Fred’s No
Clue Movie Review
"The Matrix: Revolutions"
Directed by
Larry & Andy Wachowski
Keanu, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and the rest of the crew are back for more in the supposed final installment of The Matrix. Story wise, it’s better than Reloaded. They start to get back to some of the elements from the first film. But for my money, the best film of this series is still The (original) Matrix.
This movie picks up right where the last one left off. Neo is now trapped between the Matrix and the machine world in some train station. Trinity, Morpheus and the others are trying to get back to Zion to help in the fight as the machines are approaching closer to the human city. I really liked the opening. It’s a little quieter than the second film. There is a great action scene toward the beginning when Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph go to see the Frenchman. He’s that really annoying character from the second film, that I still don’t care for, but is only seen here in a short scene. Once they rescue Neo, he begins to realize some things and manages to start to piece a few more together after visiting the Oracle of course. The Oracle, Mary Alice, was replaced on this film due to the death of the original Oracle, Gloria Foster. Finally, Neo and company realizes what each of them needs to do. It all culminates in some extremely fantastic action scenes in Zion between humans and machines, as well as, in the Matrix between Neo and Agent Smith. The ending for my money, was satisfying, although leaves lots of room for more sequels of any media type.
The action scenes were much better this time around. I felt like they relied less on the CG Effects that looked like comic book creations. It made me think that in Reloaded, they either were trying to prove a point that what you were seeing was Neo and Smith exploring their insane capabilities to the max OR that the directors responded to some of their criticisms that they got from Reloaded. This film seems more grounded in the world that they created in the first film. Giving the viewer a little more to think about. Because wasn’t that part of the cool factor of the first film, an action movie with religious views and questioning your place in life. Nothing seemed to overextend it’s welcome and the pace was a roller coaster ride from beginning to end.
The acting is what it is. You’re not getting Shakespeare here. Although, for the most part, I felt that Keanu, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Laurence Fishburne were a little bit more vulnerable and nuanced in their performances. They’re all still real rigid, but no big speechifying or nothing going on. The directors smartly downplayed the emotional scenes between Trinity and Neo too. Morpheus was allowed to doubt himself and his beliefs at times too, which I really liked. In the other films, he’s like a rock, never seems to waver. But in this flick, you see some of his doubts, and he’s not the leader as much anymore. Jada Pinkett Smith surprised me as well. Her character Niobe really shines in this film. Proving that she can kick ass and pilot with the best of them.
Just a note about the directors as well. They haven’t made that many movies. After seeing the first Matrix, I felt like they were visionary filmmakers who had brought us a sci-fi epic that might eclipse Star Wars in my lifetime in popularity. Instead, I’ve seen these talented filmmakers suffer much the same fate as my beloved Mr. Lucas. They’re good filmmakers. They have lots of vision in order to pre-plan all those fighting techniques and special effects. But it seemed to me, that they took a great idea, forgot that they needed to keep the same emphasis on story and not shift it all to effects. They obviously have pushed technology for films far ahead. And the first film’s success might just have been their downfall. They got over excited about the possibilities of creating their own universe and gave us great looking, fairly hollow, emotionless sequels. I guess I just wanted them to up the ante all the way around. Maybe that wasn’t possible though. Thanks to them though for their lasting contributions to movies and these are definitely films that will be watched over and over again. Who knows, maybe after watching them repeatedly we will all gain a greater appreciation of them.
All in all, this film was high-energy entertainment for me. It’s not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but easily worth me plunking down $10. I’ve seen it twice already. So see it, if you’ve seen the other two. Or just see it, to see some fantastic state of the art special effects. Don’t let your disappointment of Reloaded prevent you from experiencing Revolutions.
For more information visit
Got comments? Suggestions? I’d love to hear them.
email me at no.clue@indenation.com
come back soon, until then, i’ll be at the movies…