The rave was the worst -- that just felt like they stopped in the middle of the film and said "hey guys, why don't we shoot a music video!"

Surely you've heard of the OMV, right?

OMV: Obligatory Music Video. Found in far too many modern films. Basically, the passage of time and certain pieces of character development (or the development of the love relationship between two characters if it's a love story) are fast-forwarded in some section of the middle of the film, while set to music. Often, the music is an uplifting pop song that's intended to sell copies of the film soundtrack album. There is no dialogue, in fact, most of the on screen action is almost pantomime in nature. In many cases the characters are seen doing fun, whimsical/playful things with each other in various settings. The OMV is a convenient way of quickly "telling" you something about the character development without actually "showing" you the real tedious day-to-day events and having to write all the dialogue that goes with it.

This is done in films frequently enough (and sometimes poorly enough) so that it's a) been parodied a number of times, and b) been adapted and redone particularly well a number of times.

I don't have an example of an OMV parody handy, perhaps someone can give one.

One of my favorite examples of a really good OMV is the Chicago Art Museum scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

One of the worst claw-your-own-eyes-out example of an OMV is the scene in Attack of the Clones where Anakin "Darth Petulent" Skywalker and Natalie "Just-out-of-beta" Portman have a little romp in the grassy fields of Naboo with some alien cows. George: You don't quite have the "hang" of the OMV. Avoid that form in the future, please. While you're at it, avoid trying to tell love stories altogether, please.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up: I think that the rave scene might have been the Wachowski's attempt at a new twist on the OMV. Seen in that light, I think it's a decent variation on the idea. It deliberately eschews some of the conventions of the OMV and sort of takes its own route. It doesn't achieve all of the goals that an OMV usually does, but maybe they were going for different goals (which I admit I still don't totally understand-- I think MWest had some interesting things to say about it, perhaps he can expand on the things he mentioned?).