On Finally Understanding The Matrix Sequels
Vložit
- čas přidán 28. 09. 2018
- The first 500 people to click this link get 2 months of Skillshare for free: skl.sh/justwrite5
Support the channel here: / justwrite
For fifteen years, I’ve assumed that the Matrix Sequels were irredeemable failures. But looking back on them with fresh eyes reveals a pair of films that are exhilarating, interesting, and sometimes hilarious. In this video I try to make sense of these two movies, and what they have to say about free will and the systems that control society.
Join the community!
Website ▶ www.justwritemedia.com
Twitter ▶ / sagehyden
Facebook ▶ ow.ly/6u9Z30iyp8J
Works Cited:
DRAGUNOIU, DANA. “Neo's Kantian Choice: ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ and the Limits of the Posthuman.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 2007, pp. 51-67. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44030393. www.jstor.org/stable/44030393...
For more on Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative read: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
More Matrix analysis:
Chelsea L. Shephard. “Call Trans Opt: Transgender Themes in The Matrix.” ontologicalgeek.com/call-trans...
Moviebob’s “Really That Good: THE MATRIX.” • Really That Good: THE ...
Wisecrack’s Matrix videos:
The Matrix Reloaded: What Went Wrong? • The Matrix Reloaded: W...
The Matrix Reloaded: What were they thinking? - Show Me The Meaning! LIVE • The Matrix Reloaded: W...
The Matrix Revolutions: What Went Wrong? • The Matrix Revolutions...
The Matrix Revolutions: Profound or Poorly Thought Out? - Show Me The Meaning! LIVE • The Matrix Revolutions...
Freewill, Fate, Causality in The Matrix Reloaded: montalk.net/metaphys/70/freewi...
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com - Krátké a kreslené filmy
I began dating my wife, Melissa Anderson, in 2005. Ive dressed as Agent Smith for Halloween every year since, just so I could say "Hello, Mr. Anderson" to my father in law.
Well, at least you made him feel like "the one".... however, if i was was him, i would also find it awkward that agent Smith is tapping my daughter...
Haha good man
Lol
I feel like the marriage will last, given this level of commitment to once-a-year cosplay.
CLASSIC.
The Merovingian's line "Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without," foreshadows the Architect's scene in that the Machines are trying to offer the humans a choice but to constrain it to make the choice come out in their favor.
So pretty much like the last U.S. presidential election...like choosing between cholera and gonorrhoea - either way you ain't gonna feel good and someone makes a profit selling you and getting you interested in the cure
Yep, why have the humans actually rebel unite, and potentially (Albeit unlikely) succeed, where the machines can give them the illusion of that in a controlled environment, where they get total control over them and easily deal with anything that is problematic.
@@freemanoxenholmes2241 except one choice would have actually been good (Trump)
Seriously, can you even name a single bad thing he did?
@@Americansikkunt he tear gassed a crowd of protestors so he could have a photo op in front of a church, while holding a Bible upside down
@@diangelo786 rioters aren’t protestors, go boo-hoo elsewhere
The Matrix Trilogy is really just live action anime.
They should've made it into an anime series. It would've kicked ass (I know that the Animatrix exists). Oh well, missed opportunity, but there is a great anime that can rival the Matrix in terms of philosophy and weirdness: Serial Experiments Lain.
I just told myself neo & Smith were goku & frieza a long time ago
@@Stax2High same 😂
It‘s based on and inspired by an anime
Yeah, I can see that.
"The only way to live in an unfree world is to make yourself so absolutely free that your very existence becomes an act of rebellion" Albert Camus
Never wear that fake pandemic mask
@@shantihealer Wait are you saying the pandemic is fake or the mask is fake? I can assure you both are indeed real. Also not what I was referring to by my quote. My interpretation being that living in a capitalist society that everything costs money the only way to live is to free your mind.
Well the directors are trans....
@@michaelnone1437
I love the reply. Chuds see “freedom” in a quote and automatically think “democrats, 1984, constitution, fascism” and reply with a shitty take. Lmao
@@ratking6133 I'm so tired of hearing this. So can a gay man not make a movie that has nothing to do with sexuality? Can a black person not make a movie that has nothing to do with race?
Just because they are trans does not mean the matrix trilogy has anything to do with that. There is literally 0 references to suggest that. And they were both still dudes when the idea was conceived and the scripts were written. It is mere coincidence that they are now both women
Good thing neo took the blue pill and became john wick
Haha
Sadly there isn't a good John Wick PC game
Delta Beta we may consider SUPERHOT as an approximation (despite different plot)
brilliant :D
Nani ? 😭😭😭😭
"hugo, stop having so much fun"
Cookies need love like everything does
"Okay Mom"
'making movies' in ancient greek means 'have fun'
@@sparrow56able”You are a bastard.”
I guess this is why I love Matrix:
I am " _someone who loves philosophical conversations and also enjoys ridiculously over the top action sequences_ "
I am the target audience
Person Man Man preach preacha
indeed. But I thankfully liked the Trilogy when it first came out. I don't get why it received so much hate over the years, but I guess because it was so complex for a film as a whole in Western media.
Same. I love the sequels have since they first came out.
I was in college when the sequels came out, so I got the whole philosophy thing right off the bat. I may not rewatch the sequels as much (I really have to be in the right mind set for it), but I liked them.
Same, I was that teenager. It reminds me of some eastern "kung fu" movies, which were a huge influence in the matrix. Its basically philosophy with visual and plot metaphors wrapped around as a dressing, not the point. But people went to see a Hollywood action flick in the molds of the ones they just saw in the 90s and 80s (which is easy to pretend the first movie was, though it wasn't), and were all surprised pikachu when they didn't see one in the sequels.
I've always been partial to the idea that, when he's heard that there were other Ones before him, Neo suddenly realizes "Wait, this has happened before. Time and again, they've chosen _that_ door. Just to mess with your head, I'm going to choose _this_ door, save the woman I love, and save Zion for real. How do you like *them* drumsticks, Col. Sanders?"
Nicholas Tosoni 💭 actually that’s very logical..
The matrix is Real
czcams.com/video/ybxSECS9jxY/video.html
who said Zion was even real?
@@phillipsmejkal1 I mean that the other Ones didn't actually SAVE Zion. Their self-sacrifices achieved only temporary results.
@@occultlounge754 Let's just say that I have a really good nose for guilt-trips. If you think about it, the Architect is just like Neo's manager chewing him out in the first one.
I love the scenes with The Architect. It's silent, but tense, and if you pay attention to what he's saying it is actually easy to follow. It's brilliantly done, because it actually feels like a computer outputting data rather than a person communicating an idea. Cold, precise, and unrelenting.
Can you imagine if they did the typical "super-villain" thing, having the architect all emotional and evil?!
That would have been a major flaw.
Generic Internetter yes. Exactly! It blew my mind how many people missed this and just think of it as a wordy, boring scene!
Mr. Smith is all emotional and evil but still a program
Unless you understand what he's saying then you realize he's talking in circles about like Star Trek technobabble.
Some of the reviews at the time and later youtube stuff were all like "HURR DURR BEARDY MAN USE BIG WORDS ME NO UNDERSTAND."
What he's saying isn't that fucking complicated. Making the matrix perfect doesnt work, making it with flaws works better but the system eventually breaks down because the machines have to give humans choice. Neo isn't the first One. Those before him made a certain choice, Neo makes a different choice.
You don't need a fucking Phd for that.
@@RPMcM09 This explains it better than I could - matrix.fandom.com/wiki/Matrix_Beta_Versions
When Neo says "It was inevitable" it was his way of goading Smith into assimilating him, thus ensuring his own demise. He was tricking him.
👍🏾 Well said !
Neo accepted the reality that choice truly was an illusion
@@MistahJay7 He knew the only way to beat Smith was to let him “win” and sacrificing himself.
