Explain the Matrix to me!

[Gorn Captain]

I thought the first film was ok, but stopped watching halfway through part 2, years ago.
Once the Architect shows up, and starts explaining that they needed to go to the Key Maker. And then the Merovingian.

I was kind of expecting the Coctail Shaker next. Or the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Maker.
So I changed the channel and watched reruns of Knight Rider instead, which make perfect sense.

This time around, I watched part 2 and 3. I still don't get it.
What happens to Neo?
How does he stop Agent Smith?
Why does the Oracle show up at the end?
Once he stops Smith, why would Machines honor an "agreement", be grateful, and let Mankind live?
Why does Keanu Reeves have only one facial expression?
How come bullet time now seem so very silly indeed?

Please explain it all to me, as you would to a ten year old child....

[sprytel]

I think you are mistaken. There are no sequels to "The Matrix". No sequels, I say. Lalalalala... I can't hear you!!!!

[MIB41]

Here's a link that might help alot...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=what%20does%20the%20matrix%20movies%20mean%3F&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthematrix101.com%2Fmatrix%2Ffaq.php&ei=US9KUK23KJG09gTmuYDYDQ&usg=AFQjCNFqJTshhU6vL8OMW_annLog8bhTeg

[Goblin19]

The sequels made a big mistake and thought people were super invested in that universe rather than the really cool action from the first movie. Instead of fitting a solid story around some great action scenes, they threw a few action scenes into a self important, endlessly expository religious allegory.

[jds1911a1]

to this day I still don't get what people see in matrix. wathced it once with a buddy on VHS who was gaga over it and I thought - overdrawn of the the memory bank was better . Tried it again a year later and still didn't like it so never saw the sequels.

[Mego Magyar]

Explain The Matrix?? I still don't get the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey

[johnmiic]

A lot of people were dissappointed with the sequels but I would have sat straight thru Reloaded and Revolutions if I could have. First they need to make sure the details of the story make sense. Before "Reloaded" was released they were talking 3 sequels. So far we got 2. The way "Revolutions" ends you can see one more film should have been in the making. If the Wachowski’s want to make any more films they need to learn from their mistakes.

Lets break it down into specifics. Why did Agent Smith come back? He makes a great villain, sure, but we saw him destroyed in the first film. Does this mean they will bring him back again? They better have a whopper of an explanation if they do! It seems to me that Neo restored everyone's programing and cured the "virus" that agent Smith had become.

What happened to all the “Ones” before Neo? I thought there was only 1 predecessor to Neo? Another case of the Wachowski’s changing the story mid-way thru. The Marivingian mentions to Morpheus, Trinity and Neo "I survived your predecessors", plural, and none of them even question it even tho it should be news to them. Seems to me they should have spoken up at that point but it was passed over.

If the previous “One” before Neo met the Architect what happened to him? It’s likely he didn’t have a love interest like Trinity so he didn’t have the same choice of 2 doors to walk thru. If he knocked the Matrix down previously where is he now?

We’re told by the Architect that Zion has fallen 5x’s before? Why doesn’t Morpheus, or The Oracle or Merv know this; especially since Merv claims to have met, (some of), Neo’s predecessors? Better yet why don’t the people of Zion know this and why do they keep going back to the same place to be defeated?

Why doesn't anyone else know the Matrix was knocked down several times before? Did the machines kill all of the inhabitants each time? That seems unlikely if the previous “Ones” chose to knock down the Matrix. Did they decide to keep it a secret? As if they could. If there were no survivors each time how did they find Zion over and over again? There should have been survivors going back 5 generations that would have learned from the previous attempts to defeat the machines.

Did the keymaster provide keys for all of the “Ones” before Neo to get to the Architect? How could he if Merv had been imprisoning him?

Where’s the explanations for all these story points? Why are there so many contradictions in Reloaded? The sequels suffer from sloppy writing and ignoring the first film's continuity. The Wachowski Bros. were so excited to make the freeway fight the centerpiece of Revolutions they forgot the simple rules of continuity: cause and effect. If they had changed a few lines all this confusion would be eliminated.

[Megospidey]

You have to take the red pill before I can explain it to you.

[Gorn Captain]

You have to take the red pill before I can explain it to you.

No, just something to cure my headache. I now have more questions than before....

[Brue]

I think you are mistaken. There are no sequels to "The Matrix". No sequels, I say. Lalalalala... I can't hear you!!!!

agreed

and after the only Matrix movie there are a lot of questions. i think that is one reason it is a great movie.

[WannabeMego]

You're in the Matrix

[fallensaviour]

I'm still lost.
Once the Keymaster showed up I thought he was going to look for the gate keeper???

[spacecaps]

The problem with those movies is that they are all style with no substance. It gets kind of silly once you found out what the Matrix was and yet they were all wearing this leather jackets and meeting in underground sewers when they could have been doing that anywhere dressed like anything. If the Matrix were just two movies long, it may have been a good two parter but they got caught up in the "every good movie series needs to be a Trilogy" thing and kind of ran out of ideas somewhere during part 2 and just filled the time with elaborate chase and fight scenes that went nowhere. I always wanted to know what would have happened if Neo downed both pills at once....

[Nostalgiabuff]

you are all over analyzing. just enjoy the popcorn movies for what they are....mindless entertainment. i liked them all but thought that the bizar orgy scene in the one was totally unnecessary.....and I love some good sexploitation....it's just the scene was out of nowhere

[tinkerbeee]

As with anything there are going to be plot holes and mistakes but the stories made perfect sense to me. I actually think the idea behind the architect and the idea that allowing the humans to repopulate and "rebel" is kind of brilliant. Allowing them to think they are fighting the system and winning some battles is control itself, its like the chess computer thats always 10 moves ahead of you. The only thing I really had a huge problem with in the whole thing is the 300,000 Sentinels flying around like a swarm of insects instead of just directly attacking which is what they were programmed to do. that being said I think it is an enjoyable story.
A situation like the one the Wachowski brothers were in is always tough. Many artists have been plagued by it. You have 10 years to write your first movie or book or album and then 10 months to write the next. Ultimately movies are what you get out of them. There are always going to be Knight Rider people and there are always going to be Inception people and people that like or dislike both. I used to beg people for years to read The Lord of the Rings or the Dark Tower until I finally realized I was trying to get a Knight Rider guy to love Inception and whats the point? Like what you like.