The Long Road

11/10/2003 Archived Entry: "Matrix: Revolutions"

For some context, check out my review of Matrix Reloaded

Let’s not pretend for one second that Revolutions is a movie that it’s not. This movie is a straight up action movie that just happens to be more expensive than others and is the ending to one of the best movies ever made; gone are the subtle philosophical questions and the overbearing lectures on existence. Revolutions is just an action movie no matter how many excuses you may think you find for it not being one. Don’t pretend that it’s smart, subtle or deep – it isn’t. The three Matrix films stand on a sliding scale in terms of script/plot complexity. It’s like the writers just decided “ah screw it, lets just show ‘em some cool stuff”.

And yes, there is plenty of eye-candy in this movie; the last half of it is more CGI than any other two movies put together. Like Reloaded, Revolutions is centered around two large Effects pieces: Mechs vs Sentinels and Neo vs Smith. To finally see walking, shooting Mechs fighting giant robots is like a dream come true! I can’t believe the level of detail and work that has gone into the Docking Bay battle. This scene does get very repetitive as we just constantly see sentinels being shot at. I also had to wonder why they didn’t have better defences; they know that EMP blasts can disable all machinery but refuse to keep any around except on their ships. I think it would have been most prudent to keep EMPs around in Zion in case an army of sentinels decide to invade, but then they couldn’t have that last minute save by Niobe.

The Neo vs Smith fight at the end seemed like what Superman vs General Zod should have been in Superman 2, it also reminded me a lot of the way fights are done in DragonBall Z – I can definitely see where the Wachowski’s influences come from. The end battle is probably the most well executed superhuman fight ever committed to film – the upcoming Superman movie is going to have a very hard time living up to this.

While the CGI is excellent and plentiful, there are still many moments when it’s too obviously fake. The integration of the actors with their CG surroundings is seamless but when we’re switching from a CG character to a live actor in the same shot it becomes a little too obvious. Pay attention to some of the scenes where the camera slowly zooms in on a Mech pilot, the pilot looks CG for a while and then he’s swapped with a real actor, it’s a nice effect but still too transparent. Also of note is that there are no bullet-time rotation shots this time around. It was nice that they didn’t use (re: overuse) it but at the same time a Matrix movie just isn’t a Matrix movie…you know.

One thing that bugs me about this movie is that you’re supposed to be able to watch it right after Reloaded as if they made one big movie. I haven’t done so, but I can guarantee that if you watched the two films back-to-back you’d feel that they are very disjoint. The tone and pacing of the two movies seem completely different. Reloaded grinded to a halt every once in a while to give us some meaningless conversation and Revolutions is all about just moving the characters to the end of the story.

So this is where we discuss the ending, stop reading if you don’t want to know.

The biggest problem with the Matrix sequels is that the characters are all doing what “fate” has planned for them, everything they do and say seems to be dictated in advance to the point that there is no emotional investment from us to them. Honestly, how many people cared when Trinity died? Or when Neo died? I didn’t, and that’s the problem. For the story to mean anything you actually have to care about the people in the story. I think the writers lost the trees in their well-rendered forest.

I think it a bit silly that this ancient war between man and machine ended because they found a common enemy – who was part of the machine in the first place. I don’t think the way Smith was gotten rid of really stands up either, what did the machine do to reclaim control of the Matrix and why did it HAVE to use Neo to do so? “because he’s Smith’s opposite” isn’t a good enough of a reason.

In the end, I find it hard to have an opinion about Matrix: Revolutions. It didn’t wow me, I didn’t love it, I didn’t really like it too much, but I didn’t dislike it either. The experience was pretty much akin to seeing any other generic action movie, see it and forget about it. Revolutions is like a dessert, while The Matrix is the main course.

Replies: 29 comments

I wonder if I'm ready for this...

Posted by Romer @ 11/11/2003 02:40 AM EST

Matrix revolutions is everything a good movie shouldn't be. Time to move on with life...

I found the trailer for Return of the King better than this. Oh well, I got 2 free tickets from watching the movie, so that's a plus!