No, he realized that, although he does have free will, he as a person would always make the same choice under the same circumstances.
What makes it inevitable is that Neo refuses to give up, or stop caring about everyone else.
its a nice fan theory but not fact.
A point that people often miss when talking about Neo choosing the Love door in the Architects Room, is how that love came to be.
In the first movie, Trinity tells us that The Orcale told her that The One would be soulmate. :)
I've always read this as The Oracle setting up this version of Neo to chose the Love door.
I think The Matrix Reloaded is pretty good. It ends on an amazing cliffhanger. My issue with Revolutions is that it seems like an inordinate amount of time in the film is taken up by a subplot where the guy who played Michael on Lost pilots a Gundam
Hard agree.
The guy who played Michael on Lost never pilots a gundam, he's too busy gunning sentinels down on the ship that Morpheus and Niobe are flying back to Zion
Which is no surprise since that last battle is homage to Goku Vs Frieza 😂😂
"Listening to some guy explain philosophy for 15 minutes at a time"... The video lasts 15 minutes...
I see what you did there o.ó
Another funny numbers comparison: he has 369ksubs and my comment was number 369.
14 minutes and 49 seconds
I think he's talking about wisecrack channel. They do a philosophical analysis of a lot of stuff. That's the logo you can see when he mentions it
24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case, it can't just be coincidence!
Looking at it, you're really listening to an A.I. that thinks only in mathematical terms, being bested by a human being that thinks in moral and ethical terms as well as logic. The Architect cannot think like Neo, and therefore cannot predict which door he will choose, or manipulate him to choose the door he wants him to use.
Joke's on you, 15 year old me thought the architect's speech was amazing.
15 year old me thought it was amazing too. It even came out on my birthday.
Haha. Well done. It was too deep for me back then.
im not gonna lie, i didnt understood the meaning cuz i was too engrossed in Neo being badass throughout. Rather i didnt even listen.
14 year old me was also blown away and 100% understood it too.
I was a bit older than you guys, but I too absolutely loved the architect's speech.
Matrix 4 guys...
Was it really inevitable?
I'm excited!
that's sexism!
Was what inevitable? Neo winning?
If you are true to yourself, then many things become inedible (I mean inevitable because all else is too tough to swallow.)
What's really gonna bake your noodle later is, would they have made it if you hadn't said anything....
"While art doesn't change, you do" Good job!!
@@keyboardevangelist8956 no
@@HOTD108_ John 1.
In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. And the word became flesh to dwell among men...
Hebrews 3:10
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible..
Jesus is the word of God, the ultimate logos of the universe, the overall of information of the hyperspace realm.
czcams.com/video/39_Kk0zVicc/video.html (CERN)
czcams.com/video/iFEBOGLjuq4/video.html (emergent universe)
"So why did he actually go through this door?"
To rage against the machine my dude... to rage against the machine.
lolz
It's a false dichotomy. When you find the architect, you destroy him and his system of deception and slavery all together.
That's why *the doors should be red and blue*, just like the pills in the first film. The Architect is a mirror reflection of Morpheus, and it's a pity that it wasn't stressed in the dialogues.
Morpheus fights against the Matrix - the Architect struggles to make it work.
Morpheus is looking for the One - Architect is waiting for the One.
Morpheus is black and in dark colours - the Architect is white and all in bright colours.
(A side note: Morpheus is bald and clearly shaven, but the Architect has both hair and a beard).
What they have in common is that they give a choice to Neo. One option is to stay in the world known so far, i.e. the Matrix (blue pill, return door). The other option is to enter a different, unknown world (red pill, the Source door). They both prefer the "new world" option.
Analogies are like a rhyme, they give a unity in variety and I really love them. Maybe that's why when I first watched this video I enjoyed mostly the fact that "Reloaded" has a kind of leitmotiv -- Neo chooses between Trinity and others for three times (by the lift, with Persephone, and with the Architect).
@@michatarnowski580 my dude! Best comment I've seen so far
@@michatarnowski580 to make the doors blue and red wouldn't fit. For a machine a color does not represent anything. So the doors being just like a logic gate and seemingly identical makes more sense (even in your own logic) Morpheus uses color, the Architect doesn't.
The Matrix trilogy is so empowering to me because essentially when you watch it, every single scene builds up to the one moment:
“Why do you persist?”
“Because I choose to”
That one line without context is quite poor but because nearly everything we’ve seen is telling us that free will doesn’t actually exist, it’s immensely powerful. Because whether or not he even has free will in that moment, whether or not his choice to keep fighting is just a matter of everything that’s happened to him up to that moment, HE STILL CHOOSES TO FIGHT. Even if it’s not really a choice, he doesn’t care. He’s going to fight anyway. And because of that fact he’s going to win. And that’s amazing.
Good point. I haven't seen the films since they came out. I will rewatch one day.
No he said "Because I choose to" as a revelation not as a statement. It's why he let Smith kill him shortly after, because he realized that he doesn't need to fight him to win.
Exactly, it is only inevitable because he believes he is choosing. He himself creates the inevitability. That's just so stunningly beautiful and true, it applies to real life so well
Well said, but the key revelation is that he should STOP fighting. Neo realises that the answer is surrendering to Smith and letting go, which eventually leads to Smith's destruction and peace.
Bitter and small. No one cares.
The Matrix franchise is one of the most thought-provoking movies of all time
Only if you don't think about it too much
The cup is half empty 😂
It's philosophy for idiots.
@@MacSmithVideo Idiots have no philosophy, so your point is moot
definitely
I had no idea that these movies were unpopular. I was 11 when these came out and I loved them. What I got out of it was that faith in ourselves and our friends was more powerful than any system of control the more that you understood and believed in yourself the more powerful you became. That we make our own fate through our belief in fate. Also the action was super well choreographed and the cast had great chemistry. I could watch Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving play off of each other all day.
One does not simply tell Hugo Weaving to stop having fun.
Damn, I gotta rewatch Chicken Run.
A great movie.
Most people should rewatch Happy Feet.
you're damn right, Chicken Run is awesome!
lol
lmfao there lies the answers to the universe.
There is no paradox tbh. Neo saying "Because I choose to." isn't a response to Smith, but rather him making the realization that his "choice" to resit is keeping him from winning.
It's like what the Oracle said in the second movie, "You didn't come here to make a choice, the choice has already been made. Now you have to understand it."
Neo letting Smith absorb him is Neo understanding the choice that has already been made and letting Smith take control of his body for the Machines to deal with him is the understanding of said choice.
Well put! The choice is only "made" when he fully understands it, the moment he says that line
Thank goodness for your comment. Choice as he believes and inevitably are not contradictory. The choice is the inevitability.
6:21 Neyo choosing to ''help others'' by french kissing some hot chick must have been the most difficult one of all, I felt for him!
Paraplegic octopus - not a great experience in front of your chick though! Imagine that in real life! Life wouldn’t be worth living! Fuck Zion!!
I’m reality if you have ever been in full love that would be not nice
As you don’t see others as sexual or attractive
Some people say the Matrix movies are pretentious, I think it is more an issue of having a fucking amazing idea for the characters and universe but not being able to execute them in the most optimal way possible.
Great video dude.
This is literally it. The Matrix was so successful because it forced itself to balance fun and philosophy in the most optimal way. Reloaded/Revolutions are pretty indulgent in all the things that the creators wanted to include. Over-indulgence usually translates to bad reception.
It's about not carrying the general audience through the philosophy gently, measuring it equally, and with balance, with the action-y schlock. Pretentious navel-gazing and philosophizing has its place in several different types of movies, especially sci-fi!, but the hype of the kung-fu, industrial, cypher-punk aesthetic of the first Matrix wasn't matched in the Duo-ilogy.
