Hey folks, Harry here -- After the positive reviews on MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, it was bound to happen at some point, well... here comes the "other side of the story" a brutal and unforgiving look at the Wachowski's Swan Song to Neo and the crew of the Neb... Beware of many spoilers and of heart ache and mental anxiety by reading the following. I could crush your soul...
Harry, et al:
I saw Matrix: Revolutions today and cannot believe the positive reviews you've run on your site thus far.
I liked Matrix but found it pretentious and a bit obvious. I loved Matrix: Reloaded because I looked at it as a rollercoaster ride an ignored the horrid "rave" scene and the ponderous and tedious Architect's spiel and the contrived 'deep' stuff ... but Revolutions was pure and simple ... a DISASTER!!!
It was so awful, I felt all yucky after the movie ended and just wanted new sensory inputs to wash away that BAAAAD movie (a margarita helped). The W brothers made every single wrong choice to wrap up the trilogy! The lamest part of the story - Zion - became the focus - the time spent in the Matrix in Revolutions is maybe twenty minutes.
At the end of Reloaded we were left with a some possibilities to ponder: Are there LAYERS of reality since now Neo could do something that would defy the laws of physics in the real world (stopping those stupid dreadlocked red-eyed machines with his mind) and will we find out that Morpheus, Trinity, the Oracle and Zion are just another layer of programming? Must Neo push deeper to get at the truth - past the Architect? Will the Matrix prove to be some deep subconscious, with layers of hell? Or, like in Dallas, is it all a dream and Neo wakes up at his computer where we first find him, wondering - was it real? OR ... do our heroes beat the machines and break the cycle and at the end, after penetrating the deeper layers of reality to wake - for the FIRST TIME from their pods to the real reality?
No such luck folks ... the most obvious and hackneyed story choices are where the W brothers take Revolutions. Don't bother fastening your seatbelts moviegoers, it's a pretty tame and predictable ride.
The cool greens of the Matrix give way to the gray and rust colors of twisted metal in Zion (all that technology but no one has a clean or untorn shirt?). What needs to get explained doesn't get explained (why do they rely on so much technology and computers in Zion - why can't the machines penetrate their computers? Where do they shower? Get their food? Why is there so much time to have formal meetings and discuss everything in ponderous tones when imminent threats are upon them?). In the real world of Zion and places related, the laws of physics are defied again and again in lame attempts to amp up the drama. Morpheus is a passive bore in this film, and the dialogue of the film is so clunky it is beyond campy to the point of being just plain stupid in places. I laughed out loud a few times at how bad - and utterly predictable - the movie was.
Those walking robot-things the Zion defenders us to shoot at the dreadlocked robots: been there, did that in Aliens (only Sigourney Weaver's was yellow). The moving-mouth machine intelligence: evokes Star Trek V.
Again and again ideas were mined from other films, and not the best films either. The fight sequences fall strangely flat. Not one was the visceral spectacle that they were in Matrix and M:ReLoaded. They are actually rather tedious since no new element is introduced.
The pacing is way off, the film feels like a long train journey through not very interesting countryside - it just plods along with poor connection between scenes - particularly in the first 40 minutes.
And now to Agent Smith. He started out as merely the lead element of the sentry program to protect the Matrix from rogues like Neo in the first film. He broke free at the end of that film and evolved independence in Reloaded. We were left wondering where he would take his freedom - on a quest for absolute power? - could he evolve and turn to join Neo's revolutionaries? - would he self-destruct? - would he cut a deal with Neo or the Architect so long as he could remain free? Nope. The W brothers decided to shift the evil from the machine intelligence to Smith. Now he is the villain and the focus of both the Matrix and Neo. Now Smith matters most to saving Zion. How and why exactly? Lamest choice of them all. And the big finale, the fight between Smith and Neo - anti-climactic. The bigger scale of the fight makes it look like a videogame and not a movie. Let's not forget Agent Smith's ability to take over a human in the real world and Neo's new abilities. If this is the real world, then are these two entities (one man, one machine) religious deities? How else could Smith place part of his machine consciousness into a human being and how else could Neo stop machines with the force of his will? It's never explained. There is a weak tag at the end which alludes to a possible fourth film.
