One of the biggest arguments against the movie is that it doesn't have any meaning - here is a complete analysis of the movie to boost your viewing pleasure.

The radio voices - the ghosts of the past coming back to haunt those that have done them wrong - essentially representing the zombies, since they were created by the ruthlessness of the Combine.

Ravenholm/Gregori's speeches - laying these souls down to rest, seen by the mass slaughter of said zombies, in Ravenholm. Mercy by cruelty, if you will.

Highway 17 - seeing the desolation wrought by the Combine, and their downfall as their counterrattack is beaten back. As that scene ends, it fades to a tireswing hanging from a dead tree - humanity's childhood has been long dead. You also hear an interview being said over the radio - the future of Earth is thrown into question.

Nova Prospekt - no zombies, but we see antlions overrunning the Combine. Essentially, this scene is saying that you can't contain nature. No matter how much technology or power you have, you will never be able to control nature, and for that matter - human nature (instinct, which Breen talks about in the first scene. I was mostly trying to communicate the meaning through the song I used - 'Staying Alive' by Cursive.)

Final scene - It's tough to get across, but Alyx was the one that destroyed the core (Gordon's not around - G-Man's final speech was supposed to be more of a 'things to come' type deal - even though Gordon wasn't brought out of stasis at the beginning, he's still hanging around waiting for Gman to call him into service. The implication is that Gman caused the zombie uprising by not bringing Gordon out of stasis.) There is also a Vortigaunt speech, telling of the plight and importance of 'The Free Man' - once again, it was a things to come type deal, as when I was finishing the movie up, I thought I was going to do a sequel in which Gordon was brought out of stasis to help Alyx escape. The reality of doing that caught up with me, and we have the current sequel that I'm working on now. The very last shot is of the radio, but instead of voices we hear static - the ghosts of the past have finally been laid to rest.

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