Watch Animatrix. So much is said and explained in the anthology that a lot of people missed between the movies!
Matrix just had too much in it for movies which are limited. If you play the games and watch the sidestories in Animatrix, a lot more info and world-building is done in there that the trilogy couldn't cover.
shouldve been a tv series. the animatrix was brilliant
I would suggest to watch W a kdrama much better and a mind blower.
I was treated as crazy for liking these films as a kid. Finally, vindication!
Me too
you are still crazy...
ps i kid. hny
Dude same here. I loved all of them from the beginning
If you needed vindication, you didn't truly like the film.
Everyone in my school used to love the movies you felt left out if you didn't watch matrix
I thoroughly enjoyed both Matrix sequels when I saw them in 2003. I still enjoy sitting down and watching the trilogy from time to time. Glad to see a well thought out opinion on them that’s not just someone bashing on them for 30 minutes. :)
The only truly irritating part is dancing in Zion.
@@damac5136 I just think the scene is long, but I find it completely necessary because it demonstrates the exact opposite of the matrix, the humans are there in the heat being free, having sex and satisfying their desires so that the prison of the matrix will never overwhelm them anymore
@@AF-vd8dd I can sympathize with that. I agree that the scene communicates an/the important ideal.
@@damac5136 "To deny one's own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes you human"
- Mouse
@@MikeKnight009 It isn't the action itself, it's the cheesy-ass depiction (and the length of it). It doesn't help that one of the directors was asexual.
I love rewatching movies I've seen a thousand times in my youth and young adulthood only to find how much more they resonate with me now that I am middle aged and have some wisdom and experience. This is why adults will always sound arrogant to the youth, and why the youth will never understand their ignorance. Life moves in cycles, and you will never understand those cycles at a young age. But watch the world repeat itself over and over for 4 or 5 decades, and you start to see things differently. The ultimate irony is that so many "adults" and "old people" choose to double down on ignorance and "the way things were" rather than understand the world in a broader context.
I always liked the sequels and never understood why people used to talk crap about them.
Because they are awful, he knows it, he actually gave a number of the reasons in this video at the beginning, he's just becoming a shill.
Because people compare them all the time to the first one. But in compare to 99% of other movies they are not bad.
I am a massive fan of The Matrix and I will admit that the sequels are skin crawlingly corny.
Because the first one is a masterpiece, and the sequels didn't need to exist
I do not hate the sequels but they do get a bit heavy with action. The first movie also had a lot of it but the 2 and 3 its like action for the sake of having action. Anyway I love Animatrix series way more than M2 and M3
I just remembered a seemingly throwaway line from Morpheus in the first Matrix film
“It was he who freed the first of us”
And later in this monologue
“After he died, the Oracle prophesied his return”
These lines take on new meaning as you lay down what the architect is saying.
Ie. Yes Neo isnt special but he is ‘The One’ in this 6th matrix version, due to an anomaly in the code he carries, but as the Merovingian puts it “you see he’s just a man” and will die as all humans do, even if he does choose to reboot the matrix and restart Zion.
So- ‘The One’ in previous Matrix’ were different human beings and the Oracle’s prophecy about ‘The One’ returning, wasn’t referring to the same human being, but rather that the anomaly in code would reappear (in this case, within Neo).
Thank you for explaining that, it has helped in my understanding.
Would've be easier if the Machines simply looked up Stack Overflow
Wait til you realise the other 6 "the ones" correspond to the Six Major world Religions ie Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham, Confucius, Buddha, and Ramakrishna.
Brian Lawfield - Neo being Jesus this time
The only potential flaw in that theory would be that we see several different Neo’s on the screen all having different reactions to the information the Architect is giving them. I had always assumed this was video of each iteration of The One in that identical situation, all reacting a bit different to the information, but ultimately making the same decisions, until the Neo we follow.
Great work.
Admitting that one's views evolve shows maturity. Admitting it in such a public way shows courage.
Admitting it to yourself shows intellectual honesty.
More of all three qualities would help us all.
He just wants to talk about his opinion, that's all. And what one phrases as "I evolved, I'm smarter now", another could phrase with "it took me 15 years to understand this (I hope I'm not always so slow)" and suddenly it doesn't sound as positive anymore, yet describes the same fact. Really, that you people so easily fall for this...
@@nightmareTomek What makes you think we "fall for" anything?
The guy has publicly said that he has changed his mind. What is there to "fall for"?
@@AndrewBlucher that it's so admirable and deserving so much praise. As if I would say: "I evolved and now I'm doing my homework". And you giving me overly much praise for it, that everyone gets the impression it's actually better to start off not doing your homework and than change. Instead of doing your homework from the start.
@@nightmareTomek Ok. We have different opinions. I enjoy seeing people grow and develop. Cheers
@@AndrewBlucher doesn't mean I don't. Only appropriately/fair. Not to overshadow people who didn't need to grow because they were already there. Or, like in this case, not for simply closing the eyes against the bad and calling it "growth".
This is so great. You seem to have avoided the pitfall in most Matrix analysis of determinism and only determinism, and guided it to a deeper, more interesting conversation involving morality, resistance and the characters of the film
Oh hey there.
Why is nobody liking this comment?
Because it's baiting.
@@CSM100MK2 but... its wisecrack though...
Feorde Boy BIG DEAL WHO CARES IF THEIR CONTENT IS SHALLOW AND MOSTLY STOLEN....
@@CSM100MK2 but its wisecrack...
I guess I lucked out. As a teenager watching the Matrix sequels, I loved them because the action scenes were incredible m and the philosophical scenes just blew me away. I couldn't understand them, but I gathered enough to go "woah" and go on to the next scene. Later, when I was old enough to understand them, it made me love the movies even more.
The lesson is basically: so long as you always choose to oppose the system of control, it is ineveitable you will find a way to beat it because eventually out of the box thinking will always trounce where we thought math ended before.
That's really good man. Never thought of it that way. Emotion trumps a system based on logic.
@@bolso4 I'm glad that kinda made sense. Lol seems like one helluva run on sentence. But that's truly what I think it means.
"Made for a 13 year old boy who earned a PHd in philosophy" I feel so attacked right now
I'm triggered.
Funny story: The first time I saw the scene where the machines invade Zion, I ate a humongous amount of spaghetti carbonara that was almost too much to stomach. Now every time I see those slithering tentacle drones I have that exact taste in my mouth.
BaronZ same thing happened to me but with the movie wall-e, i was young and had brought 3 big chocolate bars to the cinema, ate them all. now when i see something related to wall-e i taste chocolate in my mouth.
that sounds sick i would love to be reminded of spaghetti carbonara automatically watching the matrix
Damn you Pawlow!
Well done, sir.
Haha very dumb story why share
YES! I feel like I've been the only person saying this for 15 years. It seems obvious that the two sequels were rushed through the writing process after the success of the original, and that's a GD tragedy, because I'd argue that both the action scenes and philosophical revelations in the sequels are on par and often surpass the first one. It just sucks that they were buried by poor pacing, pretension, and the insurmountable expectation of being as tightly constructed at The Matrix. Still, enormously flawed as they are, both are bold visions very much worth watching and not the garbage fires most people seem to think
nathan bayless Five years was rushing the sequels?
I think they effectively accomplish what they were trying to do. It just wasn’t what we the audience, (like for example, with TLJ) were expecting, and that negatively influenced reception.
It takes a couple of years to write a good story, mostly. So many of these films rush sequels hoping the interest hasn't died. I'd prefer if they waited, tho. Matrix sequels are excellent given the short time frame.
Agreed. Paper thin plot in the sequels due to limited time in development unlike The Matrix which went through various drafts DUE to WB not trusting the Wachowskis because of their limited experience as filmmakers THEREFORE they were given a budget to film what was essentially a sizzle reel in 1996's Bound. If WB had faith in the Wachowskis they would have given them a budget for the Trilogy i.e LOTR and we would have much better sequels.
