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*SPOILERS*
and you've been warned.
Ok, I really enjoyed it. One thing, tho, it was REALLY REALLY, WAY too heavy handed in hammering the Jesus=Neo message home. I mean, if it wasn't enough that he is sacrificing himself for to end the war caused, as the animatrix hammers home, by mankind's sins, we see the machines jack him in and hold him in the feet-together, arms-out position of being crucified. and THEN we see more crucifition over and over, after he gives his life to destroy smith. That and the words 'have faith' or 'believe' being uttered eighteen times a second.
Anywho, that was so heavy that I almost missed the kinda cool undercurrent about choice vs. inevitability. We see Smith use the word inevitable or inevitability about one million times in each film, but i thought it was just a gimmick. However, the whole scene where Neo tells smith that he fights because he chooses to . . a thing that smith cannot understand. Smith is a slave to logic, he cannot contemplate doing anything for a reason other than logic. his motive for destroying mankind is simple: envy. Some machines, as we see in the shape of the Indian man at the subway station, are capable of human emotion and freedom, but not Smith. Smith's attempt at destruction is a logical move: the world sucks, therefore I must destroy it. Maybe he is capable of some human emotions, because he opts to destroy everything rather than himself, perhaps out of spite. As an agent he was probably programmed with an emphasis on hatred, as his job was to hunt and kill rebels.
Anyway, My friends enjoyed it. The shockwave/rainwater thing in the final fight was great fun, as was the whole kung-foo-flying on a scale that Crouching-Tiger, Hidden-Dragon never even dreamed of. The battle for Zion was amazing, and a great source of amusement (I'm not that sick, but when the officer told Kid to run out with a cart of ammo in a room swarming with thousands of sentinels . . . my buddies and I burst out laughing. )
On the whole, I would give it 80-90% of goodness.
Definatly worth it. And a good ending.
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"Relationships are alot like those little packages of condiments you get at fast food resturants -- they're these little magical things that can last forever on a shelf, but once you open them up, they go bad really fast. I just don't understand condiments."
-- Jim, from "Lily & Jim" by Don Hertzfeldt
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