5. Neo Meets The Architect - The Matrix Reloaded
Speaking of moments that didn't live up to their potential, let's discuss the moment Matrix fans had been hoping for: an explanation about what the hell was going on.
The Scene: Towards the end of the second film in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, Neo comes across a man who calls himself The Architect, the creator of the Matrix. The two have a long discussion about past versions of the program, the choice that Neo must make if he wants to save humanity, and... uh...
Why It's Terrible: Wait, what
did he say?! The scene itself is one tremendous exposition dump, and both Neo and the Architect speak in dry, emotionless tones, which just makes the sequence incredibly boring. The Architect speaks quickly and intelligently, but is giving the audience so much information that it's hard to keep up with what he's saying. The television screens in the background are incredibly distracting, and the camera continually zooms in on one, then phases back to Neo. It's a bit disorienting, and though it created quite the debate, the scene was ultimately just a head-scratcher. The Matrix trilogy is known for being incredibly cryptic and open for interpretation. But a scene as important as this one maybe should have been accomplished a little differently. As I mentioned earlier in this article, a bit of exposition goes a long way, but a
mess of exposition creates problems of its own. There is a lot of great information here, if you can decipher what The Architect is saying. In a trilogy rot with dense, enigmatic ideas, it would have been refreshing for a character to finally just speak
clearly for once.