Every last one of you missed it...

The real question is: if the 'Matrix' is Windows, why is 'Zion' DOS!?

I'll start from the top -- the scene at the beginning -- Smith takes over one of the bodies of those freed from the Matrix. He can do this because he is the machine equivalent to Neo!

Then, his counterpart leavese the Matrix. Half of you missed this all together... This wasn't subtle or anything -- it was very point blank! Smith exited the Matrix. He loaded his personality into the Mind of [unamed red-shirt].

So, lets go over this: Smith can now do things beyond his programming. He can duplicate himself (and yet the parts remain somehow connected...). He is, for all intensive purposes, the equal of Neo. They even had a dialog where among other things, Smith says "You died!" and stated that Neo had Truly, Actually, Factually died in the first movie, and was somehow reborn. (Yes, the parallels are a bit overt...) What was supposed to also be picked up was that fact that Smith was destroyed, in his original form -- 'set free'.

Smith can leave the matrix!

Remember that guy with the knife, cutting slices into his hand... that was Smith. At the very end where they panned back off the tables... that was Neo opposite Smith!

Now the same way, in which Smith has figured to fork himself -- Neo seems to have been able to do the same. Neo has a part of himself permanently connected to the Matrix.

Anyway -- many of you missed that entirely -- Evan among those. That, itself makes the movie more interesting, and gives it a better purpose.

Secondly -- consider this: what if Zion isn't in reality -- what if it's a layers within layers thing -- and thus Neo can affect the machines here because Zion is actually just another manifestation of the matrix... of course this is purely hypothesis, and comes from watching too much star trek...

Also, pertaining to Smith -- and the whole rant that the Architect came up with. Smith is a rogue program now. He could get into the hallway with the doors. He wasn't supposed to be able to get there. Smith also seems to have a trait that not even the Oracle previously possessed. The ability to make a choice, rather than just play events through as an ultra-logical chain of 'cause-and-effect'.

People! you missed the whole point of the rants about Newton's Law, and the rant of the Architect. The movie is trying to define some deeper philosophical layers.

Yes, the movie is fun. Yes, those ghost dudes can move through walls -- they exist since the earliest incarnations of the Matrix -- and thus, were born out of less strickly defined laws of physics. As any coder can relate to: it's easier to implement a cool feature when the code is young, then hacking it in afterwards.

Their treating of Morpheus was the one thing I hold in great disdain. A doubt anyone would disagree -- he lost all that intrigue that made his character and became two-dimensional, as Evan would be inclined to say...

Anyway -- there was more there. It wasn't even well hidden. Much of it was overtly obvious, in fact, but if all that one could see was the effects, then indeed it would seem a shell of a half-movie. You do realise it's only half a movie. Right?

Cheers.