Eshin Direct

The final installment of the Matrix series by the Wachowski brothers. Neo finds himself trapped in dangerous in-between space called the “train station” while Trinity and Morpheus confront the Merovingian in an attempt to free Neo. In the meantime, the machines continue their assault on the city of Zion and Mr. Smith is able to break-out of the Matrix and manifest himself in the real world. Can the machines and Mr. Smith be stopped?

A poor sequel to the original Matrix film but serves as a conclusion of sorts. Good CGI work that doesn’t make up for the poor plot and storyline.

Right, I went to see the Matrix last night. I realize that some of you haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet, so I’ll try to keep this review as obscure as possible to prevent spoiling for you. I didn’t like Matrix Revolutions. There I said it. I’m ashamed almost to have my site in the style of the Matrix anymore after seeing the third installment of the Neo and Trinity’s saga.

From my point of view, the Matrix trilogy went from “Great, what a mind blower” to “Hmm, okay crap effects and some really piss poor cliches but it leaves enough questions unanswered to merit a viewing of the final saga.” to “Oh my God, you’ve just lost the plot.”

The film did better in the action department and special effects. It had a big battle scene in there that was worthy enough to be called interesting. But this was probably the highpoint of the film. It was climatic and exciting which an end battle should be in this sort of genre. But as the film’s only saving grace, it meant that the film lost the point of the original Matrix and that was to challenge our thinking and concept of the world. The second film was beginning to show this loss of focus but the third film was the coup de grace.

My biggest beef with the film was that the dialogue was atrocious. No really, it was one cliche after another. Whoever wrote it should seriously consider another line of work because I would be embarrassed to even claim I had a hand in it. Or maybe was that the point? Deja vu was rationalised in the first film as a glitch in the Matrix. In Revolutions, too many times you would know that what the next line was going to be. It was just too predictable. Where it wasn’t predictable, it was almost comic. I couldn’t keep myself from pissing myself in the cinema with laughter. I’m surprised no-one else did.

Ignoring the cheesy dialogue, the concepts presented to the audience were almost like a side note, one believing that they’d spent most of their time and budget on the effects rather than actually sitting down and getting a good story out with some thought provoking stimulus. Maybe I expected too much from Revolutions but to be fair, they did raise my expectations with one and two. The producers should have known that after the first two, people would have been smart enough to come with some clever speculations to what it was all about.

Alas, the whole ending and questions answered were a let down on appalling levels. My own speculations at the end of Reloaded and the speculations of one of my friends, Gottfried, before seeing Revolutions were more of intelligently thought out. Instead of giving us some interesting observation on life, I found myself letting out a sigh of relief that the film had finally taken it’s last breath on its tortured existence.

Revolutions should have focused more on concept development and good storytelling rather than tried to impress us with heroic acts and impressive graphics. This is not what impressed people when they first walked out of seeing Matrix 1. It was a clever observation of our own real world that we are all slave to a machine or system, and that sometimes we need to go beyond what we know as truth and reality. Not the martial arts. Not the clever slowdown effects. Not even the love story. Reloaded and Revolutions were definitely an opportunity wasted to do some great work. Animatrix is the closest thing that came to qualifying as a sequel.

Redeeming factors include two things. SEMI-SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.

One, the idea that one of the most powerful weapon in mankind’s psyche is the concept of choice. This was alluded to in Reloaded and suggested again in Revolutions. But instead of playing it out as a concept or even as the ultimate winning point, it was summarily dismissed. Again, focus too much on the special effects and fight scenes rather than make a point.

Two, in the fight scene between Neo and Agent Smith, a whole ton of of Smith’s sit there watching passively while the fight plays out. (Okay, that’s not much of surprise is it?). While I was watching it on screen, I actually panned out in my own vision and realized that everyone in the cinema was doing exactly the same thing as all the other Mr. Smiths. You have to watch the film to understand my point, but I realized that in a way, it still made the same point about mankind being a slave to the machine. But I somehow doubt that the film makers, writers and producers intended that to be profound spark of that scene.

So, by all means go and watch the film. You really have to if you like to know the end to things. However, I remain firmly rooted in the idea that it was a shameful piece of work.

Tags: Movies