Tonight I experienced my second viewing of The Matrix Reloaded. It wasn't as excellent as two viewings in four days would imply, though. It definitely suffered from hype, heightened expectations, and "middle chapter" baggage, but it was absolutely worth seeing. On the ride home from the theater, Genia and I, along with Joel and April, had a fairly stimulating conversation about the film, which lead to some further thoughts I'd like to entertain in this forum if you'll allow the indulgence. Oh, and if you don't want any Reloaded spoilers, stop reading now.

After my first viewing of the film, I began reading other reactions to the film online, and via MetaFilter I found a very interesting article about Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix. Gnosticism is an ancient heretical offshoot of Orthodox Christianity which has some concepts in common with The Matrix. In Gnosticism, a person is "saved" basically from ignorance rather than sin. You become "enlightened" with secret knowledge, knowledge that the world you know is but an illusion, and then transcend it. There is even a concept within the beliefs of Gnosticism of enlightened ones who remain within the physical world to share this knowledge with the unenlightened, Jesus being the chief of these. Is The Matrix Gnostic or Christian? makes the excellent point, however, that in The Matrix, it is the non-physical world th!
at is the illusion, and the physical world, where Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity are "unplugged" that is the real world. So in The Matrix to be enlightened you exit the non-physical world and enter the physical world. In that sense, The Matrix is not really a Gnostic tale after all, unless Agent Smith (whom the article names the only true Gnostic of the films) ends up being the hero after all. While an intriguing thought, my guess is that it's extremely unlikely. Incidentally, the new dynamic between Smith and Neo is one of the more interesting parts of Reloaded.

We all noticed is that the city of Zion is depicted as being quite culturally primitive, even though there is a great deal of technology being utilized by the people of Zion. The people themselves are shown as very tribal, and in one scene, appear animalistic, or more correctly, hedonistic. The mission of the enlightened is to spread the truth about the matrix and the real world to those who are still plugged in -- salvation is purely a matter of knowledge. There is no mention of sin, no mention of morality. The only discernable morals are to tell "the truth" and not to betray your fellow man to those in charge of, or working for, the matrix. Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, along with the others who are a part of their quest are in fact extremely violent within the matrix, killing "agents" who are inhabiting the bodies of those they are ultimately trying to free and ordinary citizens of the matrix. It is interesting that The Architect of the matrix tells Neo that the original ma!
trix was designed to be perfect, but the human mind could not accept it and so that matrix was an utter failure. However within Zion it is assumed that all people are by nature "good" and there seems to be no system of morality or law. Alternately, I suppose it could be argued that they are all "good" because they are the enlightened ones. This city of Zion does not seem to correspond with the Christian ideal of heaven.

One interesting issue raised by Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix is that in The Matrix there is no apparent higher power, no God working outside of the Matrix and outside of the real world. There are many strong allusions to fate, predestination, and prophecy, and it is obvious that there is a "Creator" of the matrix itself, but no absolutely powerful God is mentioned. In The Matrix Reloaded there is a scene that takes place in the city of Zion where citizens attend a temple ceremony and are lead in a "prayer" by one of the rulers of the city and by Morpheus, but still there is no mention of a God.

We learn in the scene with The Architect that the entire concept of "the one" is a sort of work around to flaws that developed in the program, and that Neo is the sixth incarnation of "the one." Each one fulfills the prophecy, the matrix is reset, zion is intentionally repopulated, and it all happens all over again. Zion itself may be nothing more than a matrix within a matrix. How else would you explain that the Oracle (a regenegade program within the matrix) and The Architect know about the dreams Neo has when he's unplugged? How else would Neo have been able to stop the sentinels in the "real world" when his powers up until that point had only existed within the matrix? And how else would Agent Smith have been able to enter the "real world"?

Hopefully all these questions and theories will make more sense in light of The Matrix Revolutions, the final chapter of the trilogy. All in all, while they aren't "Christian" films or worthy of following as spiritual guides, the first two films have been entertaining and interesting. I wish I could say that about more movies.