Shaun Lamb they filmed reloaded and revolutions back to back.
Shaun Lamb its not like they began working on sequels immediately after the first movie.
I was the intended audience for these movies. I was 24, in my third year of an undergrad that sat between philosophy and sociology and had already read Zizek's desert of the real book but also was a subscriber to Kung Fu Magazine
So how do you feel about the movies now? I'd like to see some 'leftist thoughts' on the matter.
"The problem with the Matrix sequels is that their target audience is a 13-year-old boy who has somehow earned a PhD in philosophy."
Maybe that's why I love these movies but could never understand why so many people didn't. I was 13 years old when I first saw them and, while I didn't have a PhD, I found the philosophical discussions in the films mesmerizing. No lie: I spent a lot of 7th and 8th grade thinking about the nature of the universe and the meaning of life because of all the ideas I encountered in this series. And sure, that got depressing after a while, and it was hard to hard to have conversations with regular people, but I've never seen a movie since then that made me think that much.
Did u also think the architect had a sick way with words? I know 13 year old me thought his word choice was so clean.
Haven't found a movie like that since? Truman show. Dark City. Prometheus. Inception. The show Westworld. They're all gnostic movies. Check it out dude. Or just look into the original scripture. Since they are gnostic allegories.
you are litteraly me
I always thought philosophy is using your thoughts to waste time. Well, I used my time on psychology, much more real life connection, if you ask me, and more benefits.
And when me and friends got of the cinema after watching Revolution (I think I was about 15), we all just thought "well that was... 2.5 hours of war".
@@nightmareTomek If you don't think philosophy and psychology are connect then you are the one wasting your time.
What people never got is that Revolutions is literally just the finale to Reloaded. Not a separate film. Watched back to back Revolutions works because you don’t want anymore exposition, or the philosophy overload we just spent 2.5 hours consuming. The story needed to slow down and focus on the actual physical conflict. As a standalone it’s lacklustre, but as a 2 part story, Revolutions is flawlessly orchestrated.
The Architect straight up tells Neo that his predecessors all experienced the intense love they were programmed with "generally," as in impersonally and for all other humans more or less equally. This made it easier to convince them to martyr themselves for the continued existence of humanity, despite that existence still being under the boot of the machines, because their feelings told them that just the fact of that continued existence was a moral net good. Neo, however, was different. His experience of that love was, as the Architect puts it, "far more specific," and focused exclusively on Trinity. He could say "Screw the rest of youse, nothing matters more than THIS human's life." Why this was uniquely true for Neo never really gets fleshed out, but if the machines planned on running this game forever, it was statistically inevitable (omg) that one of their messiahbots would eventually take that door for one reason or another.
This simultaneously gives Neo the chance to buck the martyr role in his mind, and yet fulfill it more effectively than any before him. Weird.
YES!!!! THANK YOU!!! It's been driving me crazy finding literally no one on the internet who seems to understand these movies. I don't understand why no one seems to be able to tell what's going on. You are the only other person I've found who even realizes that the other door isn't a good choice, and I feel like that's, like, really obvious??? I mean it's literally comic book fare! I also thought it was fairly obvious that fate comes from the choices people have to make.
I would love to hear your thoughts as a like-minded fan on what you think the deal is with neo having powers in the real world
I highly recommend “Matrix Trilogy and a Culture of Haters”. After this video, it is the best video I have seen defending the matrix sequels on CZcams
@@bolso4 the best one is the one about The Matrix and Baudrillard by CCK Philosophy in my opinion
Can't wait to see you analyze Resurrections!
*DEATH* is inevitable but Neo had a *CHOICE* of when he died. You can't escape death, you can't escape fate, but you can choose your own path to the end.
"Choices" and paths are always predetermined. Free will is an illusion and a useful social construct when placing blame and responsibility, but in the end it doesn't physically exist in reality.
No, Neo's choices weren't predetermined. Death is, but the choices he makes along the way are not. The reason that the Oracle could predict his future is because she can see the path that he was on. It could have been any path, and he could have at any time chose to follow a different path (eg. died in the hallway) but he chose to continue on THAT path to his inevitable end. He still has free will, but made all his choices before setting down that path, even if he didn't know what choices he made until it happens.
thesuicidefox Again, free will doesn't exist, neither in The Matrix nor in the real world. You don't have free will, Neo doesn't have free will, and Gandalf doesn't have free will. No character in any movie have free will. Free will doesn't make any sense as a physical construct, and all your choices and actions were predetermined to happen from the beginning of time. Even compatibilism can only see free will as a social construct, because it's impossible to explain as a real-life phenomenon.
Did anyone else notice that Dr. Strange‘s plan in infinity war is in a few ways kind of reminiscent to Neo‘s plan in revolutions?
At its core they both came to the same conclusion, which is giving into the bad guy, and giving him what he wants, is ultimately the only way to defeat him.
I know it’s a bit of a stretch, and there are some differences, but at the very least their ideologies behind their reasonings were very similar.
unless I wasn't paying attention to this video close enough (which is not outside the realm of impossibility) I'm not sure it's close in arguably the most important way. There's no actual real strategy or special maneuvering to Strange's plan. It's simply that he had the ability to gain the knowledge that there was literally only one very specific way to defeat the enemy out of a finite several million number of possibilities (though I suppose on that particular point, technically there COULD have existed more than 14,000,605 potential outcomes, I mean while that's definitely getting a pretty comprehensive awareness of a given scenario, for all we know there were billions of them to be seen, only he had the "time" to get to see 14 million of them, in the context of time in relation to the others with him there on Titan as he used the Time Stone. which, for that matter, and this didn't occur to me til just now, if THAT is true, technically there could've indeed been at least one other successful ending included in those billions of others). But anyway my point is, while yes he had to do some subtle (or not so subtle) "guiding" of others along the way to get to that one winning ending, it took no special skill or intellect for him to focus on that given order of following events. He was given clear information it was literally the only way to do so. And it's not like in this story, we have any details about the world simply getting to start over with new versions of everything if any of those "bad" outcomes happened. Well, Thanos winning wouldn't have been the end of everything immediately, certainly, but even he couldn't have foreseen if he'd accomplished his goal, that it would've inevitably triggered some other/greater subsequent event that would've indeed basically wiped the universe clean for good. After all the whole concept is he was trying to enable an action that had never been acted upon in the universe, including bringing together the 6 most powerful physical objects together for the first time ever, an action whose full outcome couldn't possibly be accurately predicted on its own.
And yes, I'm painfully aware I'm a nerd on a probably unhealthy scale lol
Po did it in King Fu Panda 3, as well.
If the universe had an infinite amount of galaxies and planets, there's bound to be some where life is the same as on our planet. Same with the movies - the more you have, the higher the probability of similarities. Not a big deal.
In my opinion, you stretched it too much. Because Neo's plan didn't involve sacrificing many beings throughout the universe. Because when Thanos snapped his fingers, airplane pilots, surgeans, and many others all over the universe suffered the consequences
Difference is Dr Strange was actually fighting a real battle that made a difference
Neo vs Smith rivarly was orchestrated by the Oracle and both are going along the oracles desired path. Choice is but an illusion
Neo saying "It was inevitable" is like when Thanos said it, it wasnt saying he believed in faith but, that he believed in himself thus choosing. Everything is a choice, everything has a cause and effect, it is inevitable that we all die but, when and how is our choice as much as everything around us. One man's inevitability is another man's choice.
Choice is an illusion in the matrix universe. Neo finally realized this when he told smith it was inevitable
It's crazy how much depth and how many layers this trilogy has. A true genius in film history.