The subplot of the MongrelVariant (or whatever that stupid name was) falls flat, as does the subplot with the Oracle (does she infect the infector? It's not clearly drawn ... and her appearance at the end of the final fight scene - out of nothing ... again, not neatly connected visually to resolve it for the viewer ... had she been hiding in Smith? Then why was the pit shown empty when the Smiths turned white and disappeared? Where did she come from then?).
In Revolutions the puppet-strings are showing ... the desire to have the film look hip and create a cool factor merely comes across as contrived and lame (the whole club scene of rotating positions with their guns by Trinity and Morpheus just looks silly).
RRRrrrrr. The movie was such a disappointment. I'm so glad I didn't pay for it. Interesting ideas could have been explored ... the whole notion of layers of reality was brilliantly explored in season 3 of Lexx ... and Matrix could have mined the same territory, but it took the easy way out - a simple physical battle between man and machine - and the striking of a bargain to end the war - for now.
Go see the movie, the folks at Time-Warner need the movie revenue, but a good movie this ain't.
sign me,
Radii314
Then there is the following. If you wish to preserve ANY MYSTERY at all... DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING - this is a highly detailed review of the film. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED... Do not continue to read if you do not wish to know...
harry-
i eeked out this huge, spoiler filled review of The Matrix Revolutions. it's been posted on several Matrix-oriented sites, so it's been cruising the nether for a while, but here it is- the way i posted it online.
"Prof. Faber"
sites that carry the script(most of it is on one site, but the ending is on another):
http://www.matrixcommunity.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000719
http://www.thelastfreecity.com/zionswitchboard/messageview.cfm?start=0&catid=40&threadid=18748
i did leave some of the stuff out, since i'm not spoiling the entire film. but in part, that's just about the entire film.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" that's right. you'll say it too when you step out of the cinema on november 5th. i shit you not.
if The Matrix Revolutions doesn't walk away with the Oscar for best VFX, the world will stop spinning, and we'll all be flung into space.
Neo is trapped at the Mobile Avenue stop, and he talks to the little girl and her parents. the dude is the program that runs the battery-factory, and the chick is another program that works with him... but their daughter is just a plain old program, that doesn't have a real purpose.
this is a bad thing in the machine world, since if something has no purpose, it's trimmed away. the "parents" don't want to lose their daughter, whom they love(it's just a word attached to a greater meaning), and so the guy had to go see the Merovingean to get his daughter smuggled inside the Matrix(that's the meeting that was happening before Mero's chit-chat with the resistance).
Trainman(i really didn't want this gu! y to be called "trainman" because i'd read a scriptment for the film, and i about puked) is one of Mero's underlings... smuggling rogue programs into the Matrix. he creater Mobile Ave., and it's rules, and gives Neo a good sucker-punch, and leaves with the family.
Neo sits around. and sits some more, and then thinks about possibly leaving through the tunnel. he runs off the left frame, only to run back into frame on the right side of the screen. Neo says "Shit!" and, ha-ha! everyone has a laugh.
meanwhile, the crew of the Neb is on the Hammer, and they're looking for Niobe. while they're looking, they get a call from Seraph, and Morpheus and Trinity jack in to visit the Oracle.
here's the part i hated most. they changed the Oracle- i know it's because Gloria Foster died, but... it's a matter of asthetics. meh- on with the story.
they see the Oracle, and at first are dismayed that she's changed, but they know that they have to talk to Mero to get Neo back! , so they're going to Club Hel.
enter Seriph: walking down an alley of cars in a parking garage. the bouncers all see him, "You've got to be kidding me..." and "Hey- it's 'wingless'." the bouncers talk tough, but they didn't anticipate that Seraph would bring Trinity and Morpheus, and the bouncers are dispatched.