Posted by Narsil @ 11/11/2003 12:35 PM EST

It was a kick-ass movie! What didn't you like about it?

Posted by Romer @ 11/11/2003 06:04 PM EST

Too many loose threads. They never really developed any characters from reloaded. The french guy and the boobs with legs were on for what, 5 minutes of screen time? These were the most interesting characters of the movie. I don't understand how they would let team Goth go scott free when they were responsible of the escape of the Key maker and killed the twin viruses. THings seemed to wrap up quite nicely with that segment of the movie.

Don't get me started on the Neo/Smith fight scene, very cartoonish.

Dialogue was poor, very poor. Gabby Hayes poor! I have to admit, the one thing I liked about Matrix 1 was the clever and thoughtful dialogue. None of this was found in Revolutions, instead we get stuff like "Damn she's a good pilot" and "...We give 'em hell before we die!" or something to that effect. Although I wasn't expecting something tolkein'esk, I've noticed they ran out of clever dialogues in the last two movies.

It was literally, another "Hollywood" movie. I know, it's just an action movie blah blah blah don't expect too much, but like Mac OS X, it was a lot of eye candy with some psychobable thrown in. Oddly enough, there was less psychobabble in this movie than reloaded.

That's all I remember right now since the last time I saw it was the Wednesday opener.

If you like the Matrix, I suggest The Animatrix, very thought provoking and provides further insight to the matrix.

I'm with That, it didn't impress me all that much, it will go down in history as another sci-fi flick. Hardly the cult classic as it's predecessor. Maybe from these two movies, people will stop comparing everything with the Matrix. I mean, come on people, the matrix wasn't that good! :P

Overall, 6/10.

Finding Nemo was better, you have to admit that. :)

Posted by Narsil @ 11/11/2003 10:10 PM EST

I found myself wishing Trinity would die already during the "death" scene.

Posted by anonymous @ 11/11/2003 10:20 PM EST

Yah, you too? I was ready to yell out... "Die already!" She had the longest death scene i've seen in a while. And she took it pretty well too.

BTW, from my blurb given previously, I should say that that was entirley my opinion only and shouldn't be an account of a thorough review. The movie just didn't fly with me. Of course, YMMV.

Posted by Narsil @ 11/11/2003 10:25 PM EST

okay, first comment in a while. and who are you Narsil? people aren't allowed to post unless we can find out who they are! :P

anyway. the matrix. revolutions. this is the movie. *pause for effect* that i will be talking about.

okay, now i know thai (and many other people it seems) were disappointed in the last one, and that sort of set up this one for disappointment. in this day and age of super effects in movies, anything that a movie tries now will never seem as good as if it was done years ago.

in revolutions, when they came down to the gun checkin at the frenchman's place, i immediately thought of the lobby scene in the matrix one. and then they had the guys walking upside down on the ceilings. that was pretty cool, but it just doesn't beat the breakthrough-ness that was bullet time in the initial one. with all the cgi possible nowadays, you could do anything you want, easily. there will be no more jaw dropping revolutionary effects, because anything can be done right now. it will just be more seamless in the future, and people that aren't specifically looking for such things won't even notice.

the mech scene nice. the flowing masses of seeker robot things were cool. that was the first time i gasped during revolutions. they'd been fighting the things for a while, as they came out of the drilled hole a few at a time. then all of a sudden there's the flowing mass coming out, and all i can think it "these humans are fucked". i enjoyed that moment.

the end fight, when neo and smith started fighting a-la dragon ball z, with frightening shockwaves of power included, i felt was fairly well done. not being an all too critcal movie goer, i don't really have an opinion on how well it was done. did they miss some rendering in some spots? i don't know. but it looked cool. they had three shockwave blasts in total. the ones that scattered the rain i thought were neat. all the wetness gets blown away, then a pause, and it's pouring again. a nice touch, and done from a good angle at that. then the slow punch, where all the rain stops and only neo's fist is moving. after the impact, you could see the indentation in smith's head before he melded himself back to normal.

