The Matrix<\/a><\/i> came out four years ago, many Christians have had fun pointing out all the parallels between Neo (Keanu Reeves), the prophesied chosen one who fights back against the machines that have enslaved humanity sometime in the future, and Jesus.<\/p>\nNever mind the film\u2019s glamourization of terrorism or its overtones of Gnostic mythology, eastern religion and French postmodern philosophy \u2014 the film had a hero who died and came back to life again, and that was enough to make the film okay in the eyes of many Christians.<\/p>\n
But The Matrix Reloaded<\/i> may cause Christian fans to rethink their appropriation of Neo\u2019s story, not least because the new film seems to undermine the very messianic overtones of the first film.<\/p>\n
For example, consider how Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Neo\u2019s mentor, objects to the Matrix not because it is an artificial reality \u2014 if anything, he seems to like the powers he has in cyberspace \u2014 but because it is the means through which machines \u201ccontrol\u201d humanity. And then note how Morpheus believes in a \u201cFate\u201d that guides everyone\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
Without giving too much away, the new film asks whether there is any real difference between Fate and the Matrix \u2014 it asks, in effect, whether prophecies and promises of salvation may be just another form of control.<\/p>\n
Also, consider how, in the first film, one character said it is following our impulses that makes us human. The new film seems to question that idea, too, since it suggests that even our impulses may be nothing more than bio-chemical reactions, and our actions may be nothing more than the end result of a series of deterministic \u201ccauses and effects\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thus, even if Neo rescues everyone from the Matrix, they might still never be truly free, because they have no free will.<\/p>\n
We will have to wait until November to see how the Wachowski brothers, who wrote and directed these films, plan to answer these questions. Alas, pondering these questions is not as fun as it used to be, since The Matrix Reloaded<\/i> is basically just one fight scene after another, with little to give them the meaning or narrative purpose that the fight scenes in the first film had.<\/p>\n
The new film also adds a new, and very awkward, element of sexuality to the story. The orgiastic dancing in Zion, the city of liberated humans, is especially tacky. It\u2019s enough to make you think Cypher, the traitor in the first film, may have had a point when he wanted to get away from all that.<\/p>\n
Internet Movie Database<\/a> | Movie Review Query Engine<\/a>
USA: R<\/a> | BC: 14A<\/a> | ON: 14A<\/a><\/small><\/font><\/p>\n\u2014 A version of this review was first published on the <\/i>BC Christian News website.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IT\u2019S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded \u2014 it\u2019s only the first half of a two-part sequel that won\u2019t be over until the next installment comes out in November \u2014 but the film does force fans of the first movie to rethink everything they thought they knew about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2037,1020,1840,2043],"class_list":["post-16775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcchristiannews","tag-gnosticism","tag-matrix","tag-matrix-reloaded","tag-wachowskis"],"yoast_head":"\n
Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-05-15T15:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-02T23:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/04\/matrixreloaded-300x135.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html\",\"name\":\"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-05-15T15:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-02T23:45:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)","description":"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)","og_description":"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2003-05-15T15:00:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-02T23:45:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/04\/matrixreloaded-300x135.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html","name":"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2003-05-15T15:00:59+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-02T23:45:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"IT'S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded -- it's only the first half of a two-part sequel that won't be over until the next","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2003\/05\/review-the-matrix-reloaded-dir-the-wachowskis-2003.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Review: The Matrix Reloaded (dir. the Wachowskis, 2003)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2014\/04\/matrixreloaded.jpg\" "\\"matrixreloaded\\"")
<\/a>IT\u2019S TOO early to say all that much about The Matrix Reloaded<\/a><\/i> \u2014 it\u2019s only the first half of a two-part sequel that won\u2019t be over until the next installment comes out in November \u2014 but the film does force fans of the first movie to rethink everything they thought they knew about it.<\/p>\n