The Matrix Revolutions (Widescreen) (2 Discs)

 

 

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The Matrix Trilogy must be one of the most significant films of our time, and is likely to go down as an all time sci-fi classic along with the likes of Blade Runner. It is obviously laden with symbology fished from a variety of sources, but I wonder if the Watchowski brothers realised just exactly how powerful a metaphor for our reality they were creating.

The central premise that our lives are not 'real' but are steeped in illusion in order that our life force may be fed upon whilst we are enfenced unwittingly like cattle - this is a relevant and powerful message on many levels. It can easily be seen that this is true on a superficial level, with the rampant rise of ultra-aggressive capitalist consumerism, whereby everyone is 'sold a dream' in order to siphon off all income to profit the few, but it goes deeper than that, and can be used to catch a glimpse of some ideas on the true nature of reality. The overlap with material such as Castaneda is remarkable, with stories about the archetypal predator who is invisible, and feeds on us because he has 'given us his mind'. In all, it is a striking metaphor for the human condition.

Of course the great thing is that, even if you don't want to explore things to those levels, taken at surface value as a piece of entertainment, the Matrix is still a fantastic sci-fi/action trilogy, with colourful characters, awesome visuals, and a solid original plotline. Taken as a trilogy, this is a fantastic piece of film-making artwork, though for me, this third episode is the weakest of the three, as the story gradually dissolves into excessive desperate violence, so for that reason I give it 4 stars. But don't get me wrong, it is still a very strong film and beats many other modern sci-fi efforts hands down. It just has a very high level of expectation to live up to, given the beginning of the trilogy.

Watching this is equivalent to being served my own excrement on a dinner plate. Cold. And a few days old.

As with any genre, science fiction (sf) has certain themes which lesser writers have used so often they've degenerated into cliches or parody. Time travel is the most obvious. Berman's Star Trek used time travel so often it's become a joke. That the last two NexGen movies discarded it altogether is proof that this hoary cliche has been exhausted.
The other great theme of the genre is the 'revolt of/from the machines, a time when our own creations would achieve sentience and attempt to destroy us. This goes back to Colossus of the Sixties, Battlestar Galactica in the Seventies and the 2000s. Even the first hacker movie "War Games" central theme was that of a sentient computer run wild, the human element removed from the loop.
The Machine theme resonates more everyday. Technology begins to speed past the limits of the comprehensible, invades literally every corner of our lives, from the most public to the most private acts,
The reliance on ever more sophisticated computers grows geometrically despite the fluctuations of the business cycles. Every year, nearly every day, some new gadget is proffered even if there is tangible reason for its existence or purpose. Even though our most sophisticated computers are still nothing but series of switches which open and shut and greater or slower speed, "intelligent software" that which can "learn" is still really just matter of processor and bus speed. Scientists debate whether such machine intelligence is even possible. Never the less, the reassurances of the eggheads can do little against what the heart fears.
Yet the Brothers W have taken this increasingly hackneyed-but real-fear of our machines and produced the ultimate dystopia. In fact, in a tyranny so foul that even a mind of winter such as Stalin's could never have conceived it. Human beings are no longer valued for anything but units of heat and electricity. The mind is controlled, imprisoned, yet always aware, at some deep level, that the world its senses report isn't real. The Architect confirms this in "Matrix Reloaded." We are cleverly led to infer that the Oracle is in fact an "agent provocateur" whose task is to lead the resistance and Zion to destruction. The Architect also revealed that the Matrix was not two hundred, but more probably closer to six hundred years old. A grim, insane, genocidal drama, Neo learns, has been played on a ruined Earth simply to satisfy a computer's insane compulsion to solve the equation that makes mankind's slavery permanent and irresistible; "inevitable" Agent Smith might say.
In "The Matrix" we are shown a world is a nightmare scenario sending chills precisely because it is so logical. In the "The Matrix Reloaded" the lesson of looking beyond what our assumptions tell us to the real truth and we are left bewildered, like the characters, as to the motives not only of their fellow humans but now even the machines are revealed to be in conflict. It is made clear that machines can't even control themselves. Programs hack each other, create their own "constructs" and in every way add indigestible variables to the Architect's precious equation. Like all evil creatures of genius he lies by telling the truth. But which truth? Which choice?
"Revolutions" moves slowly, with the dynamism of the action scenes and the emotional intensity of the exposition, it builds to the shattering climax that must be. Zion is now directly under attack. As producer Joel Silver reveals in one of the lamer extras, "The Siege" of Zion, 17 minutes of film, cost fifty or sixty million dollars.
And every dollar was well spent. The battle scenes literally overwhelm even on computer monitors or smaller TVs. Add to this the well-acted desperation of the human fighters and you have a battlefield reality nearly as grim as Spielberg's or Arnaud's. The stalwart defense, seemingly succeeding, is crumbled in an instant when tens of thousands of sentinels literally flood Zion's ship dock like mushrooming hordes of locust. If you don't gasp at this, you may have lost your capacity for wonder.
The scene quickly exhausts superlatives. I won't spoil the ending or reveal the fate of any major characters. But in year in which ANY film would have been thrown into the shade by Jackson's completion of the "Lord of the Rings" film, "Matrix Revolutions" shouldn't be overlooked. George Lucas needs a copy of all three of these films immediately. This Star Wars fan-who's already ordered his DVD trilogy of Eps 4,5 &6 (Ewoks are just my cross to bear)-desperately hopes he's seen them. Because the W Brothers have raised the special effects bar in sf so high that only a repetition of Star Wars' groundbreaking, industry-shaking impact can he reclaim his place as Lord of SF films. Right now the title is up for grabs because we haven't seen, and won't for a year, Episode 3.
As much as I love the "Matrix", part of me is still that five year old boy, sitting in a movie theater, in awed silence, as that star destroyer fills the screen in Star War's opening shot. I had never seen anything like and I know I never will. Perhaps the "failed" expectations are ours not, not his. I know that Lucas still has a grand slam left in him, that the "kids" (hell they're my age!) do not have sole possession of the field yet. But if Ep 3 fails to exceed expectations, then the field will be wide open and the Brothers W will have it all to them selves; that and crappy, bloated comic book knockoffs.

