More posts than Smiths
Posts: 828
Location: London, England
|
Todd McCarthy, 'Variety'
David Thompson, 'The Biographical Dictionary Of Film'
John Powers, 'Vogue'
----
Trinity Dream:
"You're getting, in the opening sequence here, things that you waited a long time in the first film to get." -- McCarthy
"You jump right into an action sequence where you have no idea what's going on at all. It's just for the action's sake." -- McCarthy
Has he totally forgotten the even longer and more action-packed chase sequence of Trinity's escape that kicked off the first movie? Did we even know what was going on then? All we knew was that someone was after her. Same here.
"That's very cool though, I have to say..." -- McCarthy
Really?
"It's interesting, too, that the stress is on Trinity at the beginning." -- Thompson
"That's true; at the end of the first film, you've seen Neo fly off and we don't know where he is at the moment." -- McCarthy
You'd think these established critics didn't know how to create an air of mystery or suspense, wouldn't you? Holding back your main character from the title scene is by no means a bad thing. If anything, it makes it all the more intresting as you attempt to orientate yourself whlist all Hell is breaking loose around you.
----
The Neb:
Wahey! The critics go into an awkward silence (the first of a few) as their beloved protagonist enters the frame as he awakes from his troublingly real nightmare of his lover's death.
----
Secret Meeting:
Discussion about why the name 'Zion' was selected, Thompson even going as far as to say that he believed the entire trilogy had a submissive religious quality to it.
----
Upgrades:
The upgraded agents speak.
"The rhythm in those lines...nearly poetry." -- Thompson
Yes, the uniformic quality of the Agents is certainly both beautiful and menacing.
"When Neo is in the air, does he not look priestly now?" -- Thompson
Yeah.
Thompson makes an observation that there are apparently less close ups, and more two and three shots than the first film. Seeing as there are an incredible amount of force-framed one shots in the film, I actually don't know what the hell Thompson is talking about.
----
The Superman Thing:
"To me it slightly shatters the integrity of the fictional world to evoke - if we think of this as a comic - another comic." -- Powers
Scrape the barrel much?
Read Nietzsche much?
Remove that stick from your ass much?
----
Welcome Home:
The Neb reaches Zion, and we get a full view of the dock, most probably to set up the aesthetic and geography for the siege in the third film.
"I'm always struck that filmmakers seem to like these more grandiose, CGI scenes more than I do. I kind of wish we could just move on." -- Powers
Maybe he'd have preferred watching Neo crawl into Zion from a frickin' pipe. I'd bet these guys dug the positively huge and drawn-out docking sequences in Kubrick's 2001...probably because their reputations would go down the pan if they didn't, and no other reason.
They do seem to like Trinity's character more than in the first film, though. They feel she's more fleshed out, warmer and more relateable. According to them, it's more "her film" (McCarthy), which is handy, seeing as she is the protagonist's main concern throughout the movie.
They don't like the "fortress mentality" (McCarthy) being created by Zion, though how else you would depict the last human stronghold is beyond my faculties to explain.
----
The Temple:
The critics also don't like that Link's home is apparently "murky" (McCarthy), though. They think there's "no life to it"...until the magnificent reveal of the Zion temple, when they have to eat their words. But choose, instead, just to call it "an incoherent space".
"This is one of the funniest scenes in contemporary cinema." -- Powers
Referencing the rave scene.
I like it to the rain or parade sequences in the Ghost In The Shell movies (i.e. scenes with only music and sumptuous visuals being used for emotional and psychological exposition in a visceral way).
The critics, on the other hand, likening it to "a beer commercial for white audiences to show that they're 'down' with people of colour" (McCarthy).
Crude. And a little rude, actually.
They also complain about the lack of individual Zionians with the remaining population being a seething mass. It's as though they want every one of them to be turned into their own character. In invalid remark, in my view, considering that most epic movies concerning huge populations (e.g. The Lord Of The Rings) do this same thing. It's the only way to do it.
"This is 'Tarzan' music." -- Thompson
And?
"It's also deeply boring." - McCarthy
Whereas the docking sequences in 2001 are just enthralling.
The word 'philistine' begins to spring to mind.
What? Pompous? Heh...I'll get over it.
The guys still seem to dig Trinity, though.
