I agree with you about the Joseph Campbell-esque myth making. I think Lord of the Rings is also doing that.

In a Charlie Rose interview with the producer (Joel Silver) and the cast (Fishburn, Reeves, Moss), Joel said that the Wachowski brothers defied Hollywood rules for pacing - when to throw in a fight scene, for example. The Reloaded Smiths fight scene didn't seem necessary at the time, but we now know it's foreshadowing for the last movie. Still, at that time, there was no real plot reason for the scene to happen there other than the film dragged right there and needed a fight scene.

It seems the last movies suffer from bad scriptwriting, bad plotting. "He's in The Matrix right now, and he needs to fight Smith, so let's make him fight Smith now."

I also re-watched Reloaded just before I saw Revolutions, and while I'll probably get the DVD's eventually, I'm in no hurry.

Mark

From Dan Pinal <danp--massmedia.com> on 12 Dec 2003:

> I am undoubtedly quite alone in being pleased with the entire
> series. Before seeing the 3rd again, I decided to watch the first two
> on
> DVD to get the story. It really makes sense to me now. Before I was
> disappointed with the big Smith fight, but I see it's place, there
> really
> didn't need to be a big fight scene but they probably figured audiences
> would really be pissed if there wasn't some action at the end.
>
> While it certainly creates more questions than it answers, it is still a
>
> revelation in that you at least now know the questions to ask. The
> story
> itself is complete. We can understand how there was a One in the first
> place to leave a prophecy and that Neo is a creation of the human and
> machine worlds, etc.
>
> Jungians explain enduring myths as a tale of human consciousness that
> each
> society embraces. Our current enduring myth is the Arthurian
> legends. Stories that began in paganism such as Gawain and the Green
> Night
> but have been overwhelmed into Christian themes by encompassing them all
>
> with The Grail and The Fisher King. These themes show a society's
> consciousness painfully embracing Christian concepts and eventually
> healing
> itself. We will either accomplish this or kill ourselves in the
> process. We are at the end of this age. We are looking for a new myth.
>
> Maybe I'll live long enough to see a new mythos, maybe not. I think a
> lot
> of us in some way had some sort of hope in Star Wars. But then Lucas
> shot
> it in the foot with Return of the Jedi, then shot it in the face with
> the
> prequels. I don't think The Matrix is it, but I think we're getting
> closer.
>
> DanP
> Quantum Mechanics: The dream stuff is made of.
>
>
>
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