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...it's amazing how much energy people will put into defending/attacking a work of fiction. I just finished reading a huge thread about "The Matrix: Reloaded" on kuro5hin.org. The consensus is: some people love it, some people hate it, and some people want to see it again 'cause they're confused.
I find it fascinating, both the movie itself and peoples' reaction to it.
I loved the movie. I thought the issues it brought up were fascinating and good for hours of thinking and arguing. I also like watching pretty boys fight with knives and guns. I enjoyed the music, and thought the 'rave' looked like a fun place to be; I'm all for drum beats that stop thought.
This movie highlighted the conflict between the idea of 'free will' and the idea of an all knowing, all powerful entity. It's a millennial issue; I don't think anyone has solved is sufficiently. (It ranks up there with the idea of a compassionate, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient deity that allows bad things to happen.) I'm reminded of the child in the first movie who gave Neo the spoon.
Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Boy: Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
Neo isn't trying to change the Matrix, he is changing himself. It's an old religious concept - one frequently held by those who feel the truth of their god(s) in their bones instead of in their minds. I can remember C.S. Lewis saying (in the movie; I'm not sure if it's an actual quote and it's a paraphrase anyway) after his wife died, "Prayers flow through me, waking or sleeping. There's nothing else I can do. It doesn't change God, it changes me."
It's another old paradox: within the greatest humility you will find the greatest power. Sometimes it seems as if the root of all humanity is paradoxical.
I find it fascinating, both the movie itself and peoples' reaction to it.
I loved the movie. I thought the issues it brought up were fascinating and good for hours of thinking and arguing. I also like watching pretty boys fight with knives and guns. I enjoyed the music, and thought the 'rave' looked like a fun place to be; I'm all for drum beats that stop thought.
This movie highlighted the conflict between the idea of 'free will' and the idea of an all knowing, all powerful entity. It's a millennial issue; I don't think anyone has solved is sufficiently. (It ranks up there with the idea of a compassionate, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient deity that allows bad things to happen.) I'm reminded of the child in the first movie who gave Neo the spoon.
Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Boy: Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
Neo isn't trying to change the Matrix, he is changing himself. It's an old religious concept - one frequently held by those who feel the truth of their god(s) in their bones instead of in their minds. I can remember C.S. Lewis saying (in the movie; I'm not sure if it's an actual quote and it's a paraphrase anyway) after his wife died, "Prayers flow through me, waking or sleeping. There's nothing else I can do. It doesn't change God, it changes me."
It's another old paradox: within the greatest humility you will find the greatest power. Sometimes it seems as if the root of all humanity is paradoxical.
