Consider violence. Violence is at times deplored, as in the actions of the criminals we lock up in prisons — the sadistic killer, the brutal rapist, the wife-beater, the child abuser. And it is sometimes celebrated, when we see soldiers defending our country, men defending their honor, tyrannical bullies getting what they deserved. Violence, it seems, is the most effective action when all other options are exhausted; so it is the ultimate in power. Or so it is perceived.

Actually, the fact that it is the most effective action when other options are exhausted means that violence is the ultimate expression of powerlessness. You do not attack someone physically if they offend you when you are strong; most likely you would brush off the slight. Violence enters the picture in situations of dire weakness; it is the behavior of a cornered animal fighting for his life.

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I saw Matrix Revolutions today, shortly after having seeing Matrix Reloaded for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I was very impressed.

Then I looked on the Internet Movie Database and was somewhat surprised to see that 90% of the reviews were highly negative. Many of them seemed to concur that the first movie was the best, the second movie not as good, and the third movie crap. Half of them complained that Revolutions had the bad acting, overly drawn out battle scenes, “all action and no plot,” no breakthrough special effects. Oh but wait, the other half complained that there was way too much “boring philosophy” and “stupid dialogue” and an ending that is “outright ridiculous.” Many decried the lack of originality and the cheesiness of the whole thing.

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