Despite the Brothers obviously trying to get a sense of ritualistic, quasi-religious sexuality and sensuality, the critics are convinced that the sex scene should be "refined and holy" (McCarthy). Which I thought it was, given the presence of the symbollic archway and monastic music, but obviously, Mr. McCarthy knows better. According to Thompson, seeing them making love in "some shattered, ruined bathroom" would have fit the above criteria of being "refined and holy".
Thanks.
They like the dialogue between Neo and Trinity after they've made love, though.
They then talk about how The Empire Strikes Back was a better film than Star Wars, forgetting, of course, that The Empire Strikes Back was considered a critical disappointment compared to the first movie when it was first released.
D'oh.
They somehow think that Reloaded fails to "expand and enrich" (Powers) the first film. They obviously missed...the entire movie.
----
Goodnight Zion:
Neo and Hamman go down to the engineering level. Hamman introduces the first hint that the man-machine relationship may not be as simple as you'd think. A key idea that will play an instrumental part in the conclusion of the final film. Essentially, it is a crucial part of the film narrative, and is a necessary introduction into the grey areas of an issue that has appeared thus far to be no more than black and white, especially since the entire trilogy now revolves around this central issue.
And yet...
"Here's where you wonder whether the Wachowski Brothers' love for the world they're creating has somehow taken over from their narrative sense where you're going down to the engine room just in order to show us something slightly different." -- Powers
Furthermore...
"This world could be beginning to turn bad, duplicating exactly the forces that make the Matrix so damaging and harmful, but they don't do it." -- Thompson
Of course, if he'd listened a little further, he would hear Neo challenging why there are no older men on the council...an enquiry that leads the Councillor to shrink in his shoes.
Exploring it too much, however, would have detracted from the forward-force of the story.
----
Seeking The Oracle:
"It would be a daring thing, actually, to make a trimmer film that, obviously, went off in wilder directions. Some of these scenes will, but you really have a unique opportunity here to do anything they want and go off, and instead they're grounding it in much more routine scenes." -- McCarthy
I think it's important to remember that these guys essentially disliked all the real world stuff from the first film, as well. As long as they were in the Matrix, they were happy. But once they jacked out and had scenes that were necessary in order to ground the audience and allow them to orientate themselves, they start getting itchy and bitchy. The primary complaint was that those scenes were too...normal. Personally, I don't see how you can tell a story about a real world without having things seem real i.e. normal. It's not that they're any less interesting, it's just that they're not inside a computer.
It's little surprise, then, that these guys are vehemently opposed to the real world scenes in Reloaded. Our time in Zion, designed to establish the underground city and its characters and issues, essentially defines the first act of the film. As such, their disdain for this stretch of the film is phenomenally harsh.
But Zion is a real place, and these rebels are real people. We need to see that, otherwise the film won't work just with psychedellic doorways and surreal characters.
"Just tell him." -- Thompson
Just as the Oracle offers Neo candy to make him (and us) understand the fundamental issue around volition and free choice (remember, Neo "doesn't like the idea that [he's] not in control of [his] life"), Thompson is already unappreciative of what's going on here. It's not as though she 'just told him' in the first film. When Neo asked how she knew that he would break the vase, she just responded with another question.
But, of course, everyone seems to like the first film, so that's okay.
"Is anyone as stupefied as I am by this?" -- Powers
"Stupefied" by what, Todd? That rogue programs escape into the Matrix to evade deletion? That programs not carrying out their function appear as ghosts, angels, vampires, werewolves and aliens? That Neo must go to the Source?
If you don't get that first little thing about choice, that's fine. It's obviously not something 'Variety' magazine readers probably give a shit about. But it takes up next to zero screen time, and the rest is all about giving Neo a destination and about trying to "expand and enrich" the world as you had said you wanted earlier.
Thompson agrees, stating...
"It's just dreadful. The scene in the first film was so good." -- Thompson
I guess that's just another notch on the belt for the 'you just don't get it' argument, eh?
According to Powers, Neo talking about his dream and having the Oracle interpret it and telling him his impending choice to save Trinity is "too much into the metaphysics of it".
This is a prime example of these critics' double standards.
On the one hand, they want the film to go into new conceptual territory. But before a single step into a greater world can even be taken, they're already slamming it for going too far!
It's a catch 22 situation with these fellas. No winning.
McCarthy takes a stab at the Oracle wearing a leather jacket "like everyone else...unlike the first time". Forgetting that the Oracle was indoors in the first film.