my take on smith's defeat now. the main computer could only overcome smith if it had a direction link to the matrix from the source, through one powerful enough. through one like THE ONE. neo. it's like firewall crap. the closer in you are, the easier it is to do stuff. and you need to be working with powerful stuff to accomplish anything.anyway, whatever. it was good enough. it was sort of like a twist ending, since neo died. although i guess with the death of trinity, people may expect neo to go down also. meh.

i thought it funny that mouse was the herald, proclaiming neo's success and the end of the war with the robots. he was yelling on about it, running into the cavern for a minute it seemed before anyone else took up the cheer of victory. poor guy had to convice everyone that it was over :)

okay, that's all i feel like saying.

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/12/2003 03:14 AM EST

The upside down gun fight, sure it LOOKED cool, but what advantage does being on the ceiling give you against opponents who are standing on the floor? None that I can think of. Just seems like it was done to look cool.

Trinity's death really took way too long, plus it was really obvious what was going to happen when they decided not to show her lower torso.

Movies shouldn't be about jawdropping effects but jawdropping scenes in general. The way a scene is shot, the build up to it, the music that's playing, and all that other stuff. Revolutions had great effects, yes but less so great scenes. Just think back to how cool Magneto's prison break was.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/12/2003 03:32 AM EST

ah, yes, the prison break scene :) i don't think i'll ever hear the end of that. i don't thin i even thought about it too much the first time i saw it, but the second time i watch x men 2, after being told how awesome it was from you, i took special care to note it, and yes, i will admit that it was a great scene. "something's different about you... too much iron in your blood!" ha ha. magneto was so confident.

i will admnit, i saw no tactical gain from being able to fight on the ceiling. it was all done for coolness. and then trinity's kick killed the last guy? that never would have happened in the original. the frenchman has no weak mortals working for him. he hires only the best in renegade programs!

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/12/2003 03:39 AM EST

WHOA!!...hold on a second there Shawn...Mouse DIES in part 1...gets shot up by a SWAT team...the dude you're referring to really has no name...the credits just refer to him as "The Kid"...although, there is a striking resemblance between the two actors...

Posted by dAN @ 11/12/2003 01:36 PM EST

Hmm...Revolutions...look m'ah...the wheel is turning...(spoilers ahead)

I'm one of the ones who found this movie not to be so disappointing...perhaps its because I disliked "Reloaded" so much that I already felt this one would suck...the main things I disliked about "Reloaded" were Neo's invincibility, action scenes that dragged on too long, and bringing Trinity back to life...(although her death would have sucked...IN TERMS OF PART 2...it made the situation worse to bring her back...)

Anyway...I didn't find Revolutions to have any of these flaws...yeah, yeah...the Battle of the Dock was long...but I liked it...it wasn't meaningless punch, kick, duck, kick, sway, spit, stomp, etc., etc...for four (or so) minutes straight...I actually enjoyed the whole battle involving the APU's...they were so cool...and I didn't find the scene that redundant...go watch any war movie, you'll see what I mean...as for the final scene, it deserved to be drawn out...although, I found it really hard to follow the action sequences when they were in the air...I kept thinking, "get on the ground, dammit"...

As for Neo's invincibility...yeah, he showed some "god-like" powers...but, I finally felt like, "yeah, he can be beat"...and he wasn't saving people here and there like Superman...which peeved me off in "Reloaded"...man, the dude got beat in the end...how invincible is that?...;)...he also didn't bring anybody back to life...WOOHOO!!!...

Now...I have to totally agree with Thai on the character development...there really was no sense of attachment between the viewer and the characters in this installment...Neo "dying" in part 1 was like "whoa!?"...Trinity "dying" in part 2, less effective...but still an "uh-oh!"...Trinity "dying" in part 3..."she's dead?...meh!"...Neo..."he's dead?...hmm..."...they could have made this movie so much more if they focused a little more on this aspect...but, I guess there's just too many characters to deal with...wouldn't it be cooler if Neo beat Smith and then the machines decided to kill Neo?..."wtf!!...no!"