13 year old me LOVED Smith's monologue in M2 about purpose. I would play his speach on repeat because it hit me very hard. As a 13 year old with no direction in life, a broken family that moved twice and was left in a new town that didn't accept me or give me the time to learn the social skills everyone else had already learned years earlier, I was very lost. I had no idea what I wanted, what I needed, or what direction in life would give me either. Smith's repeat after repeat of the word "purpose" made me realize exactly what I wanted and needed. It defined a nebulus concept that 13, 14, and even 24 year old me is still striving to find. My purpose. My reason for existing. I may never find it, but thanks to this movie, I know what IT is
I watched this video shortly after its release. Back then, I enjoyed it as a yet another summary of the twisted plot and a yet another pack of curiosities - like the repeated choice between Trinity and others, or the fact that Neo visiting the Architect has to choose between utilitarianism and Kantian deontology.
"Opinions need refreshing every one and then." After the second watch, now I can see what probably made you so excited. Yes, Neo's repeated choices between Trinity and others made him "know himself", just as the Oracle advised. This understanding that he can sacrifice himself to others finally makes him triumph. The whole story is about resistance against an authoritarian system -- just like the first film, but from a different perspective. It's not enough to realise that you're in an illusion and to oppose it. It's also necessary to realise what drives your choices, and to follow it if necessary.
It's quite an original perspective, but you'd probably agree that the sequels are pushing some kind of comaptibilism, i.e. free will and determinism at the same time. That's an impression that I've had for about two years or so.
The matrix sequels are my favorites, the first one is okay but kinda slow for me
I remember feeling this way about quantum of solace and age of ultron. Two sequel movies i didnt like originally but actually really liked rewatching years later
One giant problem: Someone making a choice out of moral duty neither implies nor refutes determinism any more than someone making a choice from love or emotion.
I know.
"Free will" in the metaphysically libertarian sense is incoherent. You have to chuck causality to pretend you have free will while relying on causality to inform and describe the choices made.
Yeah, that's why he said that it was inevitable for them to have changed the system. It was still an instance of casuality, even though he said he persisted because he chose to.
I think it does when fulfilling your moral duty is considered the logical choice.
I think that he showed Westworld as an example to imply that, like the hosts, we are all "programmed" to make choices. Basically the sum of our experiences, our personality and our education forms our "self" and that self will never change. That is why our choices are just an illusion. It's like saying "I like cake more than cookies" and if next year someone had to tell me to chose between a dish of cookies and a slice of cake I would choose the cake. It sounds like a choice out of free will but it was actually predetermined.
We program ourselves through experience and growth. We attain self-awareness through the analysis of our programming. Therefore, the later choices are inevitable, but only within the scope of our previously self-determined actions. This does imply that an individual's personal growth over time is impossible, or at least unlikely, but I think that's for a different discussion.
I've gone back and forth with these movies multiple times but I'd say I overall enjoyed all 3 films.
But I still think the first film is the best.
If the 2nd and 3rd movies would be compressed into one sequel, I think it would be just as good. The pacing and focus of the first Matrix is the real difference.
This is me exactly. Was 15 when the first one came out and 18 when the others came out. Enjoyed them but was mostly cause of action. Rewatched them a handful of times in my 30's and I was completely surprised at how different I felt about them and how much had gone over my head. They are quite brilliant tbh.
i watched these as an adult and have such a deep love of them. the new movie coming out is making me nearly tearful with excitement.
The biggest problem with the sequels is in this dialogue from the first:
Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus: No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
At the end of the first movie, Neo transcends the simulated physicality of the matrix by seeing directly into the code. Bullets and melee with the agents are suddenly trivialized and Neo wins. From there the only place to go with the plot would be much more psychedelic and mindbending. But instead what do we get? Two more movies full of bullets and martial arts, because that's the Wachowskis' thing. It's like the ending of the first Matrix never happened, except that now Neo can fly. This was a total disconnect for me and made the sequels irrelevant to what would have been the true trajectory of the plot.
I see that as a case of Morpheus not being in a position to really know from his position what it means to be The One. As if finally achieving real self knowledge and actualization means that the battle is over. So now you no longer have oppression! Or tough choices! So I think that making Reloaded and Revolutions a bit more grounded was a smart move. Neo can see directly into the code, but that doesn't mean that he automatically knows what to do without any introspection. IMO they are psychedelic and mindbending by going a bit deeper with the themes.
Interesting. Where would you have gone with the trilogy?
The other huge problem is that the end of the first movie makes it clear that Neo can defeat the machines by just waking everyone up, and then they all forgot about that last phonecall in the sequels. I mean, he literally tells the source to fuck off because he can pull the plug at any time.
@@sethrogers5722 It really didn't need to be a trilogy. The first one was a self contained film, the story finished in a satisfying way and it was enough. Neo was enlightened. He could literaly bend the reality and smashed agent Smith into pieces. Him having to fight with fists again made no sense.
The only redeeming part of the sequels was the scene with the ingeneer. It was quite a nice twist but they just didn't do anything interesting with it.
Lets face it Wachowski brothers are not all that smart. They just got lucky. The first film was quite simple and sort of tounge in cheek concept with those sunglasses and cyber punk outfits and style. The sequels just tried too hard to create something but there was nowhere to go with it.
They have made some atrociously dumb films afterwards and thinking that matrix sequels are some mind bending philozophical masterpieces is quite silly tbh.
@@andrejlondyn "they got lucky" having intelligence in and of itself is lucky. You get intelligence from you genes and you didn't choose your genes. So them being intelligent or not isn't even relevant. The video is stating observations about the film. You can't disagree with observations. If we should use the word mindbending or not is a different debate, but debating that is quite silly. The films are what they are. And a lot of us like them.
THe Wacholskis are absolutely freaking genius. I always knew it!
I feel like you needed this video to help you get to that conclusion?
Neo's ability to use his "The One" powers in the real world near the end of revolutions suggest the "real world" is also a simulation...a place for that 1% who reject the programming to live in, in struggle
@@blurglide I disagree. His ability to use "The One" powers are because of his wireless connection to the Source. Remember, he's the only One that went to the Architect's room and decided to re-enter the Matrix. He had a connection to the Source when he entered the Architect's room, and he maintained that connection even when leaving the room.
This is correct. Too many people miss that.
I also thought he might have gotten the power, or the hacking software from the oracle. She does say "your power transcends beyond the matrix" It seems like she could do that, so to guide Neo to the Machine City.
@@mangomariel that's also a pretty viable theory. However, the Wachowskis always denied a Matrix inside of a Matrix theory.
I'll have to revisit parts 2 & 3. The action after every talk scene made me feel like i was watching a set of video game sequences.
Oh my God... Thank you so much. This was a beautifully put together video essay. It cleared up so much confusion I had with Neo's seemingly conflicting motivations in the sequels. This is amazing.
Speaking of underrated Wachowski films, it’d truly be awesome to wake up one day and discover a Just Write video on Speed Racer. An incredibly overlooked movie, and honestly in need of a good in-depth analysis on CZcams. Critics bashed it, and it’s about time that someone brings this movie justice. That someone should be you :)
Word fucking Word! Their best film in my opinion
🤝
Absolutely all of what Vukes Panda said!!! I challenge ANYONE, fan or critic of Speed Racer, to show me a more kinetic film. It's a wonderful spectacle and, I'm sure, a major part of what sank it with average mainstream audiences. All the complaints of "all candy-coated special effects and no story" might as well have been confessions of "I spent the entire time angered by the look of a movie that advertised it would look just like it did and forgot to pay attention to the story". The story was fantastic and alot trickier than I expected. It was also quite impressive how true to the original story arc it was.
Hey everyone, Patrick (h) Willems did a video about Speed Racer.
I’d be happy to see more videos on Speed Racer, but that guy kinda knocked it out of the park. Go check it out.