this is one of the coolest parts of the film: the threesome takes the elevator "down," as Seraph pushed the red button that reads "HEL." and tells Trinity and Morpheus that there might be a few guys checking for guns when they reach their floor...
a few... guys with guys... it's not so bad as you might think at first, but then- this place isn't normal. the room's code allows people to walk on the cieling, and all the action is fucking great. think "The Lobby" from M1 on crack... and this is just the "armory" part of the club.
the threesome then enters the actual club, and do a little dance through the "freaks," until Merovingean sees them on ! the floor from his little spot upstairs, and has the music cut. he has them give up their weapons, but tells them that they can all walk out alive after their meeting.
Mero is great in this sceen, and delivers his ultimatum: he wants something that supposedly cannot be taken, but must be given away... Seraph winces at this, and Mero delivers, "Bring me the eyes of the Oracle, and you can have your saviour."
"I don't have time for this shit," comes from Trinity, and the threesome kick some ass, whilst Mero and Persephony watch. Trinity catches a gun that's been flung haplessly into the air, and puts it to Mero's head. then everyone brings guns around, and it's time for Trinity's ultimatum: bring me Neo, and i don't kill you all.
because Mero's such a nice guy, he has the Trainman take Trinity to get Neo, and they visit the Oracle again. Neo whines that she should have told him about the Architect, about the previous Ones, about the source... and the Oracle tells h! im bluntly- "you weren't ready yet." Neo whines some more about "who decides when i'm ready?" and the Oracle points to her sign Timet Nosce, and Neo realizes that he only wanted to know what he needed for the here and now.
the Oracle has the little girl(the abstract program), and is now watching after her, and everything is kinda happy for now.
Neo jacks out, and everyone on the Hammer start talking about ways to get back to Zion with the two ships to possibly help.
BANE! i almost forgot. he wakes up and the capt of the Hammer questions him about what happened on his ship and why an EMP went off early. he says that he doesn't remember anything, and cannot tell if he's himself...
more discussion about the route to take back to Zion, when Neo bursts in and tells the crew that he knows what he needs to do- he needs one of the ships to get to the machine city. the capt of the Hammer thinks that Neo is crazy, and won't give his ship up- but Niobe ! hands her ship over to Neo.
Bane stabs the medic, and sneaks abourd Niobe's ship while all of the ammunition is transfered to the Hammer, and then the Hammer leaves for Zion. they realize all to late that Bane is gone, but can't turn back because they need to get to Zion and if Bane kills Neo and Trinity, but uses his EMP to take out the Hammer, all is lost.
cut to the Logos- Neo and Trinity are about to get underway, when the power is cut somehow. Trinity gets up to check it out, and Bane knocks some sense into her. Neo comes to investigate, and after dropping Trinity down a access hatch, Bane confronts Neo. Neo isn't quite getting that Smith is Bane, but it quickly comes to a head when Bane uses a severed cable to stab Neo in the eyes. thus, Neo's bandage in the trailer...
Bane gets up, and realizing that Neo is blind, plays cat and mouse- moving further back in the ship while Neo gropes around helpless. Bane is all set up to whack Neo in the skull with a tire ! iron(hey- it looks like a friggan tire iron, ok), when Neo says. "I can see you." cut to the 'Smith on fire' shot, and Bane/Smith starts swinging, only Neo ducks, dodges, and catches Bane/Smith's arms up, break them down, and then Neo uses the tire iron to bash Bane/Smith's head apart. the bashing takes place in the "fire world" that Neo can now see in his blindness. exxxxxxcellent.
whew- that's a lot of stuff, right? pfft. that's the halfway mark. i thought i'd be done by now- damn, but it's fun.
ok. the Oracle. she's hanging out in her appartment still, and sends Seraph out with the kid, but the elevator doesn't work, and Seraph does to the stairwell, only to see Smith(s) coming up the stairs.
