I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream has gone from me.
I guess that after watching the Matrix it was only natural that my path would lead me to take another look at the two sequels as well. This week it was the second one, and I am confident I’ll get around to the third at some point in the near future. For now though, my impressions on the renewed second part of the trilogy.
The one scene I really like is the massive party in Zion. It does give somewhat an apocalyptic feel which is, I guess, what the producers aimed for. If every single soul was to be matched number-to-number by an enemy drone, I also would have an apocalyptic feeling. So this party manages to capture the moment well enough for me to believe it.
One of the other scenes I appreciate is the one where Neo fights Smith if only to see and hear Hugo Weaving and the dialogue that has been written for him. It carries the same charm that it had in the first movie, and I know that it is one of the things I used to appreciate in the final episode as well. I’ll be able to see if that is still true when I get around to it.
Otherwise, I think somewhat refreshing to see that even in the quite literal possible end of humanity, humans are still infighting. There is no greater collective interest that takes precedence — there’s factions and disputes. The human character has not changed. Can the human character change if even the very end of the race doesn’t prompt some reaction?
I found the questions asked by Councillor Hamann have particular relevance in proving that even though humans are at war with the machines, they also depend on other machines. There is no choice in that, as he tells Neo: the water is purified by machines, and the air is kept cool by the machines. If it were not for machines, life would be impossible. And yet, machines are the one thing hell-bent on exterminating free humanity.
Morpheus has the same philosophical attitude as he always does, and one of his statements that I would like to leave you with sounds extremely beautiful to my ears. I guess that in an ideal world instead of our infighting, these words would be representative of our attitude.
Locke: Not everyone believes what you believe.
Morpheus: My beliefs do not require them to.
