If you're reading this paragraph, you should have already seen the movie. If you haven't, stop now. I won't warn you again.
Reloaded
First the cursory stuff, to give people who really shouldn't be reading this a chance to ease out gracefully, with a minimum of spoilers. I went into this film wondering about the title, and suspecting that things would break, badly. After all, at the end of the first film, Neo can stop bullets, he can completely destroy an agent by jumping inside of him, and he can fly. In addition, he pledges to blow the whole matrix wide open. How could a super-being, a lower-case god, possibly encounter any conflict, let alone enough conflict to carry two more films? It seemed that they would have to back off of the ending of the first film a little, because I couldn't think of a scenario that would continue from that point without seeming to be foolish. Fortunately for all of us, the brothers could, and I think that they pulled it off. Working backwards through my list, Neo states at one point that they have "rescued" more people in the last six months than they had the previous six years. That, coupled with statements from the first movie that rescuing people who aren't ready results in psychosis and general craziness, seems to fulfill Neo's pledge to the matrix overlords. He can still fly in this film, though he manages it with a little bit of lead time, apparently to reshape the elements of the matrix around him. That helps in this film as being one reason why he simply doesn't fly away from every battle, but there are others. Finally, it appears that he didn't actually destroy Agent Smith after all, so why try that again? Further ingredients piled on include the fact that the first time we see Neo fight someone, he is surprised by either the quickness or strength of his opponent. "Oh," he says, "Upgrades!" This fits in rather well with the crazy theory I'll spell out later. So it is easy to surmise that Neo has been relatively unchallenged for the last six months, flying around and generally growing bored with everything that happens inside the matrix. As a god-like superpower, is boredom the greatest enemy? I'm getting ahead of myself!
If Neo can stop bullets, why can't he just bend his opponents to his will? Why can't he, for example, freeze swords the way he freezed shells? I suspect it might have something to do with the opposing intelligence. After all, the force behind a bullet is the result of a natural law. Inertia is what keeps those bullets heading his way, nothing more. Well, technically I'm sure that a variety of other forces are at work, but none of them are actively intelligent, which is my point, so I'll short-hand them all and call them "inertia" for simplicity's sake. To stop the bullets, he can merely create a localized field in front of him in which inertia suddenly doesn't work. Presto, the bullets don't move. But when a sword is swinging at him, in addition to the inertia of the swing itself, there is still an active force applying increasing pressure on the sword. His opponent didn't just swing the sword and forget about it, counting on natural forces to deliver the cutting blow. He is instead still actively applying pressure to the handle of the sword, ensuring that even if inertia gives out, his own strength will push through and deliver the blow. Put another way, a bullet is essentially inanimate and unconnected to anything animate. A sword is an extension of an animate opponent. It is worth nothing also that Neo is able to mostly counteract a swinging blow, though not with quite the same grace that he counters bullets. What should have killed him instead only barely cuts his hand. As a god-like superhero, Neo may be close to perfect, but he's not quite there. Besides, all of his power exists only inside the matrix. Outside, he is just human, subject to dangers and threats and unable to control everything. Apparently he has trouble even finding time to get busy with his lady. The life of a superhero, it seems, is full of far more responsibility than Neo might like.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
MATRIX RELOADED SPOILER: I meant to mention, but then forgot, the interesting possibility that Neo did not actually stop those sentinels after all. In fact, this was the first thing I said after exiting the theater - Did Neo actually stop those sentinels, or did the ship coming over the hill set off an EMP at just the right time? Shades of A Case Of Conscience float through my mind.