Way to nitpick.
"It was about here that I decided that I was right the first time, that what I didn't like in the first film was 'mumbo jumbo'." -- McCarthy
Yeah, uh huh. Now actually try listening to the near-poetic prose in this scene of apparent "mumbo jumbo" instead of being like a kid with a two second attention span who can't help looking up and whistling everytime a trisyllable word is thrown his way, and realise that what's being said here is of huge importance and dramatic impact.
The Oracle has just told Neo that his choice as to whether or not he is to save Trinity is already made. It's already made! All that awaits now is the unravelling of time and events, kind of like Minority Report, to see exactly how it resolves, and if Trinity really can be saved from what seems like an inevitable death.
"In the first film, what was wonderful about the scene was that it was down-to-earth, and she wasn't speaking in fortune cookie language." -- Powers
He forgets, of course, that lines like "what'll bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything" are exactly the kinds of "fortune cookie language he's referring to here.
He also seems to forget that the inexperienced, newly-freed Neo of the first film is not the same as the the now God-like persona we see in Reloaded. So she switches her vase analogy with one about the taking of candy. Big deal. They're both fascinating dialogues to watch.
----
Smith Unplugged:
"Talky, talky..." -- Powers
Heh...I'd love to see this guy at a Shakespeare play.
I also love how Thompson says this...
"If Smith's status somehow had changed, that could be very interesting and promising." -- Thompson
...just as all another six Smiths start appearing, encircling Neo.
And, just as Smith starts to consume Neo...
"Time to fly off, Neo!" -- Powers
Without establishing that Smith is a viable threat to Neo?
Dude, seriously...this guy is a film critic?
"That was one of the biggest criticisms levelled at the film: that if he really had the power to fly off, he would have at this point." -- McCarthy
Huh? The movie opened with Neo dispensing of three upgraded agents without even breaking a sweat. Why would Neo fly off when there are a total of seven Smiths?
"And now we get this endless fight scene." -- Powers
Says the guy who was praising Hong Kong movies not five minutes earlier...
"What was curious is that, in the first one, you actually learned something. There's no moment of discovery in it." -- Powers
Obviously, he hasn't "learned" that Neo is not the supreme being within the Matrix after fighting Seraph. Obviously, he hasn't "learned" that Smith now poses a very real danger to Neo.
The "discovery" that Neo would have to simply abandon the fight should have shocked the audience. The "discovery" that there is another individual, Seraph, who could go toe-to-toe with the One should have shocked the audience.
Again, his criticisms just continue to fall flat.
He also seems to think that the multitude of Smiths is less menacing than the singular Smith in the first film...which is a given, since Neo's abilities are far greater than before, so Neo would be expected to have the upper hand.
But that's what makes the ending of the fight so great! The fact that you expect Neo to triumph, only to see him loose and bail out is an incredible knock on Neo. He may be the One...but what he's "learned" in the last few minutes with Seraph and Smith is that he's not 'all powerful' as he may once have thought. And there are more of these set backs to come.
McCarthy then has the audacity to refer to movies like Blade Runner and 2001 as being "very much critics' films" as he starts "thinking back to visionary films in the past". He seems to forget that Blade Runner was probably valued even less by critics at the time than what The Matrix Reloaded is regarded by critics today.
"They did make a sequel of sorts to 2001, which no-one even remembers anymore. Kubrick refused to have anything to do with it. Of course, 2001 presents a situation where I guess anything would have been possible into evermore abstract filmmaking. But, again, when they're confronted with an opportunity to basically write your own ticket and do anything you want, you want them to go beyond. You want them to expand their minds even more, and expand our minds, and expand the possibilities of the world that they've created. And I feel here an ever-narrowing expansion of the possibilities rather than an expansion." -- McCarthy
"Ever-narrowing"? The Oracle being a program, strange glowing entities, rogue programs hiding in the Matrix that seem to want to 'live', programs that appear as supernatural or extra-terrestrial beings, doors that lead everywhere and nowhere, choice being revealed as nothing more than an illusion that the One seems incapable of overcoming...?
If this isn't the Wachowskis trying to "expand the world they've created", I don't know what is.
