perfidy

Of the two matrices, the first was clearly the better. Nevertheless, the second installment was well worth the $18.50 ticket price. My only real quibbles, aside from having to wait half a year before seeing the next one, is that the art direction for the zion city scenes was a little, well, over the top; and that at a couple points the change between live action Neo and cgi Neo was too obvious. (And even so, the cgi human characters in Matrix were much better than last year's spiderman.)

The real surprise in the movie is the sense of humor that Agent Smith has developed. In many respects, the new Agent Smith is the most engaging character in the movie. As our cast of heroes soldier through with grim seriousness, the formerly dour Smith is almost whimsical. A+ on that.

But the thing that was most intriguing was the new philosophical underpinning of the movie. This is what kept my friends and I in the parking lot for an hour after the movie talking. The first Matrix had, at its center, the question of reality and perception. At the time, I found the idea of an action adventure movie centered on a question of rather abtruse phenomenology to be delicious. But now, we have an action adventure movie centered on serious questions of free will and predestination. Imagine a Hong Kong style sf action flic starring Cotton Mather and Erasmus, Abelard and Heloise, with a supporting cast of hundreds of genetically engineered Ignatius Loyola/Steven Wright hybrids. This movie is as close as you'll get to that ideal.