Review: Matrix Revolutions, The (2003)

The Matrix Revolutions
Review by Stephen Rowley


I didn't enjoy The Matrix Reloaded as much as the original, but I
think one of the principal pleasures was mulling over the questions it
raised but did not answer. The months between the two films have led
to in-depth debate about the implications of Reloaded.

What is the significance of the Merovingian?

Where is all this talk about choice and free will leading?

What is the Oracle's real agenda?

What is the relationship between the Oracle and the Architect?

What is the Architect talking about?

How can Smith copy himself into Bane when Bane is outside the matrix?

How can Neo control the Sentinels when (apparently) outside the
matrix?

Have Neo and the others really left the matrix at film's conclusion?

How can something as elaborate as Zion be repeatedly re-built in the
fashion the Architect talks of it exists in the real world?

Do the above questions lead us to assume that Zion doesn't really
exist, and is just another level of matrix, as the Architect hints?

The Matrix Reloaded could, I thought, be forgiven for raising all
these questions because it had to be seen as the first part of a two
part movie. As I wrote at the time, the challenge for the concluding
film, The Matrix Revolutions, was to answer these questions in a
satisfying way. Unfortunately, it simply fails to do so. The questions
above are either not answered, or are addressed in only glib or veiled
ways.

In amongst the cheated, bewildered-sounding negative reviews, there
have been positive reviews (particularly on the internet), and these
have praised Revolutions' return to character based narrative. It's
true that Revolutions is more focussed on the plight of its
characters, and it's in some ways more involving because there is more
of a sense that something is at stake. In Zion, we follow Morpheus and
the gaggle of supporting humans introduced in Reloaded as they battle
to save the underground city from an army of invading sentinels.
Meanwhile, Neo and Trinity make their own journey to confront the
machines on their home turf in the hope of averting the invasion.

Unfortunately, neither of these story threads is particularly
successful. For one thing, the story overwhelmingly unfolds in the
real world, and this immediately robs the film of the matrix-based
action that made the first two entries in the trilogy so exciting. The
real world sequences of the films have always been fairly
undistinguished, with almost every aspect of the production design
being very familiar from other science fictions films, right down to
the metallic blue lighting. In The Matrix that worked, since the
almost cliched sci-fi look could be used as a jumping off point for
the trips into the matrix, which was where the Wachowski brothers
presented us something we hadn't seen before. This time, we are stuck
for the long middle portion of the film firmly within the real world,
watching people right out of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome use weaponry
straight out of Aliens to shoot at invading creatures straight out of,
well, yes, Alien. Sure, the action is done on a vast scale, with
thousands of sentinels swarming through a massive chamber. Yet in this
age of computer effects nothing is easier to produce than a teeming
multitude. The horde of computer generated enemies is the cliche of
recent big-budget filmmaking, whether it is hundreds of thousands of
bugs in Starship Troopers, hundreds of thousands of battle-droids in
Attack of the Clones, or hundreds of thousands of orcs in The Two
Towers. While the sequence is intermittently exciting, it suffers from
this familiarity, since a principal virtue of the trilogy so far had
been the Wachowskis' ability to do something different and imaginative
with computer technology. The sequence isn't even particularly well
filmed: the Wachowski's normal talent for staging action fails them as
they often cut to close-up, rushed, overly mobile shots that simply
disorient the audience.

The film stays with this sequence without cutting away to Neo and
Trinity: it provides more focus on the battle, but it leaves the
film's hero off-screen for a long time during the heart of the movie.
When we do rejoin them, their journey leads up to the film's other
major set-piece, the battle between Neo and Agent Smith. Smith is very
enjoyable throughout this movie, regaining a lot of the humour that
had been lost from the character in Reloaded: he is probably the best
thing in this film. Yet the confrontation between Neo and Smith is
disappointing, largely forsaking the martial arts of the earlier films
for a variation on the conclusion to Superman 2 as the two characters
fly around and knock each other into buildings. This sequence tries
desperately for grandeur, yet the Wachowskis don't really have any new
tricks up their sleeves or, for that matter, any apparent notion of
how to end the battle. The mystifying conclusion to this fight is just
one of the many odd little moments in this film that suggests the
Wachowskis don't know where they're going. Some of this can be
attributed to poor scripting, but there are also odd hanging plot
threads and poor continuity that suggest some heavy cutting for pace.
What, for example, happens to Seraph and the little girl before Smith
confronts the Oracle? And why, after Neo has been saved from limbo
early in the film, is he "unhooked" from a conventional matrix
connection as he awakens, when we had already established that he was
in the sick bay, not connected to a computer? I assume the latter is
because he had regained consciousness, then re-entered the matrix to
speak to the Oracle, but there is no such scene in the movie.

Ultimately, though, such questions matter little compared to the
bigger questions that the film leaves unanswered. Reloaded was
frustrating to watch, but fun to think about afterwards: Revolutions
makes more sense as you watch it, but is infuriating to look back on.
Reloaded turned everything on its head late in the piece when Neo met
the architect, and the Wachowskis do something similar here. Yet they
do so without adequately addressing any of the intriguing questions
Reloaded raised. I wouldn't have minded some ambiguity, but there's
simply no closure in Revolutions. It's a massive cop-out, which
unfortunately diminishes both sequels.

(C) 2003 Stephen Rowley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Movie reviews, essays and more at http://www.cinephobia.com

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