For all their pleas to want to see more "abstract filmmaking" and to "expand our minds", you realise that the critics' own minds simply lack the faculty to be truly expanded. They essentially just sit there as these incredibly poetic dialogue scenes in which incredible revelations are made, going "booriing!", and then complain that nothing new and challenging was presented.
Yet more examples of apparent double standards from these guys.
Thompson then goes on to talk about how the Alien films each offer something different to allow the audience to "readdress the themes and the issues in a different way", saying that Reloaded and Revolutions fails in this challenge that he believes sequels should offer.
And thus he overlooks the fact that the Neo of the first film is very different from the Neo of the second, who is in turn very different from the Neo of the third film. In each one, the landscape has shifted and the focus of the issues do change. Of course, if he'd watched the scene with the Oracle properly to see Neo now grappling with an issue that went completely overlooked in the first film (i.e. the discourse between free choice and predictable determinism or pre-determined fate), among a host of other issues, he may have had a greater appreciation of this.
Alas, no such luck.
Then there's yet more hypocritical stuff in the wake of remarks like "talky, talky"...
"If you want to embrace the film on the most serious level, on its spiritual and philsophical levels, you want it to define itself further and to really go beyond in creating this interesting world. I really wanted something more ambitious and on a loftier plane..." -- McCarthy
Yes. But if you sit there going "talk, talky", you're not going to really get the film on "its spiritual and philosophical levels".
Those levels are obviously there, but it seems as though these gentlemen just can't see it. Maybe if they actually tried paying attention.
Thompson then goes on to say that Fritz Lang and Kubrick never made sequels, stating that "these people didn't want to repeat themselves". The fact that he essentially disregards the endeavour of auteurism notwithstanding, he seems to not acknowledge (indeed, none of the critics do) that The Matrix was indeed conceived as a trilogical work, essentially from its very inception. It would be like saying that Tolkien's Rings trilogy shouldn't have gone past Fellowship because it would have been him repeating himself. Indeed, he goes on to attack Lucas for his almost Tolkien-like attitude towards his own fictional universe in terms of the years he has dedicated to it.
----
The Quest For The Keymaker:
They all seem to love Lambert Wilson as the Merovingian. They love his characterisation, his dialogue and his style...despite the fact that, just earlier, Powers had made a snide remark about this very character.
Powers even went as far as to add that he "the one person who is clearly having fun in the movie" and refers to his dialogue material as "luscious stuff".
Pretty blatant hypocrisy.
"I'm struck that I don't quite get what's happening. I know there's a war, but I don't see how this is Neo's story." -- Powers
Well, if he'd listened to the Oracle saying that Neo had to get to the Source to save Zion, and that he would need the Keymaker who was being held captive by the Merovingian in order to do that, he may not be so lost at such a simple point.
The validity of these criticisms is peppered with so many holes, that even some of their points that might be considered even semi-valid or at least mildly entertainable become entirely meaningless.
Anyway, they seem to love the cake orgasm.
But even that becomes a painful experience as, in his glee at the movie being at "an utterly different level than anything in the film up till now" (McCarthy), Thompson translates the scene as meaning that "what he's saying is that, actually, it's all imagination".
Ouch.
Nice try, though fellas. You were...almost right for the first time.
Anyway, the Merovingian's exit from the restaurant is marked with a "just beautiful" from Thompson, so it can't have been all bad (though the once anti-Merovingian critic, Powers, is now doing nothing but agreeing with him), and they seem to really dig the Twins as "quite a conception", too.
Despite McCarthy creditting Monica Bellucci with "not doing much", Thompson goes on to say how her scene in which she demands a kiss from Neo in order to reach the Keymaker is in fact "a mythological test worthy of Homer".
Again, two hugely conflicting statements.
But, as with the Merovingian, they like this stuff with Persephone. In fact, they love the whole Keymaker quest section of the film.
"For the first hour, you don't quite know why anybody's doing what they're doing." -- Powers
What can I say? The dude's like a broken record.
'I don't get it!', 'I don't get it!', interspersed with the odd 'this sucks!'.
At times, he almost sounds like a whining kid who doesn't want to listen to instructions, and then complains when he doesn't know what to do.
Still, according to Powers, "this is the soaring part of the film".
They love the whole 'lipstick' scene with Persephone's betrayal, too.
But, wait! Here comes one of the biggest fuck ups in the commentary, hehe...