I agree with Narsil...they needed the "devil" to play more of a role in the movie (i.e. the frenchman)...I mean, the frenchman and his mistress (she's not a wife, you heard there's no love involved...:P)...they were on for such a small insignificant little part...it seems like they designed the whole "subway station" thing just to have an excuse to bring those characters back...there should be no excuse to bring them back...they should be a KEY FACTOR to the plot...

Now on some Judeo-Christian links...the frenchman is obviously the devil...seemingly in control of the underworld...Persephone is his mistress...(no religious link here...all eye-candy...she shoulda wore the same thing in part 2...:P)...the Architect is God...who decides to scrap everything and restart again when things don't work...another reference, is that the original Matrix was created as a paradise (Adam & Eve)...but it didn't work (Adam eats forbidden fruit)...the Oracle is the Holy Spirit that guides Neo...Neo is Jesus...who is the "one" and DIES in the end...I don't know if its symbolic or not...but when the machine is slowly dragging Neo...his arms are extended out...with his legs together, as if he had been crucified...then there's Seraph...in reference to Seraphim (perhaps more specifically to the Seraphim named Seraphiel)...this is highest order of angels...the statement, "the angel without wings" seems to confirm this...Seraphim typically have six wings...

Another analogy...is that the Matrix represents Corporate America...we, as humans, wither away working most of the days of our lives...with no end in sight...for what purpose...to better ourselves???...BULLSHIT!!...we devote our time and energy to sustain corrupt corporations...who benefit so much and reimburse us with so little...yet, we blindly cannot see beyond our own personal and greedy ambitions...just as the Matrix uses humans as batteries...

Then there's the computer analogy...but that's too damn obvious...;)

dAN

Posted by dAN @ 11/12/2003 02:11 PM EST

maybe The Machine using Neo makes sense if we think of him as a "broadband connection" while all the other humans are only the equivalent of Dial Up.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/13/2003 01:18 AM EST

In reading people's reviews of the movie I don't think there's much for me to say. Things people didn't like, I did. Things people didn't feel or believe in the movie, I did. Whatever. Just a difference of opinion.

I think my favourite part of the movie was the open-ended-ness of it all. The fact that it didn't just spell everything out for you, it leaves things unanswered so you can think about it on your own and come up with your own thoughts about things.

Posted by Romer @ 11/13/2003 01:45 AM EST

Heheh, to Shawnathan. People here do know me, but not my identity.

As to the psuedo christian links, this was already established in the first movie. Neo dies, but is brought back to life. His last scene you see him flying towards the sky.

THis is a direct analogy to the death, resurection and ascension of christ to the kingdom of heaven. Nothing new Here.

Posted by Narsil (---> now will be called Metatron) @ 11/13/2003 07:25 AM EST

Hey Narsil...aren't you supposed to be standing in line for LOTR-3?...I thought it was time to move on with life?...

If you hadn't noticed...I was just wrapping up various links to Judeo-Christianism...nowhere did I mention that it was first introduced in part 3...

Posted by dAN @ 11/13/2003 02:22 PM EST

"If you hadn't noticed...I was just wrapping up various links to Judeo-Christianism...nowhere did I mention that it was first introduced in part 3..."

Nor did you mention that you were wrapping up links to said religion.

Posted by Metatron @ 11/13/2003 04:28 PM EST

I mentioned Judeo-Christian links in the original post...

As for wrapping up links, its implied...by being the final installment of the trilogy and having seen all three movies...I'm kinda "wrapping it all up"...n'est pas?...

"Must I guide you from A to B to C, so that your puny mind can comprehend?" Q (TNG)

Posted by dAN @ 11/13/2003 04:53 PM EST

I've read in several places that The Matrix has christian ties. Apparently "Zion" is the name of the last city of man in the bible and Morpheus' ship is named after something in the bible as well.