I'll put two pennys in: I thought Speed Racer was a good movie but it was completely ruined by one thing: its ending. When Speed Crashed, and it was caught on tape that he was sabotaged, that should have led to the end, he didn't win the race but won more important things, justice and a reinforced bond with his family and his love for racing. Sort of an antithesis to Decetors speech on Iodine industries and making money.
BUT THEN.... corny ending kicks in, put the car into hyperspeed and go from LAST PLACE to winning the race? Bullshit! totally shat on all the morality in the tale, an bad ending to teach kids that the "Hero" always wins, put's in in the Taladega Nights philosophy "If you are not first, you are last" a total NONJA!!
Thank you for making this video! I have NEVER understood why the sequels were disliked and frankly ignored the criticism. This provided some comforting reassurance that I'm far from alone in loving them almost as much as the original.
Because they are bad movies, just in his intro where there was the bowling alley sound effect as Neo hits Smith should have been a red flag that what you're seeing isn't good.
I'm thinking of a deeper philosophical and theatrical analysis Douglas. Not one where the thousands of decisions, dialog, acting, and pacing is boiled down to a half second audio clip that maybe should have been different.
@@PaulThronson I hear you, what I find odd about the video is that he gives the reasons the movies are bad but then goes on to defend them because of their themes. If that's the case you can defend just about any poorly done movie by finding some salient insights the writers injected into the movie.
@@douglasquaid1711 But does he really give reasons why it was bad? Seemed to me that at least watching them now, he doesn't understand why he didn't like them other than he wasn't interested as much it the meaning behind them. At least that was my recollection though my own biased lenses if course
I'd be more than happy to actually discuss reasons why it was bad, because all I got was the bowling noise and that there was a lot of exposition. But to me, that was the awesomeness of it. The story was all an amazing philosophical proposition. If anything, there wasn't enough
Great insight. Good interpretation. You hit the nail on the head with the Oracle. Our choices have already been made, we just come to where we try to understand them.
Since this is a video about defending the Matrix sequels, I would like to combat a few of the criticisms you briefly list in the beginning. I will give you the exposition, slow start, and not-enough-Morpheus complaints. I would also add that the CGI really hasn't aged well. But, in response to the other things you list, I'd like to say:
- I don't find the Architect scene dull. Sure, I had to watch it several times with subtitles and a dictionary to figure out what the hell he was saying (and I had a headache by the end of it), but now that I understand it I actually think it's really interesting. You learn a lot about the history of the Matrix, they drop a huge twist about the nature of the One and the resistance, and I could listen to Helmut Bakaitis talk in his Orson Welles voice all day long.
- It's not necessarily a bad thing for a film to be confusing. If a film is confusing because the plot and characters are a jumbled mess (like The Big Sleep: my pick for the most confusing film in history), that's bad. But when a movie is confusing because it's cerebral and there's a lot going on (like The Matrix Trilogy, or most films by Christopher Nolan), that just means you get an extra dose of entertainment: watching the movie, and then solving the puzzle of the movie. Maybe a lot of people don't like solving puzzles when they watch movies, but those people probably didn't like the first Matrix movie either.
- It's a sci-fi epic. Epics have a lot of characters. Maybe some of them could be cut, but do any of them hurt the story by being included? The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series each has a lot of characters, and nobody complains about that.
- Revolutions is the climax of a war story, of course it has a lot of action. Did Return of the King or Deathly Hallows Part Two have too much action?
- I had to look up "fetch quest," but now that I understand that, what's the issue? Isn't the point of Reloaded that they're barreling through this quest the Oracle gave them without asking any questions, only to learn that there was something else going on the whole time? The Merovingian even points out how dumb they are for just running around hunting MacGuffins.
- This series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where half the characters are artificial intelligences. I think we need to use a different rubric for what constitutes "realistic dialogue." Also, I'm not sure why you show Commander Lock when you mention this.
Excellent excellent response !!!
We make choices all day long every single day. Even though the probability of certain choices "appear" to be 100% this way or that way, nothing is absolute. Neo and The Architect's conversation is essentially bull crap - The Architect has to maneuver with a specific set of rules because he is still a program and connected to the Matrix. Neo does not. So even though the situation at the end appears one way, we must remember that Neo is still an "anomoly", because he is the one and because he can do things that most minds can't..
@@kaliq13 The choices we make always have reasons (not necessarily reasonable ones) - we don't just arbitrarily decide to do things without (what seems to us) sufficient reason. If someone genuinely did something without having reasons for it, we wouldn't say that they were exercising free will; we'd say that they were crazy...
Nothing wrong with a slow start tho
I also love the Architect scene, and for the same reasons. The dialogue by him, the Oracle and Smith is one of the biggest pleasures i get out of these movies. I've honestly even found appreciation for the CGI during my latest rewatch. The render looks like crap by modern standards (they look like plastic action figures) but now that i have seen a lot more animation in my life i have come to appreciate detail of movement more. The deformation of their bodies and clothes; the weight of the characters; even the facial expressions. There is a looot of love and effort put into making this look as realistic as possible. I reckon any shortcomings are only because of limitations of technology.
I think the only big problem i have with these movies is the cleft - nay, the _chasm_ between the story and the action. Way too much of the story is conveyed by two people just standing/sitting and talking to each other, and way too much of the action does nothing to further the story. The action is good and the story is mostly good, but movies will usually be the best when these two aspects work together.
Well, one more thing. I do think the fetch quest is a fair criticism. The reason mcguffins so often are lazy and ineffective storytelling is because they don't provide any deeper motivation for the characters, and motivation is important. The way we empathize with characters on the screen is by 1) relating to them as people, and 2) understanding their motivation. If the characters are deeply motivated, meaning they have very strong, personal reasons for what they do, they will engage the audience more. Mcguffins usually don't bring that.
Though i suppose you're right that it's part of the theme of the movie that the main characters basically just follow orders until they realize everything they've believed was a lie. I think that is a really cool development of the prophecy set up in the first movie, but is it really worth it if it ends up making the story unengaging? Maybe there could have been other ways to make this story and this journey more emotional for the characters. I don't know, i'm not a writer ¯\(ツ)/¯
I am in a bit of disbelief, I loved the trilogy as a kid, thought the story made perfect sense and this is the first time someone has ever agreed with me. Obviously I wasn't educated on Kant and people like that but that morality was at the heart of the story was pretty clear to me.
NEO is a HUMAN HYBRID SOFTWARE CLONE with FREE WILL that is programmed to TAKE DOWN THE MATRIX and reload itself into the Matrix showing any flaws - a sort of DOUBLE AGENT so the Matrix can self correct. The characters PUSH Neo into continuing his endless fight because THAT is why he cannot stop-because his programmed side is in ultimate subconscious control. And YES - MORPHEUS IS PART OF THE MATRIX - He has to task to FIND THEONE that is implanted at random by the Matrix programmers and lives forever as a Hybrid, teaching THEONE to take on the MATRIX and continue to serve its masters by finding flaws in the Matrix. However, in the end the "HERO'S JOURNEY" story-line takes over (its a movie) and his HUMAN SIDE WINS. HAPPY ENDING - EXCEPT for the writers TRANNY conflicts-The brothers are fighting their REAL sexual ID urges and do not know what side will win and THAT is the real story mother fuckers. MATRIX is a CONFLICT of the TRANSEXUAL CONFUSION OF THE WRITERS - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now go watch PREDESTINATION - Say g-by to your brain.
@@fladave99 Do you really expect anyone to read this load of garbage? lol
As soon as I saw every second word is in CAPS, that was enough of a reason not to read it, well no sane person will probably
Does this mean Neo was just an Antivirus Program? Sounds funny if you think of this story as a Hard Drive wipe.
While I agree with most of what you said (I too love the squeals) I have to disagree with one point: No one ever had as much fun as Hugo Weaving did making these movies.
