I’ve only seen one of the Matrix sequels- I have a vague idea it was called ‘The Matrix goes Bananas’ and so will largely confine my comments to the original (in all senses) fundamentally gee-whiz and good film. I have only two things to say about the sequels:

*The scene at the end of ‘Carry On Up the Matrix’ where Neo finds he can control stuff in the ‘real world’. That belongs in the first ten minutes. So he can control stuff in the real world; that’s kind of exciting, I guess. Now explore the ramifications. (Time allowed: 90 minutes).

*They should have been given to the people who made ‘Highlander 2’; now there was a sequel true to the spirit of the original.

As far as the real Matrix goes:

*the humans provide the computing power, like Androoo says.

*In Morpheus’ original back story, make it bleeding obvious that ‘real’ history diverged from our history at an identifiable point in our past. When the first computer capable of processing a thousand operations per second was made and turned out to be superintelligent (in 1957, say), that’s when it happened. This world is the Matrix. You don’t really think it’s possible to get all that computing power on that tiny little chip, do you? Can’t you feel the shiver run down your spine?

*there’s no reason why time in the Matrix has to run at the same rate as it does in ‘real life’. There’s no reason why people need to look the same in the Matrix as they do in ‘real life’. Make Neo a woman. Make Neo an old woman, who has already lived one complete life in the Matrix. Make Neo Susan Calvin, the kickass ice-queen roboticist who built ENIAC in the first place. That’s why (s)he’s important. Which brings me to…

*cut out all the mystical crap. Not necessary, not interesting, obscures all that is interesting and gives a stupid Deus ex machina out whenever the plot is written into a corner.

*the goal of ‘freeing’ people from the Matrix is untenable; the Matrix is obviously the only way this world can support the human population it does. Should people be told about the Matrix? If they are, will they believe it? If they do, will they (really, deep down) care, or will they learn to ignore it as another layer of the plumbing that’s not really them, like we ignore our biochemistry. Does it really matter if this world isn’t ‘real’?
Like Hesse said: “I consider reality to be the last thing one need concern oneself about, for it, tediously enough, always present, while more beautiful and necessary things demand our attention and care. Reality is what one must not under any circumstances be satisfied with, what one must not under any circumstances worship and revere, for it is accidental, the offal of life.” There is a good in here for the sort of arguments people have all the time in Greg Egan’s books- is virtual better, or real better? How much should virtual ape real to maintain consistency? If there is no way of splitting the Matrix into separate worlds with their own rules, these arguments will gain a lot more immediacy than they have in Greg Egan’s Diaspora.

* there’s no reason why death in the Matrix has to mean death in ‘real life’. The Matrix could be a world where reincarnation was literally true. Maybe being killed in the Matrix messes up your brain, so it’s easier to start your ‘Matrix self’ again from scratch. Or maybe you have to go to a cut-scene where you drink tea (yours is the cloudy one) and chat with some minor bureaucrat of the Celestial Empire…