Just as the chateau fight with the Merovingian's guards begins, Powers has this to say:
"This has some of the lack of drama of the late James Bond fights where there's actually no real menace or danger and it's just...it's purely going through..." -- Powers
And why doesn't he finish his sentence? Because Neo starts to bleed.
It's like he's setting himself up to be rebutted...
Again, like air out of a balloon. They fall silent.
Having failed on the point of the fight having no sense of threat, he then tries to save his rep a little by attacking the aesthetics of the fight itself, saying that he doesn't find it "particularly interesting or inspired"...right as Neo sends one of his opponents flying through and off the balcony and follows him down with a magnificent shot of him and his pursuers leaping off the balcony.
Again, he goes quiet.
Now out of any other argument, he simply says, "I want to get back to the movie".
Next up: the car chase.
And I mean, the car chase, because it really is utterly fantastic.
"Now, this scene takes on the challenge, of course, of: either it's going to be the greatest car chase ever filmed, or it's gonna not succeed. So the bar is being set high." -- McCarthy
Well, that's a fair enough comment.
I mean, we could have gone through the chase with this in mind, but instead we have Powers interjecting to change the tone entirely. Instead of commending the Wachowskis' efforts creating a scene that is, in itself, one of the finest achievements in action cinema, he starts saying how there were no "comparable scene[s] in the original Matrix where it had to be the 'greatest' or 'most' of anything ever".
Whilst they spend a hefty amount of time saying how they wanted the movie to excel, and while they opened the commentary talking of the "impossible" expectation the movie had to live up to in the wake of the first film, they now suddenly seem to have changed their tune. Now, they don't want the movie to assume any mantle of attempting to excel. They don't want it to have the 'be the best' mentality...despite the fact that this kind of drive is extremely admirable, and its result is on screen for all to see.
But no. Powers isn't having it. Not now that he's discovered how easily he's allowed to change his goal posts in this two hour diss-a-thon.
Luckily, Thompson puts him in his place, saying that it was "because we were being introduced to so many new types of scene...so it wasn't like that".
"Of course, no attempt to make the other cars or any of the cars futuristic. Strictly contemporary." -- McCarthy
"Very plain, yeah." -- Thompson.
You what...?
And, according to Powers, "there is no mythological reason or spiritual reason or quest reason why the car chase sequence, that Neo isn't in, has to be the most elaborate car chase sequence in the history of cinema".
To say that this doesn't have to be the best scene is, again, simply belittling the Wachowskis' tremendous efforts to deliver an utterly rivetting moment of freeway mayhem. In terms of its "quest reason", it's simply to secure the Keymaker. There's no "mythological" or "spiritual" reason, but that's like saying that an action scene isn't worth a damn unless it has one of those reasons...which is just ridiculous.
As for Neo not being in the scene, I think that the scene would be over pretty soon if he were! There would be no scene! You can have it that way...but I'd much rather have my high octane, kick-ass car chase, thank you very much.
Also, despite having been told that they need to get to an exit that is over the freeway, Thompson still wonders "where are they going and why are they going there?".
But once McCarthy states that they're headed towards an exit, they then go on to another criticism. Despite the fact that the entire freeway is rapidly turning into a war zone, McCarthy wonders "why they've been warned off staying off freeways"...all this whlist an agent is shooting at Trinity in a car next to her.
They also don't like the breaks in the action. To me, these were the scenes that actually kept the momentum going! Instead of having car chases where there are just a slew of incomprehensibly quick cuts and disorienting shots that just pull you out of the sequence, the scene in The Matrix Reloaded actually ensures that the viewer can maintain an exact geography of the action 100% of the way through. Much like the lobby scene in the first film.
"What's at stake in this scene is simply getting us to the next scene." -- Powers
Well, that's handy seeing as, if that next scene didn't come because the Keymaker got dead, then Neo's journey would be over and the machines would have won.
And trying to contrast the deliberately graceful action of the Matrix movies with the more "visceral" action of movies like...*gulp*...Bad Boys 2 (yeah, they went there) is like trying to compare to completely incompatible things. It's ridiculous.
They seem to think that this car chase should share the same ethos as other car chases instead of posessing its own unique identity...and yet they also say that "it has more in common with other films than it does with the rest of The Matrix".
More contradictions.
And yet, despite committing themselves to an unspoken understanding that they will rip the living shit out of this movie, especially its most highly reverred action sequence, their hearts seem to melt as Trinity hurls herself on her Ducati into oncoming traffic.