Your analysis is absolutely brilliant, you managed to beautifully put into words what it was lingering in my mouth since I watched them!!
I like how you explained the meaning of all the dialogue. When I was younger I watched the matrix just because I thought it was bad ass, but I never payed attention to the meanings of what they were saying
As a computer nerd I loved it right away. But philosophically I got it again in college.
I was in my mid-20s when these films came out. They were, are and will always be great. They tell us about ourselves.
They are awful movies...poorly written and poorly executed with a bunch of tiresome cameos. The original was excellent though.
My interpretation is that The Matrix trilogy does not come down firmly on one side or the other of the "does free will exist" debate, but rather it posits that the human belief in free will serves as a source of hope for humanity that is inscrutable to the machines-- and that hope itself is a causal factor in allowing humans to exceed what should be possible with a purely deterministic worldview. It's not about whether free will really exists, it's about how choice leads to belief which leads to hope, and that gives us purpose-- whether the choice was "real" or not.
Morpheus chooses to sacrifice himself because he believes in Neo.
Neo believes he can choose to save Morpheus even though the Oracle tells him this means he will die- his hope/belief sees him through.
Neo "is beginning to believe" when he faces against Smith in the subway station. He believes he can win even though he has been repeatedly told it's suicide.
At the end, everything unfolds as The Oracle knew it would... and yet the events could not have occurred if the characters did not believe in their own free will to choose.
Thank you for your comment.
AMAZING writing here! I loved your explanation, very in-depth! Very informative! And so relatable because after watching the matrix trilogy again I felt the same need to understand what the underlying meaning of these movies were trying to convey, I definitely got all the answers to the questions I had and furthermore I got answers to questions that I didn't even know how to ask myself. THANKS!
LOL at 13 years old when i saw the sequels, I felt like I got exactly what the films were talking about and I couldn't fathom why people were too lost to not get it
same, I think second one is my favorite due the action scenes and characters.
ManuMIAS and I thought the films were plenty self explanatory
Yup, same here.
Same for me as well. I was 15 at the time and understood most of the philosophy in general, although this video certainly clarified many things I was unsure of, and I really enjoyed it. I think perhaps a lot of people may have gone into this movie with the expectation of light philosophy with simple-but-deep meaning and those "Aha!" moments that the first film is full of, unprepared for the much heavier philosophy in the sequels. While I didn't really enjoy much of the 3rd film at all due to it being WAY too over-the-top, (the final fight is just live-action Dragon Ball) and can find plenty of things wrong with both of the sequels in general, I still always enjoy the 2nd film for it's fantastic characters and interesting dialogue.
I especially enjoyed everything related to the Merovingian. His character is well written and his actor effectively portrays him as arrogant-yet-elegant. His wife Persephone creates an interesting segue from one part of the story to another, providing us with tons of unobtrusive exposition all the while. His exiled, refugee-program henchmen, consisting of (and explaining the existence of) vampires, werewolves, and even phantoms kept things interesting. Speaking of which, The Twins were hands down the most "bad-ass" part of all three films. It's a shame they were only present for such a brief time, as they are a wonderful concept. Lastly, and still connected to the Merovingian: Orgasm cake. Completely ridiculous, yet still manages to be an entertaining idea as well as to help further convey Persephone's disdain. Also, seriously, The Twins. There are two of them so I feel justified in mentioning them as positives twice.
There is a lot of action, but it's always offset by moments of slower character building and philosophical scenes. Unfortunately some scenes are a little *too* slow. The Matrix Reloaded may not necessarily be a "good" movie, but it is still definitely very enjoyable in it's own bubble and I have fun every time I watch it. In contrast to the second movie, the only real positives the third has is some additional philosophy, The Train Man, and a very well-performed Smith-possessed Bane. That's it.
kinda tells ya something doesnt it
I love these movies, they always made complete sense to me, where as the majority of people didn't understand the films, story etc, still one of my favourite trilogies
Your first line sums it perfectly. I was 14 when the sequels came out, was really excited but let down . Now I'm rewatching them at age 30 and find them genius and very emotionally powerful.
Great vid , looking forward to rewatching these films!
I don't think there is a paradox to be resolved.
The entire series up until "Because I choose to" has seen Neo fight and struggle against the idea that his perception of having free will is false.
"I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life"
"You already know if I'm going to take it?...Then how can I make a choice?"
"Everything begins with choice" "No. Wrong. Choice is an illusion between those with power and those without"
Etc. (The screenplay for Reloaded explains the tremendous pressure Neo feels when the Oracle asks him to have a seat while she already knows whether he will or won't)
IMO when Neo says "Because I choose to" he is still holding onto the idea that he has free will. Smith then recites what the Oracle had said earlier "...I'm supposed to say something. I say 'Everything that has a beginning has an end Neo'", and Neo not only understands what the Oracle has done, but is reminded fully of what she told him earlier.
"Everything that has a beginning has an end. I see the end coming, I see the darkness spreading. I see death."
She is not speaking solely about Smith overtaking the Matrix, she is speaking about Neo and Smith as well (The darkness spreads over Neo as he is overtaken, they both die).
As Neo recalls her words, he has a shift in perception. He is finally able to fully accept the inevitability of his journey, which he has been fighting the whole time.
I think the movies make the case that Neo cannot attain freedom through a series of free will acts, by "choosing to"; rather freedom is achieved when he finally accepts his determined condition and can understand fully who he is (Know Thyself). This is the path to enlightenment, which is reinforced visually by Neo being carted away exuding the golden shape of a lotus flower.
So to reiterate, it's not really a paradox. When he say's "Because I choose to", he has a certain understanding. He has a change of understanding and it is reflected in his acknowledgement of inevitably to Smith.
Was just about to write a similar response, but you've put it better than i ever could.
Neos 'i choose to' is said out of ignorance.
The wachowskis move through philosophy as the films progress. Imo Kant is left in Reloaded, Revolutions takes us to Nietzsche and beyond.
I agree with everything except for what Neos revelation us. It's when he hears Oracle's words that he realises.
Also it is a paradox. Causality is Smith and neo is free will. Two opposing ideologies converging. How? By neo acknowledging that Smith is right, he doesn't actually choose, that it is inevitable. The irony being by him surrendering does he transcend the casualty principle and become free. He chooses non choice. A definitive paradox of mind which leads to nirvana and transcedence of the world of the mind, purifying him of the shadow (Smith)
I keep telling people that Reloaded was the best of the series but they think I'm nuts. Thank you for letting people know why.
Most people don't understand the movies, and to be honest, i didn't before i studied programming. i can explain you WHY, and HOW things happen in this movie. This is a pure master piece.
@Luigi Nastro stfu
This is brilliant! Very nicely done!
Thanks for giving me my childhood favourites back!
Damn, you nailed this!
3:14 - Easy solution: Neo just said "It was inevitable" to fool Smith, in order to lure him to try to copy himself over Neo, too so that the machines could take control over Smith and erase him!
Alternatively, Neo only understands fully what he must do after Smith echoes the Oracle's line "Everything that has a beginning has an end".
Up until this point he is still fighting under the illusion that he must destroy Smith in order to secure the end of the war. But Agent Smith was destroyed at the end of the first movie. THIS Smith IS Neo, not his adversary but his shadow; a lost and directionless fragment of the One's power that consequently can only manifest in the form of chaotic nihilism, and their fight (and by extension the fight between man and machine) will continue into eternity as long as Neo views Smith as an adversary to be bested, instead of an equal.
In allowing himself to be assimilated by Smith, Neo for the first time surrenders his free will. Free will has been deceivingly held up to the audience in the first two movies as the defining trait of human strength, the fire that ignites the hope for humanity's rebellion. But in reality it has only further prevented unity between man and machine and instead forced the two into conflict rather than harmony.