My favorite interpretation (because its something I would have never thought) so far is by Harry Knowles of ain't-it-cool who thinks that The Machine is like like the U.S./capitalism while the human rebels are like terrorists trying to undo a great country and Neo would be Osama Bin Laden, the one who can stop all this fighting by giving himself up.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/13/2003 09:24 PM EST

sorry dan. one of the people i saw the movie with referred to the guy as mouse, so i thought that was him *shrugs* i haven't seen reloaded in a while, so i'd forgotten that he was killed.

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/14/2003 06:38 PM EST

AHHHH!...Mouse was killed in part 1 Shawn...:P!!!

Posted by dAN @ 11/14/2003 08:17 PM EST

which one was Mouse?

I honestly also thought that the Kid was called Mouse. I'll have to watch those couple of scenes in Reloaded where he appears.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/14/2003 08:39 PM EST

I don't think I really ever picked up on the Judeo-Christian parallels...and I was raised Catholic! Hah. Well, I did pick up on the Biblical names: Zion; and Nebuchadnezar, who was, umm, 'somebody' in the Bible...

Mouse was the skinny kid from Morpheus' crew, who died in Matrix 1. 'The Kid' from Matrix 3 is a character introduced in the Animatrix.

As for my humble opinion about Revolutions, hmmm, I was a little disappointed. The dialogue was sometimes painfully bad and hokey. And it took a different direction than what I was expecting at the conclusion of Reloaded. (By the way, I liked Reloaded, even though it was a top-heavy, effects-bloated flick.) At the end of Reloaded, the theories I came up with as to what was going on were alot more interesting than the actual direction that Revolutions took ,IMHO.
What I was expecting, especially because Neo was starting to show powers in the "real world", was that all the "free humans" were still in the Matrix and didn't know it. Zion and the "real world" would just be a sub-system of the Matrix created to appease the humans who were rejecting the Matrix and wanting freedom. So in fact, Neo could have discovered that no human had ever escaped the Matrix. That would better explain how there have been multiple Zions and multiple 'Ones'/saviors, like Neo. And it could have made Neo the first 'One' to ever accomplish the TRUE freeing of the human people from the Matrix...

And in the end, I didn't want to see 'peace' between the machines and humans. I wanted to see the reign of the machines come to an end, the world returned to the humans, the Matrix completely unplugged and the freeing of ALL the human race! So at the end of the movie, I didn't feel so much 'victory', but more like 'stale-mate'.

Anyway, I've rambled enuf...

Posted by Dion @ 11/15/2003 02:22 AM EST

I would have been very unhappy if it was revealed that the 'real world' was just another layer of the matrix. That kind of redundancy would make the sequel feel just like the original. "omg, the world isn't real".

After thinking about it a bit, I think the peace is the best way to end the series. War started because humans couldn't accept machines as equals and now we have peace because the machines have decided to accept humans as equals.

Posted by Rayne @ 11/15/2003 03:37 AM EST

"After thinking about it a bit, I think the peace is the best way to end the series. War started because humans couldn't accept machines as equals and now we have peace because the machines have decided to accept humans as equals." [as posted by Rayne]

I guess I can start to accept that, especially when seen within the context of the history revealed in the Animatrix...whatever that two-part story was called. I know that I found the atrocities committed against the machines were just as shocking as the atrocities the machines committed against the humans...

Posted by Dion @ 11/15/2003 11:31 AM EST

dan: I SUCK!

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/16/2003 03:36 PM EST

who was the kid they showed in reloaded? i thought there was a kid in that one... i SWEAR there was...

i'm going to have to watch all those again and get the complete story straight

ACK! *attacked by MSN people* du du DA!

Posted by shawnathan @ 11/16/2003 03:40 PM EST

The kid in Reloaded who was following Neo around like a puppy is the same kid that's in Revolutions. I think he's only known as "The Kid", and he was introduced in "The Animatrix", in the short called "The Kid", appropriately enuf...

Posted by Dion @ 11/16/2003 06:07 PM EST

Dion is correct...

Posted by dAN @ 11/16/2003 07:08 PM EST

Come to my new blog http://rockstarstuff.blogspot.com/

Posted by l'Ane @ 11/19/2003 11:34 AM EST