"What can you say; that's really hairy." -- McCarthy
But, of course, Powers has to come in and dub the spectacular freeway chase as being "one of the great deadening scenes". If there's anything dead here, it's what's inside Powers.
They love the final explosion, though.
But here's a real killer!
"The thing that's so interesting about that chase scene - another reason that it stinks so much - is that Neo only appears at the end whereas, in all the others, he's at the center of it, and you're learning something about him." -- Powers
Hehe...this guy changes his statements more times than he changes his underwear.
----
[b]A Date With Destiny:
As Locke's second-in-command informs him of the counter attack that was exposited during the earlier council scene as being ready, Thompson asks with laughter...
"What attack is this?" -- Thompson
Of course, I was laughing to. At him, that is. Not with him.
They feel that the Keymaker, whose advice and skills were the very reason he was rescued in the first place, constitutes "an arbitrary set up for a big action / suspense scene that was just concocted rather than something organic". I would have agreed with him, if only we hadn't been waiting since the moment of his freedom as to what he had to say. Because of that, combined with yet another program who has a very individual and unique manner of speaking, it's not at all arbitrary, but fascinating, mysterious and poetic. It's almost a 'Voice Of God' narration that pulls all the threads together for the final push, and its almost spiritual sense is very much suited to the sensibilities of the scene at hand in which Neo is supposedly going to end the war.
What's also interesting is that, although they complain that the narrative is not being served enough, they still seem to be okay with having scenes with doors with funny things going on behind them and have "five minutes" of something like that.
I also like how Powers criticises the characters for not having moments that "make them register"...just as Smith says he "want[s] everything" and Morpheus enquires, "would that include a bullet from this gun?".
Then, just as the Smith's start attacking, Powers exclaims how he's "been there"...only to see Morpheus pinned to a wall, being consumed by three Smiths at once.
Also, as Trinity starts hacking into the power grid, McCarthy complains how "in comtemporary cinema, in all these big action films, every single character knows exactly what to do and how to operate every computer they sit down to and every system just by sitting down and knocking it out in about five seconds"...forgetting that Neo, Morpheus and Trinity all started out as hackers.
"I'm thick here: why do they need human beings to survive?" -- Powers
I've got to be honest here, I do agree with him. He is thick.
The other two just agree with him.
It's amazing that remarks made by such unqualified individuals are actually considered to have such wieght.
Truly baffling.
However, they do concede that the staging of the Architect's chamber is good, as is the the manner and form of the Architect's dialogue delivery (though Powers takes a small pop at it, inevitably), and they seem to like the revelation that Neo is the sixth 'One'.
When the incredible 'fire wave' shot comes up, all Powers can say is "ah, the old fireball".
"I haven't seen someone outrun a fireball like that since Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible'." -- Powers
If you're wondering which imaginary Tom Cruise film he's referring to, please don't ask me.
"It's definitely a love and resurrection scene for the computer age." -- McCarthy
No quarms there.
"If you just went from one to three and left out two, they're facing exactly the same danger." -- Powers
"In narrative terms, not that much has happened at all." -- McCarthy
Incredible.
They seem to have forgotten that this film has just critiqued and then ripped apart everything we were told to believe in the first film.
Yes, the machines are still approaching, but they did set up a counter attack that we thought would be worthless (hence the reason so little time was spent on it) should Neo reach the Source. But now that the One has been revealed to be nothing more than a control system for the machines, the real world battle now has a primacy and importance that, before, only Commander Locke seemed to believe in.
That's the arc of the second movie, and without the themes introduced here, the third film would not have the same substantive legs it has in order to stand.
You could, in fact, just as easily say that you can discard the first film and just watch Reloaded and Revolutions. Or you could say that the first half of the first Matrix was useless because the threat was the same.
It's an utterly ridiculous and baseless proposition.
Powers continues that Neo stopping the squiddies was not "worthy" enough, seeing as he had to fight off Smith for a lot longer. For some reason, he seems to think that EMPs and Kung Fu have the same effect.
|
I was actually supposed to be prepping a presentation but, as you well know, the reason that most of us are here is because of our affinity for disobedience.
(Don't worry, I finally got it all figured out.) It's the way the Architect's speech is worded that did it to me. That whole trips verses points of arrival departure issue (6 trips=7 points).
