I enjoy all movies of most genres except musicals. Especially like most all fiction movies - science fiction (Star Wars/Star Trek), fantasy fiction (LOTR, Harry Potter, super hero movies).
I got all 3 of the Matrix Trilogy on DVD, and am interested in seeing how the Matrix 4 plays out. After watching the first 3, it came to me an unavoidable conclusion: the moral of the movies was pointless.
Here was a story-line where humans on Earth were overcome by AI machines they created in a war for domination of the planet. Mankind blotted out the sun permanently in a desperation attempt to deprive the machines of their primary energy source - in so doing, they led the machines into turning humans into food stuff for their continued existence. They harvest humans as energy cells for their body warmth, forcing them into living out their lives in induced comas, and feeding into their subconscious a virtual-reality version of Earth that keeps them asleep thinking they are living out normal mundane lives. But a pre-determined % of humans always reject the Matrix, wake up from their slumber, and escape the machines' grasp, gathering elsewhere and forming a community of free humans called Zion.
The Keanu Reeves Neo character is presented as "The One", a chosen savior of humankind against the machines. He is sought after and found by Morpheus, a soldier of Zion and a captain of his own ship and crew. After being found, Neo is nurtured and acclimated to his true reality and destiny by Morpheus, with the guidance of a being called Oracle, who guided Morpheus to Neo, as well as someone who provides guidance for much of the free folk of Zion.
SO, most of all this is revealed in the first movie "Matrix". Then the 2nd and 3rd movies involves Neo's and Zion's new battles against the Machines within and without the Matrix. After I watched all 3 movies, I realized certain things:
It was all pointless. Perhaps that was the TRUE intended point of the trilogy by it's creators. But since it was pure fiction, it seemed pretty dark and depressing.
You see, throughout the 3 movies, the viewers learn specific things: that the free folks of Zion do NOT truly know what time on Earth they are in - they think they may be the first Zion, but in truth they are simply one of many. That previous Zions existed, and also (via the Merovingian in Matrix: Reloaded) there were previous Neos, or previous humans deemed to be "The One". We learn that Oracle was NOT human, but was a sentient program created by the machines that helped to unknown degrees to develop the Matrix to what it was in the movies. The Oracle - being a program - had specific functions which involved maintaining a specific balance between the humans accepting the Matrix, and the Matrix maintaining it's purpose, which after all was disclosed by Agent Smith in Matrix: Reloaded as being all-encompassing for Matrix programming.
Thus, while the Oracle was perceived by the humans of Zion to be a guiding presence and sage of advice, she was truly a prime agent for the Machines in keeping the humans forever bound to their fate. The Oracle never truly disclosed prescience: she merely responded to human's disclosures of what they thought or believed, and told them what they wanted to hear in a way that guided them to the ultimate objective(s) that SHE wanted them guided to. This was NEVER in the human's best interests.
So we come to the end of the 3rd movie Matrix: Revolutions. This movie was appropriately named: it was after all, a story like Groundhog Day - the same means playing out to the same ends over and over and over in revolutions. We find that Zion is discovered by the Machines - in truth, the machines always knew where Zion was. The Matrix was never a perfect virtual reality: the imperfection of the human psyche versus the by-the-rule coded laws of the machines - where, even though they now ruled the Earth, they were after all created by humans - made that an impossibility. Agent Smith explained this much to Morpheus after he was captured by the agents - the creation of a "perfect" Matrix was a "disaster" that almost destroyed the machines' existence.
SO, the best the machines could do under these conditions, was create a deliberately flawed Matrix that was accepted by as high a % of comatose humans as possible. This meant that the best-case scenario meant there would always be a % of humans that would reject the Matrix - a % of those who awaken would escape the machines immediately destroying them - a % of those humans who escape would not die to the exposures of harsh Earthly elements - a % of those humans would find other free humans - a % of those grouped together free humans would create a community in hiding, and call it Zion or something like that.
This % of free humans could be calculated by the machines - they would KNOW in advance how many free humans would create this community - to a high degree of accuracy - and therefore determine how long that community could exist as harmless to the machines, until such time they grow to become a threat. AND THEN, the machines would simply go to that community, and destroy it.
And that scenario would play out again and again and again over the decades and centuries - a form of culling of "defective" human subjects that the machine world would never benefit from. And the Oracle was a program who's function played a key role in that scenario "revolution" being maintained.
So in the end, at the end of the 3rd Matrix movie, what do we have
The latest iteration of Neo was either killed, or returned to the hard-line connection and comatose state that he was born into. The latest version of Zion was destroyed - yes, Neo made a "deal" with the machines to halt its destruction, if he helped to destroy the rogue Agent Smith program. But the machines held all the cards: the deal was NEVER to leave Zion alive and intact. The Sentinels were dormant and still, but they were STILL THERE. What would have kept the machines from simply restarting the sentinels back up again, and letting them finish the job? Nothing.The Oracle was still active, returned to its former state after Agent Smith's corruptions were destroyed. But who is to say that Agent Smith's corruption was not even planned as well by the Machines? If not, then it was his corruption that was the ONLY thing that the machines did NOT plan for. But Agent Smith talked so much about his "Purpose" in this reality. Was he hinting at the truth?
Agent Smith: That went as expected.
Agent Smith: Yes.
Agent Smith: It's happening exactly as before.
Agent Smith: Well, not exactly.
Neo: But why help us?
Oracle: We're all here to do what we're all here to do.
Neo: What about the first one?
Oracle: What about him?
Neo: Did he reach the source?
Oracle: Yes.
Neo: Then why didn't he end the war?
Oracle: He did what he was here to do. His path is not your path, Neo. Your path, I'm afraid, is much harder.
Neo: Why?
Oracle: Because of the choices you've made.
Agent Smith: And now here I stand because of you Mr. Anderson, because of you. I'm no longer an agent of this system, because of you. I've changed. I'm unplugged. A new man, sort to speak, like you, apparently free.
Neo: Congratulations.
Agent Smith: Thank you. But as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we are here: it is not because we are free, we are here because we are NOT free.
Agent Smith: Without purpose, we would not exist. It is purpose that created us. Purpose that connects us. Purpose that pulls us. That guides us. That drives us. It is purpose that defines us. Purpose that binds us. We are here because of you, Mr Anderson. We're here to take from you what you tried to take from us. Purpose.
So in the end, the Matrix still stands. The humans are still comatose energy cells for the machines, who still control the Earth. Zion has mostly been destroyed already, and its ultimate fate is left undetermined when the 3rd movie ends. Perhaps it is ultimately destroyed. The Oracle and the Architect are still in charge of the Matrix, and a new batch of Agents - Thompson, Jackson, and Johnson - police it. The same % of humans continue to reject the Matrix every day, ending up in the same % that will form together and start up a new Zion. Perhaps a new Neo will be among them soon. And the beat goes on.
Except now there is a Matrix 4. I am interested to see how much this new movie diverts from the original narrative of the first three.......
So everything is back to as it was before
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the milkman, with no sign of concern or wariness. That final post-credit scene was nice in that it introduced the Manhunter - an original founding member of the comicbook Justice League - to another Justice Leaguer for the first time. It gave some excitement for what is to come in the future (even though we know nothing is scheduled to come in the future, unless it comes in DCU's TV world). But it was a bit clumsy in flowing with the rest of the film, almost as clumsy as the Joss Whedon slapped-together theatrical version.