he heads back towards the Oracle's appartment, but goes inside another one instead. the Smiths follow them, and here you have Smith talking to the little girl, "I'm not so bad, once you get to know me." and cut to black. CUT TO BLACK!!! WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?! i k! now- but they did it, so we don't know about them...
cut to the Oracle's appartment. the Smiths are filing into the kitchen, and the 'leader-Smith' starts in on the Oracle about how she's supposed to be all-knowing... so he throws her platter of cookies against the wall and shouts, "Did you know i was going to do that?!" Maritas will love Mr. Weaving in this film. he's a riot.
anyways, a clever exchange follows where Smith calls the Oracle "mom," thus ends the "mother of the Matrix" debate. the Oracle is the mother. Smith then takes over the Oracle, and now we have a super-Smith, who the other Smiths are afraid of because of his power. there's a CGI shot of Smith taking over the Oracle which is great. and the Smith laugh... omg.
ok. here it is: the 14 minute, $40 million scene.
it's the Hammer, trying to sneak by a bunch of Sentinels, but the bottom scrapes, and the Sentinels hear it. now think FFotO in realtime.you've got a ship with he! r crew racing for Zion, guns blazing like there's no tomorrow, and a shitload of Sentinels coming in for the kill. they go straight for the antenna, so communication goes down.
cut to Zion. everyone is getting ready for the showdown, and even Zee is making rockets to use in the battle. Capt Mafoney(sp?) gives a speach to his mechanized troops, and they all start looking to the roof of the docking bay for signs of the drills.
the first drill breaks on cue, and we have a storm of shellspouring from the mechs, while Sentinel parts are dropping from the sky. eventually, they tear a bigger hole by concentrating their fire on the small opening, and some Sentinels get through and start running amuck. then more get through, and you have a major situation that's been FUBAR'd.
the kid can be seen here, making ammo runs to the mechs, and he's got a lot on his mind with the speech he was given by Mafoney before the battle.
back and forth, we cut from the Hammer to ! Zion, ain't it's not looking pretty for either party. Zee is running around with Sinead O'Connor(not really, but she looks the part), and they're firing rockets into the legs of the drills to knock them down. yay! they got one!
the Hammer is getting close to Zion, and the guys in Zion's main control area can see her coming, but can't communicate with her. the signature is one of a Zionist ship, but no confirmation on the actual identity yet...
meanwhile, the Hammer is getting pounded by Niobe's driving, and the guns are still blazing...
capt. Mafoney is one of the last mechs standing, and the Sentinels are looking like a huge school of fish as they fly to and fro, but he's holding his own. the Kid is sent out to refill his ammo stores, and does is quite bravely, when the Sentinels overwhelm his mech, and slice his face up. and now he looks like shit. really. you'll gasp at his face.
with his dieing breath, he tells the Kid to get to one of teh bay door! s to open it, and he hops in, takes control, and gets the thing running- only to be knocked over by a lone Sentinel- but Zee saves the day, and uses an EMP-gun to disable the Sentinel. the Kid then uses the machine gun to spray the chain that holds the door in place(it's a large bike chain), and the door is opening...
the Hammer is bearing down on the door, and Niobe turns the ship on it's side and it slams through the door. at this point, the Sentinels knew it was coming, and are headed for the two holes in the roof, but it's too late, as Link hits the EMP and slaughters every Sentinel in the vicinity.
HOLY SHIAT, THAT WAS FRIGGAN AWESOME!
but General Locke isn't pleased, because the EMP knocked out his defences(what was left of them... not much), and sends them to the council. they relate their story and tell the council that Neo and Trinity are on their way to the machine city.
cut to the Logos. Trinity and Neo come to the surface... we have the fet! us-field in the foreground, and the battery pillars in the background. Neo can see the entire area in his fiery vision, and it's soo cool. like, totally, Ted!
he tells Trinity to head for the three electric cables, and follow them to the machine city...
and that's it for now... haha. i have to go to work. i'll be back in about nine hours to finish it up
ok guys, here's the last of it:
i left off with the Logos heading away from the fetus-fields, and as they approach some mountains, we can see the mountains actually lifting into the air. they're not mountains at all- in the terra firma sense we know mountains as, but they're actually machine battleships- the last line of defense to keep rebels from approaching the machine city.
they lift up off the ground, and we see them unfurling some kind of tubing... remember the Sentinel's bombs from Reloaded? ! these battleships start spitting the bombs out at an insane pace, so that there are literally millions of the little buggers flying directly at the Logos.
