I'm going to see it Saturday afternoon. I CANNOT WAIT.

I wasn't very impressed with the first Matrix, but probably will see the second one as a diversion. I think the reason the movie didn't appeal to me is that solopsism was an old, almost cliche plot device for me, having read a great deal of SF and watched plenty of movies like it before (I've seen solopsism done better!) Furthermore, some of the holes in the movie's plot are so large that I can only with pain endure them. The idea that one would need to master the martial arts (physical combat) to battle in a computer-genered virtual world (purely mental) is, frankly, silly. I would found it more plausible if Neo had learned meditation from a Zen Buddhist, or some such, than martial arts..Please.

The reason most people seem to like the movie is either (a) they have never encountered solopsism before and find it fascinating or (b) they are awed by the special effects. Since Hollywood has produced so many movies whose major selling point is special effects, I really don't find anything special about them.

Anyway, it looks like the second movie is based on an even older and done-to-death plot device, namely the Messianic. Ah....I guess I should not be surprised that people aren't familar with this plot either, even though it is one of the oldest and most over-done plots in history. I am curious of the directors will make any effort to reconcile the incompatibility of the Messianic structure with the Solopsism of the first.

The thing that would impress me the most is if Neo discovered that the "real world" was also computer-generated, and so on ad infinitum. The idea here would be that "reality" is also a mask, and if you tear off that mask, you get another one. This was what Roland Barthes found in his "de-mythologizing" work; when he tried to de-mythologize de-mythologizing, he become trapped in a endlessly repeating loop.

My favorite solipsist is the bomb in Dark Star... though all the human characters were, of course, pretty self-absorbed, too.

Geez. I can't figure out how to edit my comment...Great. Anyway, thanks for correct spelling of solipsism, DJerz.