Disclaimer: I should note that I’m assuming here everyone has seen the movie. If you haven’t you shouldn’t continue reading, as this movie is much better seen with as little knowledge as possible.

There are three things I didn’t like about the rave scene:
1. It didn’t feel very “Matrix”.
2. It was long.
3. I didn’t like the idea that all of the people who had “freed their minds” were acting almost like one amebic entity. It looked like the veneer of freedom (we move our body’s freely with the music that guides us), but an entire people acting with a singular intensity that is almost purposeless doesn’t seem to jive with the idea that these people are “free.” However, this might be the point, which I’ll get to.

I see the interspersed sex scene as not part of the rave scene (though clearly it is complementary) and I didn’t find it as difficult to swallow as the raving. I must admit that I don’t like sex scenes in any movie: most of the time they are unnecessary and it’s not something I like to watch. Still, clearly I don’t represent the majority of moviegoers so it’s something I’ve learned to live with. Having said that, this is a sex scene that carries far more weight than most.

In fact, it deals directly with the point I am guessing the whole Matrix trilogy is trying to make (cue “All You Need is Love”): ultimately it all comes down to love. It’s what saved Neo in the first movie and enabled him to become the “one”, and it’s also what makes Neo different from the other “saviors” (the “why” that drives his predestined choices). Thus this sex scene is ultimately important to show Neo and Trinity in love (and I do believe the intent was to show their acts were not just lust driven desire).

Now back to the rave scene: the more I think about it, the more I think that my #3 above may be the intended response. Are these people really free? Neo and Trinity certainly are, and while everyone else is engaged in a huge communal ravefest, they are focusing solely on one another and their love.

If this is all the intended symbolism (or close to it, anyway) of the rave vs. sex scene, then my #1 and #3 issues have been addressed and I think I can get over the fact that it’s overlong. So perhaps I was a bit hasty in slashing the rave scene as a detractor from the movie. Maybe. It sort of depends how on target I am about the symbolism, which will be validated or dismissed in the third movie.