My favorite review of the new Matrix movie comes from Wiliam Blaze:
The Matrix Reloaded is out to shatter that trope and its far more effective at calling attention to the structures of power. Remember those hippie “Question Reality” bumper stickers? Well the Matrix is getting people to question reality on a scale that Timothy Leary couldn’t even dream of when high off his premium LSD + bullshit blend. The left has been content to release memes into their own marginal subcultures for far to long. The Matrix unleashes memes into the heart of pop culture. “Choice is an illusion created by those with power to control those without”, says the Merovingian and the Architect adds in: “nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level.”
And the cynical comments attached are just as interesting and insightful. “Here in the real world, the main result of The Matrix series will be a two billion dollar funds transfer from movie-goers (some who tend to be pretentious) to the AOL/Time-Warner Corporation. Nothing particularly left-wing or subversive in that.”
Abstract Dynamics: Matrix, Agitprop?