They're getting loud, my man: Matt Smith sucks ["The Looking-Glass Campaign," Nov. 12]. His content-lite article on the mayoral race does something worse than the candidates he belittles ever could: It fosters indifference, cynicism, and a shallow command of the primary issues that are critical in this election.
At a time when voter turnout is critical, given the state of the city, he has produced an unsubstantiated, unsubstantial piece of work that could only do damage, and won't accomplish anything. Congratu-fucking-lations, dude. Yeah, right: You really got something done with this one.
Elaine Greco
Mission
We're addicted to your dumb-ass movies!: Gregory Weinkauf missed the whole point of the Matrix trilogy ["Silly Humans, Matrix Is for Kids!," Film, Nov. 5]. If it turned out to be another war epic, in which humans win over the machines, or another mind trip about Zion being another Matrix, it would be meaningless, and will go nowhere except to toy with our overindulgent brains. This trilogy is about love, faith, and peace. It has been expressed in all three movies. Obviously, no one seems to give a s*** about it since everyone is so drawn to the mind trip.
In Reloaded, the councillor and Neo (during the insomnia episode) spoke of the necessity of man and machine living together, coexisting. In the beginning of Revolutions, it was also revealed to us that programs within the Matrix were capable of love and a desire to live. Neo realized this. He understood that this is the best solution. How can we just destroy the Matrix with all these programs that refused to die (oracle, merovingian, sati). These artificial intelligence deserved to live as much humans do.
The real enemy of this trilogy was Agent Smith. He was the virus, the terrorist out to destroy both man and machine. He was the opposite of Neo. Neo was love and peace. Smith was hate and destruction.
I like that Neo used his mind rather than his power to stop the machines from destroying Zion. It shows that the human mind is more powerful than any machine. Also, the brute physical force of war against the machine is a no-win situation. There is no way humans can beat the machines. This was carefully expressed in the Animatrix.
Neo knew that humans cannot exist without machines, and machines cannot live without humans. We have to coexist. Neo sacrificed himself to make this possible. Neo did it for love, for the world, for Trinity.
Must we, the audience, be war-hungry all the time? Must there be bloodlust to turn this into a grand movie? The message of this movie is about love, which has always been the message since the very beginning of the trilogy. It is a message we need in our time of war.
Please don't make it more complex. It wasn't to begin with. The Wachowski brothers gave us obvious clues to this finale. For example, Neo as the savior, as the Christ figure, and all the religious implications. Christ didn't die by bringing down the Roman Empire; he sacrificed himself to save mankind.
Rick Teng
New York, N.Y.
Yes, he really did yawn: Weinkauf is not a reviewer. He took the opportunity to bash a movie that didn't fit his subjective tastes, rather than looking at the film objectively.
Could parts of the story have been a little better? Of course. But the purpose of any film is to entertain. That final battle sequence between Smith and Neo -- did Weinkauf really watch that and yawn? That was one of the most amazing fight scenes ever made! Am I being objective? Mostly. I admit I'm Matrix-biased. But I guarantee that anyone that saw this scene was impressed. And this goes for many other segments.
Twelve-year-olds wouldn't understand this movie due to its complexity. So I can only assume that Weinkauf's equally young and immature as a writer since he didn't get it or achieve a defensible argument.
David Edward Barnes Jr.
Alfred, N.Y.
