from him. The whole Smith thing is clearly going to be vitally important to Revolutions. It doesn't make sense, not at the moment. But I'm digressing.

I don't think they're still in the Matrix at the end. I don't see why the human who's been taken over by Smith would be unconscious as well. I figured that he'd done the same thing as Neo had, in order to survive the Sentinels, which resulted in him being in a coma. Whatever Neo did, he could do it because of his experience with Smith in the first film. When Neo changed Smith, he also changed himself. When he travelled back into his body, his being (his soul, mind, whatever) was different. It'd been altered. Perhaps whatever he took from Smith meant that he was somehow connected to the AI, like the Sentinels, like all the other machines.

That's what I thought, anyway, although it's all speculation, isn't it? Until Revolutions.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who've seen both films many times and can put me straight on whatever I'm messing up. :)

Oh, and I didn't think the effects were too OTT. They were kind of what I expected. Excellently done, very smart, and for me the fight scenes were never boring. It was such a beautifully made film! Great direction. Anyway...

Party on dudes!

I have been mostly... WATCHING (DVD): spaced series 1 & 2 / WATCHING (TV): neighbours (bbc 1); buffy (sky 1); totp 2 (bbc 2); totp (bbc 1); friends (c4) / READING: star wars - cloak of deception (james luceno) / LISTENING: think tank (blur)