Hey folks, Harry here... still waiting for a legitimate positive review of MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. Early word has not been pretty. Variety's Review is pretty ugly. Now here's Mirajeff who had the distinct honor of seeing MATRIX REVOLUTIONS on the IMAX Screen in New York City. If ever there was a situation to be blown away by, it'd be seeing it this way... Unfortunately, this isn't very pretty. Beware of many spoilers below...
Harry, Mirajeff here. Had to pass myself off as the Promotions Director for a college radio station to get into this screening, so please, please, please print this review. Congrats on the producing credit.
A Not-So Revolutionary War Hype. It sells tabloid magazines, rewards 18 year-olds with $100 million-dollar shoe contracts, and propels blockbuster movies to their record-breaking opening weekends at the box office. The latter will probably be the case come Wednesday, November 5th, when the hype dies down and the final truth is revealed to fans of The Matrix trilogy. The Matrix Revolutions kicks off its worldwide celebration at 6:00 a.m. here in New York, with some theaters opening their doors early to accommodate hordes of students hoping to see the film before morning classes. Alas, the hype is nothing to buy into, as it rarely is, with this latest installment in the groundbreaking sci-fi series closer resembling its entertaining yet ultimately disappointing predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded, rather than the instant-classic original.
Back are all the main players from Reloaded, including Keanu Reeves as Zion's only hope of survival, Neo. When we last saw Neo, he was caught in another dimension, somewhere between the world of the Matrix and that of the Machines. Standing dutifully by his comatose body are Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), the Phil Jackson to Neo's Kobe, and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), back to challenge Kill Bill's Uma Thurman for the title of baddest-ass chick at the multiplex.
At the outset of Revolutions Neo seems to be stuck at the Train Station, a Purgatory of sorts within the Matrix. It is where programs go when they face deletion and it is controlled by none other than the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), who we saw flexing his muscles in Reloaded. The first action sequence, and frankly isn't that what most of us have been waiting six months for, is a visual stunner, most akin to the bullet-riddled showdown in the lobby scene of the first film. The device that sets the scene apart from others in the series is its use of the ceiling as a floor, with the Merovingian's anonymous cronies shattering all concepts of gravity within the Matrix, effortlessly running around upside-down.
Once Neo and Trinity are reunited, they share a passionate embrace and one brief kiss. These obligatory love scenes are littered throughout Revolutions, often times with Reeves and Moss just going through the motions, kissing and holding each other, as if the thing that The One has needed all along is just a hug.
Soon, Neo goes to see the Oracle, who was revealed in Reloaded to be a program, just like Neo. They are well-concocted programs of the Matrix, casting doubt upon the numerous prophecies the Oracle reveals, as well as in Neo's ability to save the free world and stop the war between man and machine. The Oracle promises, "Every beginning has an end," and that she will be there until "The End" alongside Neo, whether Zion's prayers are answered and he succeeds, or Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) prevails. While newcomer Mary Alice does a fair job of filling in for the irreplaceable Gloria Foster as the Oracle, the scenes between her and Neo are full of analytical psycho-babble and other mumbo-jumbo that bogs down the film. There were simply too many back and forth cutesy questions, in regards to "what it all means." I understand the importance of these scenes and why they are necessary to the film, but in its attempts to explain the mysteries Reloaded presented us, Revolutions only succeeds in confusing its audience more.
By the film's conclusion, loose ends are wrapped up, but lingering questions remain, specifically about the concept of the Matrix and how the war between man and machine broke out.
As directors, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski have finally mastered the subtlety of their craft, though on first viewing, little seems subtle in the world of the Matrix. One particularly dramatic scene between Neo and Trinity, in which raw emotion, not CGI, is showcased, is handled perfectly by the duo. They may have even wrung a few tears out of me, though The Hours this is not. The Wachowskis, along with Visual Effects Supervisor John Gaeta and Fight Choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, have been credited with giving the action/sci-fi genre a much needed facelift. In Revolutions they up the ante even higher, especially in a dazzling sequence known as the Super Burly Brawl.
In the original Burly Brawl in Reloaded, we watched as Neo fought off an army of computer-generated Agent Smiths. The sequence was unlike anything else ever captured on screen. In Revolutions, the battle between good and evil takes to the air, as Neo and Agent Smith square off in a rainy showdown, the sidewalks lined with synchronized Smith clones. However, the fight doesn't last long, and the film's ultimate conclusion left a sour taste in my mouth. It was satisfying to some degree, but I still had so many questions and wanted to see so much else explored, that the film couldn't possibly live up to the hype its studio has created around it.
CGI is given the majority of the workload here, forcing all of Revolutions' characters to become mere supporting actors to the spectacle of technology onscreen. Reloaded was interesting because it introduced so many new characters, so our emotional investment in the film was significantly raised. Here however, the characters are either glazed over or completely missing, their screen time given to characters like Bane, Zee, the Kid, and a seemingly endless army of sentinels. The Merovingian makes a cameo, along with his wife Persephone (Monica Bellucci), one of the most beautiful actresses working in film today. The albino twins that graced the amazing freeway scene in Reloaded are not even mentioned in this script. Not to mention, it feels like we are supposed to know information that the Wachowskis only included in their videogame, "Enter the Matrix," a marketing ploy that hoped to see me shell out another 50 bucks on confusing meta-mumbo jumbo and pixel-y graphics.
If it sounds like I hated The Matrix Revolutions, I promise that I didn't. It's a good, entertaining popcorn movie whose visual eye candy will be mimicked onscreen for the next ten years. It is also a recipe for a great sci-fi film, alas one that is a little too heavy on the frosting. With another few dashes of screenwriting, and less sugary spectacle, The Matrix could have been the Star Wars trilogy for our internet-driven generation. As it turned out, the Revolution was televised, and its computer-enhanced story needed to take a commercial break.
Harry here... ultimately - this sounds a lot like the way I felt about MATRIX RELOADED. I liked it, but craved more character work, better more emotionally involving action sequences, except here... it also seems that any real sense of resolution is missing, which could be profoundly disappointing for those that expected this film to wrap up the story. Hopefully, I'll be seeing it soon.