Neo can see all this with his "vision," and holds out his hand- now the bombs don't simply stop on command, but they explode. the first wave anyway, but there are thousands still hurtling at breakneck speed right at the Logos. Neo keeps blowing them up, but complains that there are too many of them, and starts to pass out.
some Sentinels sweep in from above, and start in on the kill, but Neo blows some of them up as well. Trinity realizes the futility of going straight for the battleships, and so Neo tells her to pull up.
here's where the shot of the moon comes into play guys: as they climb into the clouds, the lightning dispatches the Sentinels, and they fall away, but it also kills the engines of the Logos- though it has enough momentum to break the clouds, and we see the Logos jump like a whale through t! he darkness into light...
they see the sun, and then gravity kicks in... and we're falling... falling.... through the clouds, and we see the machine city. but the engines are dead. Trinity gets them started, but only in time to plunge the ship directly into a tower.
Trinity is impaled, but tells Neo to go on. Neo walks out to an opening that views the machine city, and there are little machines scurryint all around him. until there's a blast of lightning, and the little bots realize something big is coming.
it's V-GER. not really. it's the trippy head thing, minus the face. a bunch of mini-sentinels swarm out around Neo, and Neo tells it that he wants to speak, and then the machine can decide if he dies. the mini-sentinels form up into the "face," and we see the nature of the beast.
Neo gives his schpiel, and gets plugged in.
cut to The Matrix: Neo is walking down a street, and it's raining. cats, dogs, manatees, sheep. it's just raining! .
Neo confronts super-Smith(the Smith/Oracle combo), and they beat the crap out of each other. well, Smith ends up beating the crap out of Neo.
the turn of the fight comes with Smith(while flying) punching Neo, and then following after him, and grappling him... flying straight into the ground, "cratering" Neo.
as Smith stands there in his moment of glory, he sees that Neo is still breathing, and fighting for control of his body, willing it to get up.
Smith lays into Neo about they "why." "why do you do it to yourself? for love? it's an illusion!"
"because i choose to..." spouts Neo. they begin to duke it out again, cutting to a quasi-bullet time of Neo's fist impacting on Smith's face...
Neo punches Smith into the wall of the crater, and he disappears down a shaft, but he's still surrounded by the multitude of Smiths...
there's rumbling, and super-Smith emerges from the ground, and goes in for the kill, pounding on Neo. he lifts N! eo over his head, and punches him in the gut, sending Neo flying against the rubble of the crater...
Smith: "no- i remember this part. you're there, and i'm standing... here. and then i say... something, what is it? 'Everything that has a begining, has an end'" we now have a Smith that's conflicted... literally.
Neo realizes what's happening, and stands up. Smith goes in for the kill once more, only this time, cloning himself onto The One. no joke. it happens, people.
super-Smith(Smith/Oracle) to Smith/Neo: "is it over?" the uber-Smith grins, and we cut to the machine city.
Neo's body, which has been supported by machine tentacles kind of like a elevated bed, is flailing as Smith takes over, and he dies. the "head" machine realizes what has happened, and surges power through Neo.
uber-Smith explodes, as do every one of the clones. the Oracle is now lying in the crater...
next we see her( i skipped something here), she's in the park with ! the little girl, and Seraph, and the Architect strides up.
he has a short exchange with the Oracle, and she asks him "what about those that want to be freed?"
Architect: "of course i'll keep my word. do you think i'm human?"
THE FUCKING END
