![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaIt didn't take me long at all to figure out why so many people disliked Matrix III. We are a jaded, cynical moviegoing audience, and have every reason to expect that if any movie is going to celebrate and uphold that cynicism, it will be a movie with a driving soundtrack, hip movie stars in flashy black outfits, impeccable special effects, and lots of kung fu.
This movie, however, ends on a note which is anything but cynical. It is also glaringly, overtly, and unashamedly Christian -- or perhaps Buddhist -- in the message it presents.
There are still overt references to Gnostic esotericism. We see Neo and Trinity follow the course of cosmic ascension described in the Gnostic literature, culminating in a confrontation with the Demiurge (who, it turns out, is not the Architect, as I surmised in my review of the second movie).
A lot of attention is given in this movie to the idea of "balancing the equation." The Architect is described as the one who balances the equations, while the Oracle describes herself as the one who unbalances it. Discordians might have a moment of glee in seeing their own mythology thus enshrined.
The Demiurge is shown as a machine whose sun-shape is given as a dark and metallic imperfect replica of the *real* sun. The real sun, hidden behind clouds (the "fog of error" described in the Gospel of Truth) is here akin to the Root of All, or Source, in Gnostic mythology.
Agent Smith is revealed as "sin nature" which infects us all, against which we have no defense, and which threatens the mastery of the Matrix itself. It is also revealed that Smith and Neo are two sides of the same coin -- and so the more powerful one becomes, the more powerful the other becomes as well.
So Neo makes a deal with the Demiurge, to defeat Agent Smith (whose rise to power represents a threat to the Demiurge himself) in return for peace between the machines and the free humans of Zion. Neo defeats Smith by allowing himself to be assimilated, and then offering himself as a sacrifice. This is like balancing the equation and then setting all terms to zero.
This is where we see the soteriological element specifically of Christian theology come into play: Neo "takes on the guise of sinful flesh," or IOW offers himself as a token to pay the debts owed to Smith. An alternate view would see Neo in the role of Buddha or perhaps Bodhisattva, but this is a more subtle and esoteric point that might be more difficult to demonstrate.
But the real moral can be summed up with this sentence: balance the imbalance within you to achieve peace between your body and soul. It is, as I said, a deliberatly un-cynical message.
The Wachowski brothers have created here a myth that is potentially as enduring as any myth ever offered.
This movie, however, ends on a note which is anything but cynical. It is also glaringly, overtly, and unashamedly Christian -- or perhaps Buddhist -- in the message it presents.
There are still overt references to Gnostic esotericism. We see Neo and Trinity follow the course of cosmic ascension described in the Gnostic literature, culminating in a confrontation with the Demiurge (who, it turns out, is not the Architect, as I surmised in my review of the second movie).
A lot of attention is given in this movie to the idea of "balancing the equation." The Architect is described as the one who balances the equations, while the Oracle describes herself as the one who unbalances it. Discordians might have a moment of glee in seeing their own mythology thus enshrined.
The Demiurge is shown as a machine whose sun-shape is given as a dark and metallic imperfect replica of the *real* sun. The real sun, hidden behind clouds (the "fog of error" described in the Gospel of Truth) is here akin to the Root of All, or Source, in Gnostic mythology.
Agent Smith is revealed as "sin nature" which infects us all, against which we have no defense, and which threatens the mastery of the Matrix itself. It is also revealed that Smith and Neo are two sides of the same coin -- and so the more powerful one becomes, the more powerful the other becomes as well.
So Neo makes a deal with the Demiurge, to defeat Agent Smith (whose rise to power represents a threat to the Demiurge himself) in return for peace between the machines and the free humans of Zion. Neo defeats Smith by allowing himself to be assimilated, and then offering himself as a sacrifice. This is like balancing the equation and then setting all terms to zero.
This is where we see the soteriological element specifically of Christian theology come into play: Neo "takes on the guise of sinful flesh," or IOW offers himself as a token to pay the debts owed to Smith. An alternate view would see Neo in the role of Buddha or perhaps Bodhisattva, but this is a more subtle and esoteric point that might be more difficult to demonstrate.
But the real moral can be summed up with this sentence: balance the imbalance within you to achieve peace between your body and soul. It is, as I said, a deliberatly un-cynical message.
The Wachowski brothers have created here a myth that is potentially as enduring as any myth ever offered.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-15 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-15 07:58 am (UTC)anyway, have you read Ken Mondescheim's analysis of Matrix 2 & 3? Great stuff at www.corporatemofo.com