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4.0 out of 5 stars the conclusion of the saga (3.5/5)
i found this concluding chapter of The Matrix trilogy much better than
the second installment and probably better than the first one. Read more

Published on Feb 23 2008 by falcon

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Trilogy!
I know of friends who only saw the first Matrix movie and that is a shame, as all three parts of the trilogy belong together as the journey of Neo and the change that happens to... Read more

Published on Nov 17 2007 by Aeneas

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the same as the first to but, ahhhh what the heck!
Lots of crash n' bash and smash and guns and fun! A great movie! Tons of octopus-robots, explosions, and... wahoo!
OK, down to the point. Read more

Published on Sep 16 2005

3.0 out of 5 stars On it's own it sucks. But WITH Reloaded.....
People who critisize this film are right to. However what everybody is doing is not watching it PROPERLY. Read more

Published on Jan 4 2005 by Jeff

4.0 out of 5 stars a letdown from the first 2.
well if you like bullets,lasers and explosions,this one is for you.problem is,thats it too.they go to the central core of whats holding the computer world together and rage war on... Read more

Published on July 19 2004 by abe

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly Written, overly special-effected
I would give this movie 4.5 stars if I could, but I can't. It like The Matrix Reloaded wasn't quite as good as the original, but still is a brilliantly written and important piece... Read more

Published on July 19 2004 by Daniel Udell, 13

2.0 out of 5 stars And then there were three...
The first Matrix movie was revolutionary at the time. In retrospect, almost frustratingly so(I'm sure we're all tired of directors trying to impress us with bullet speed special... Read more

Published on July 18 2004 by Naive Pegasus

3.0 out of 5 stars It was decent
When I first saw this on an IMAX screen, it was intense - I had to look away several times to avoid being overwhelmed by the images. Read more

Published on July 16 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars I WILL GIVE A SECOND STAR - - - - BC SPARKER IS RIGHT
That was a good review because I felt the same way at first. And you are right when you say that they didn't have their fans in mind when they concieved this. Read more

Published on July 14 2004 by KAHN

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT AS BAD AS I FIRST THOUGHT (read this while you can)
OK, I have a confession: when I first saw this film, at the end I felt like burning down the theater. Read more

Published on July 14 2004 by B. Parker

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