Once he has sacrificed himself, Neo acts as a conduit for the three worlds that have come into conflict to be united in harmony; The Matrix (Mind, as represented by Smith) the Machines (Soul, as represented by the lights Neo sees in the Machine City) and Humanity (Body, as represented by Neo himself) become connected instead of opposed and this allows an outcome where all three worlds can survive rather than just one, where the cycle of conflict between the three that has already been regurgitated five times prior can finally end and make way for the brighter tomorrow for all. The Oracle said it herself: The only way to get to the future is together.
The finale of The Matrix Revolutions is an allegory for Moksha, the ultimate union between mind, body and soul in order to achieve satori/enlightenment as well as (represented as the six iterations of the Matrix and their versions of the One) freedom form the cycle of death and rebirth.
@@RMVideos92 Nope, it was inevitable because Neo realised in order for him to beat Smith he had to let Smith assimilate him.
Dude your explanation is incredibly philosophical it`s as if you had a one on one with the Wachowskis. Well done i found it to be comprehensive and it answered most if not all of my questions from the trilogy.
Great video. Thanks for summarizing the things I have thought about these films as I got older.
Eloquently explained. Thank you.
such a nice movie insight , then u blew it at the end with that skillshare add
i guess it was inevitable
are you paying him wages? dude has to eat
@@henryettoit897 read the full comment, it was a joke, a game of words, a line from the movie transported over the years in a top youtube comment
Haha
@@petrub27 i guess someone not getting the joke.... was inevitable
ich bin ein berliner.. RICH Evans from Redlettermedia
That was an awesome analysis! Loved it!
Great breakdown. Awesome closing
I always loved all three movies. Never really got the bad rep they get. Great Video!!
Yay! So happy to see another person finally come around to the wonderfulness of The Matrix trilogy :D
Amazingly well done! I have the same results going over previous philosophic or esoteric works after much gained experience and shifts in perception. Parts I originally didn't really understand or glossed over, now are seen as connected to other concepts and reinforce certain threads.
Thank you for sharing your insight - I have a much greater appreciation for what the film makers were going for in the sequels now.
The Matrix Path of Neo is still one of my favorite single player action adventure games to this day i actually love playing out the movies as Neo getting stronger along the way like he did and i love the extra levels and little stories they expanded on and the altered versions of the matrix fit in a video game so so well i really do still love it from the tutorial stealth when you are jsut a regular guy all the way to when you are a fully realized god like combatant
i cannot stress enough how much i enjoy playing as neo wall running and slow-mo diving guns blazing and kung fu'ing the ever living shit out of everything i see like a DBZ character. the combat is like a precursor to the batman fighting system based around the x button and dodging and jumping like any other powerful super hero game except also with guns and insane throwing attacks and many weapons Neo knows how to wield like a boss. and hell even the levels were a good amount of fun platforming and double jumping and a very confusing train level and a suuuuper enjoyable congress room area and the infamous smith fight in the second one and the OP flying one at the very end. god damn what a fitting game for this kind of movie and vice versa.
i do embrace the over-the-top silliness that is present when ridiculous shit is happening and actually the matrix Path of Neo joke ending is my fav :P
i literally go back to path of neo on pc every couples of years to see how i can get it to run better but the original xbox version tends to run best
Yeah that game was fucking awesome
Dude. Use capitals and periods.
NEO is a HUMAN HYBRID SOFTWARE CLONE with FREE WILL that is programmed to TAKE DOWN THE MATRIX and reload itself into the Matrix showing any flaws - a sort of DOUBLE AGENT so the Matrix can self correct. The characters PUSH Neo into continuing his endless fight because THAT is why he cannot stop-because his programmed side is in ultimate subconscious control. And YES - MORPHEUS IS PART OF THE MATRIX - He has to task to FIND THEONE that is implanted at random by the Matrix programmers and lives forever as a Hybrid, teaching THEONE to take on the MATRIX and continue to serve its masters by finding flaws in the Matrix. However, in the end the "HERO'S JOURNEY" story-line takes over (its a movie) and his HUMAN SIDE WINS. HAPPY ENDING - EXCEPT for the writers TRANNY conflicts-The brothers are fighting their REAL sexual ID urges and do not know what side will win and THAT is the real story mother fuckers. MATRIX is a CONFLICT of the TRANSEXUAL CONFUSION OF THE WRITERS - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now go watch PREDESTINATION - Say g-by to your brain.
luv and booty behind the same door - you nailed it brotha !
best video helping understand & interpret the Matrix I have seen. thank you for this! 😊
Wow the conversation between the oracle and Neo are so romantic. - the persuasion factor speaks of love and dedication to cause.........
pressed like before even watching the video. Already know this is gonna be amazing
Lmao how is someone as famous as swoozie at the bottom of the comments. I guess the audiences don't overlap for some reason
While I question the execution (specially the over the top action sequences), I do like the idea and the dialogue between Neo and the Architect from Matrix Reloaded.
It digs deeper into the dichotomy fate/free will that is discussed in the first movie. Machines know what will happen by the virtue of becoming so good at predicting human behavior based on the measure of complicated parameters, that's really good. I also like the fact that it is confusing. Because that's what's felt like for Neo. The confusion and anger we feel is his confusion, his anger, his disappointment. It was a very clever break on the expectatives, and very well written, in my opinion.
But then again, I always scoffed at people saying that a three feet ventilation tube in a moon sized space station is a terrible and unforgivable flaw, or at people thinking Belle has Stockholm Syndrom, or that Hulk's transformation at will is stablished in the stand alone movie before The Avengers came out. People are always looking for ways to feel smarter than they are. Which is ironic, because that's basically what I'm doing with this post.
The problem with the action scenes is that most of them don't serve a plot purpose. They're there mostly to fill the blanks between the delivery of dire news. I might forgive they just brought back Agent Smith from the absolute nowhere instead of creating a new interesting villain (bad as they are, at least we didn't see Darth Maul in the Star Wars episodes II and III), the nihilist conflict he creates, both to humans and machines, is indeed a good one. But, really, did we need a Dragon Ball inspired fight that lead basically to the same result of the fight in the first movie? Man, that was... boring, to say the least. And just as these scenes are going from nowhere to nowhere, we feel like they're dragging.
Revolution gives a... how could I say... not totally bummer ending. It's nice that Neo and the machines united to fight a virus with a trojan horse tactic, I like this idea. What I don't really care about is that they kinda chose a metaphysical path that's not been well stablished. Why the eff is Neo capable of affecting machines with his mind? Why is he able to see data flow in the real world? I get that Smith was able to replace that guy's mind with himself, but it seems really contrived that he's able to function perfectly in a organic brain. Until then, nothing was "metaphysical", the franchise only relied on mind/technology interactions. But this? This is magic. The only way to accept this premise without diving into the supernatural is that the "reality" - Zion, 01, the ships, etc - is also a Matrix, a dream inside a dream, Inception style. But if this is what happening, the it's all moot, and they just turned one of the greatest science fiction of movie history into a "nothing really happened" Twilight ending.
Also, the ending mostly mean humanity is doomed. There's still no sun, only so much energy can be harvested from the Earth's core - not enough to sustain a population of billions - and the machines still don't have any reason to colaborate with humans, since they're still mostly jerks.
Also: loved how you linked the subject of the video and the Skillshare ad.
Very very much yes. The Matrix was amazing, especially for a 17-year-old philosophy reader who liked bullet time. The sequels.....showed me that whereas I love questions about reality, sensation, and perception, questions about free will can not sustain two additional films with superfluous, duplicative action. Snore.
Well said. The Matrix is a spirit world. That's why they leave their body behind when they enter it. Human beings are controlled by spirits and machines also. In terms of machines or computers they will talk about operating system. The Matrix is a very good movie with a deeper meaning.
Thanks for keeping these digestible and easy to watch. You must be a good writer