The Matrix (un)Resolved (Matrix Revolutions (DVD))

Member Name: She-nobi

Product:	Matrix Revolutions (DVD)
Date:	08/11/03 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stunning effects, good elements

Disadvantages: poor plot development, lacks spirit , unsatisfying

Like many a discerning cinema-goer in 1999, I found myself looking at oddly green letters raining down a screen, having arrived to 'check out that Matrix thingy'. My experience of that viewing is hazy, as I was distracted by a frankly creepy man on my left, and I was as yet too young and pure of the annoyances of humanity to appreciate the release of theatrical violence on a big screen. However, since growing up a bit, plus multiple viewings later, I have an affection for an at the time underdog of a film that blended the beer-and-comics/philosophy-and-wine mentalities of the Wachowskis and continued the tradition of great films like Citizen Kane in raising the bar for the technical use of a camera, as well as kicking FX ass to boot.

How awry things have gone.

While opening with the precipitation of green code we have come to accept as the iconic representation of the Matrix, the epic zoom out to reveal a clock in Reloaded has been dropped in favour of a weird golden explosion. While this does have relevance later on, it has nothing to do with the opening scene, which takes place in the real world, therefore there is no code here, rendering the purpose of the CG opening for familiarity only. It does not lead into the first scene, and marks the first sign that the fluidity of the first two movies has been lost.

The first act of Revolutions had me shifting in my seat, not only was the story stultified (I had the feeling the Wachowskis were unsure where to take it), the camerawork was boring. I was stunned. I suddenly realised that all of the mise-en-scene, iconography, and innovative use of camera that made the first movie so great had disappeared. In the original film for example, the shot of Morpheus and Neo reflected in a door handle on their way to see the Oracle is just one of the inventive shots that recreated the feel of a comic book and worked so well to distort the view of reality. Granted the method of executing that sho
t wasn't very high-tech, camouflaging the camera against Laurence Fishburne's shirt, but at least it was creative. There was no such effort at the start of Revolutions.

I think the main problem was that the shifting focus of events from inside the Matrix to Zion/the real world was by no means seamless. Inside the Matrix, anything was possible, everyone looked cool, it was richly stylised, all things which appeared in the Hell Club scene in Revolutions: a brief glimmer of what we expect from a Matrix film. Zion, however understandably, is dirty, industrial and frankly, dull. In creating a world such as this, the Wachowskis limited themselves. Their slick style had no place in the practical, survivalist environment of the human city, while their efforts to exaggerate it inside the Matrix served to reduce our perception of it as 'real' effectively. It was obvious by the second film that their representation of the Matrix was their forte; therefore most of the action should have taken place there. Instead Revolutions focuses on Zion, which doesn't allow the freedom for the Wachowskis to pursue their directorial strengths.

The middle of the film woke me up again. The action of defending Zion's dock is impressive. The sheer volume of sentinels, remember for every one read about 20 tentacles, is mind boggling, and the use of giant war machines in defence is effective (even if it is 'borrowed' from Aliens, though made far more epic). The camaraderie the audience will always feel for a small defence uniting against a tyrannical dark force is employed well here, with a Best Make-Up Oscar nomination surely in the offing for battle wounds, as well as a triumphant moment for bumbling favourite the Kid. But, the scene is a little protracted, and could have been shortened to make time for, oh I don't know, plot development?

As for the much touted-by-the-trailers Super Brawl between Neo and Agent Smith, it has suffer
ed from false advertising as the word 'brawl' implies the involvement of more than two people. While a very impressive fight scene, if a little overblown, by this point in the film I really didn't care anymore. I couldn't accept that the machines as the enemy had been usurped by Smith. He is like Hannibal Lecter in that he works best as a malevolent presence, not as a main threat. I felt in Reloaded that the sight of many Smiths, rather than being threatening, was really quite funny, as if his features had become caricature. This sequence just consolidated my feeling that there hadn't been enough small fights, which usually add to the sense of a complete film, as they had been dropped to make way for the two epic sequences. Consequently the level of intimacy of the first film was lost.

Which brings me to the ending. Oh, the ending. I was the most disillusioned cinema-goer that ever was. Without giving it away, I had the feeling that I had not waited 5 years and watched 3 films for this. With all the trailer quotes of "It ends tonight." "Everything that has a beginning has an end." "One way or another, the war will end tonight." there is an emphasis on extremes, an 'us and them' mentality. Suffice it to say, this not followed up in the film's resolution. While the ambiguity of the closure does fit with the trilogy's ideology, I felt as if I had patiently persisted with the films until I understood exactly what had happened in each scene (the result of many a frustrated discussion with my partner) only to be denied a satisfactory explanation. While I concede the film's making was dogged with difficulties, when the screen went blank it seemed the Wachowskis were so glad to have finished it they didn't care how it ended. The title Revolutions is one of the biggest overstatement in cinema history; a more fitting title would be The Matrix Negotiations.

While a great example of the
genre of sci-fi, The Matrix Revolutions is simply not a good Matrix film. I do not mean to attack the Wachowskis; they were
great and can be again, their only fault to create a premise so powerful it was impossible to follow through. But I am bitter at being made to say goodbye to the Matrix on such a sour note; I feel our 1999 selves were owed so much more.

Summary: