Okay, The Matrix Reloaded. Now, I am really, really not a very good film critic. I’ve only seen the movie once, and I didn’t take notes. There’s a lot to say about it, but first, the theology:

Hopefully this Matrix movie will disabuse evangelicals of the notion that the first one was somehow Christian. I have been fairly vocal (when the topic came up) that the first movie was most certainly attempting to provide answers to questions of Christianity, and was doing it with our symbols and types, but I’m pretty sure I have been clear that its answers were fundamentally incompatible with ours. Believe it or not, there are some people who are worse film and literature critics than I am, so this actually took some explaining on a few occasions.

Neo the Christ Figure continued to differentiate himself from the New Testament Christ in Reloaded. At the beginning of the movie, an irritating young Neo-sycophant thanks him by saying, “You saved me.” Neo replied quickly, “You saved yourself.” A self-effacing savior, he, but in a puzzling way: I suppose all he does is point you in the direction of the Superior Metaphysical Knowledge, and you go get it for yourself. He doesn’t actually do anything to you. Never mind that you are utterly powerless to escape the illusion apart from the agency of freed humans, of whom Neo is merely the most productive and most powerful while jacked in. Somebody saved that kid, or he’d still have been plugged into that high-school-physics-unaware power plant living his illusory life.

The issue of the Power of Contrary Choice, only seriously declared in Neo’s closing phone call at the end of the first movie, dominates this film. On at least three occasions, Neo and others discuss the freedom of the will with various software-people in the Matrix. The machines–even the Oracle–consistently declare that humans lack the ability to choose otherwise than they do. The Oracle tells Neo that since choosing otherwise is out of the question, attempting to understand his choices is his highest reasonable aspiration. The film ends with the feeling that Neo reluctantly accepts this proposition, but will clearly strive against hope (in existential hero fashion) to Make a Choice anyway in the final apocalyptic battle with the machines, which looms in the near future as the credits roll. The precise nature and occasion of the choice are not yet obvious, but the presumed human victory over the machines seemingly cannot be achieved except as a repudiation of the determinism they espouse, determinism which is universally equated by the humans (without being argued by the film) with a boot-heeled kind of control. Evangelicals should find this an unfortunate, if not surprising, view of the freedom of the will.

It was easy for me to get lost in the mystery of the first film and not ask too many questions about the nature of the Oracle. After all, Neo was different, and the metaphysically informed jacked-in humans had superpowers, so the source of the Oracle’s precognition didn’t seem worthy of too much exploration. I mean, hey, it’s the Matrix! You can walk sideways on walls, jump dozens of yards across rooftops, and even dodge bullets. You can be the star of your own Kung Fu movie. Everything is that greenish color. So what’s so big about telling the future?

As the properly religious aspects of Morpheus’ faith in The One and the oracles of the Oracle are developed, the Oracle is unmasked a little bit. It turns out she’s Larry Ellison! (Just kidding. No spoilers herein.) No, but Morpheus even goes so far as to call the unfolding her prophecies “Providence,” yet the movie scarcely allows for that Providence to have any kind of divine author. Moreover, I think the next movie will certify that the apparently supernatural nature of the Oracle was at best misleading. This movie left us with strong (but unproved) suggestions to that end, as if we should prepare to accept a fully naturalistic explanation for her too. Funny how we proudly call ourselves postmodern, and talk all kinds of tough about our appetite for mystery and spirituality, but just can’t bring ourselves to tie up loose ends into anything but naturalistic knots. Remember, we would have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids.

We get a brief glimpse of the religion of Zion, which includes a “prayer” which is apparently offered to no one but the crowd, and an all-night Worship Rave to which all of Zion is invited. (This is the art-imitating-life case, since fringe evangelicals are already doing this, God save them.) The rave scene is offered in time-bending slow motion and juxtaposed with a mildly pornographic love scene between Neo and Trinity, so at the end of that painful five minutes, you realize you didn’t even need to bring your own X. Neat. Thanks.

Zion’s is the perfect postmodern religion: enough dumbed-down transcendence to make us feel connected to Something Bigger Than Ourselves and to foster a little community, but not nearly enough to risk exposing us to the terrifying specter of Holiness. It offers a hopeful eschatology; it apparently withholds any ethics that might inconvenience the indulgence of our passions; and it places above us enough authority to feel safe, but not enough to feel put-upon. Oh, I’d guess it features sex, too, what with all that raving and the occasional transparent woman’s shirt. I’ve never been to a party like that, so maybe it just looks like an orgy, but doesn’t actually become one. You know, benefit of the doubt.

Again, a good framework for evangelicals is to realize that the Matrix franchise continues to provide answers to same questions as Christianity, but it provides answers that are utterly incompatible with ours. Somebody is taking our vocabulary and telling a totally different story, but this is nothing new. I suspect all humans everywhere at every time will be interested in the categories of fall, redemption, and eschaton. I leave it to the reader to determine the ideal interaction between the telling of our story and contrary versions.

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• Posted by Tim on Saturday, May 17, 2003 at 3:42:31 pm PDT
• Category: Miscellany
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