Review: Matrix Revolutions, The (2003)

THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: C-
Warner Bros./ Village Roadshow
Directed by: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Written by: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Mary Alice, Monica
Bellucci, Harry J. Lennix, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett
Smith, Harold Perrineau Jr.
Screened at: Kips Bay, NYC, 10/30/03

   If you believe that the tag-line aphorism, "Every beginning
must have an end," is on a plane with the insights of
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kant, then this final episode, "The
Matrix Revolutions," will astonish you with its apercus about
life, love, death, and what-have-you.  If you believe that  loud
volume, furious physical activities and scenes of massive
transformation of millions of dollars of machinery defines a
great picture, then you will be positively awed by Andy and
Larry Wachowski's "The Matrix Revolutions."  If instead you
believe that a work of science fiction should embrace an
involving story, put into the service of saying something about
life here on earth in the year 2003, then you'll be
disappointed unless you think the concluding blather about
world peace and its superiority to war and destruction merits
high grades in the Heidelberg University Department of
Philosophy.  If, finally, you think that even a sci-fi pic can and
should make ample room for an exploration of character and
human relationships, then forget about "The Matrix Revolution." 
What passes for a relationship is the statement by a dying
woman whose last wish is to have her main squeeze kiss her.

   Who's left for the Wachowski brothers' production to appeal
to?  Quite a large audience; most specifically, video game
enthusiasts, people who believe that loud music and fireworks
serve the good cause of giving the intellect a rest while feeding
into their emotional lives.  But volume and flashes do not an
emotional movie make particularly in the absence of a single
character with traits that are commonly associated with
humanity.

   If you're the guy who missed the predecessors, "The Matrix"
and "The Matrix Reloaded," you can safely jump right into the
story knowing the following.  Machines have taken control of
the Earth.  People like you and me are being used as batteries,
giving energy to said machines.  People, then, are now in
captivity without realizing their enslavement, plugged into a
computer program known as the Matrix.   They think that they
are actually alive and free when in fact they are fodder for the
machines. (If this sounds something like Plato's Allegory of the
Cave, wherein the vast majority of people think that their
shadows cast by fire against the cave wall are real life rather
than mere illusions, then OK.  You're ready for the film's
Meaning of Life lecture.)

   A few human beings, however, have not been captivated and
remain free (something like the folks in Ray Bradbury's
"Fahrenheit 451" who avoid the big TV screen and memorize
books).  Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence
Fishbourne), and Neo's squeeze Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)
are among them, determined to fight the power-mad Agent
Smith (Hugo Weaving), who is like a James Bond villain in that
he is associated with no side, neither part of the machine world
nor of the human dimension, and is hell-bent on dominating
both sectors though his many cloned alter-egos seem
unwilling in the final apocalyptic struggle to do more than
watch.   Squiddies, or worm-like entities by the millions, are just
hours away from wiping out Zion.

   Fans of the trilogy have been anticipating the mother of all
battles which would lead either to conquest of not only the
human world but the empire of the machines by Agent Smith,
or the dream of every contestant in the Miss America contest,
world peace.  With more glitz than sanity, not even one
hundred Agents Smith or millions of worms give the audience
the nourishment that comes from a credible story, or at least a
story that's believable on its own terms.  Quasi-religious terms
are used without explanation, such as Zion representing the
free human city of the good guys, or the Oracle (Mary Alice),
which in ancient Greece always gave ambiguous answers so
that it is never wrong but in the Wachowski imagination
is...what?  Just a woman who sets a bad example for the
targeted theater audience by chain smoking and acting without
emotions whenever questioned.

   Dialogue is spoken as though the participants were reciting
Shakespearean lines at the Globe theater, but whereas
Shakespeare was every bit as good a comic as a tragedian,
the Wachowskis this time are entirely without a sense of
humor.  

   The picture is framed by Sati (Tanveer Atwal),a  small girl
who finds Neo in a subway station whose tiles are cleaner than
those found in any Hilton hotel, wondering how he ever got
where he was (not a bad question for Mr. Reeves to ask).  After
being threatened by a hairy guy with a bad teeth day, Neo is
led through a series of adventures pitting the humans against
both the machines and Agent Smith.  At least one-half of this
film is taken up with vid-game WOW effects, with more bullets
flying (and missing targets) than were shot in World War 2,
numerous shots of giant machine tumbling into the ground like
weapons of mass destruction, and wide-eyed participants in
Armageddon showing teeth amid more flashes of light than
Francis Scott Key could imagine ever seeing.

   The actors should be credited with keeping absolutely
straight faces throughout, not so difficult in a movie whose only
humor of the unintentional sort.  The bloated dialogue is kept to
a minimum, perhaps after the Wachowskis received
considerable criticism for the ponderous talk in "The Matrix
Reloaded" 

   The production notes state that  the Wachowski Brothers
have been working together for 30 years, their first feature was
the film "Bound," and that little else is known about them.  Now,
that last clause would pretty much sum up "The Matrix
Revolutions."

Rated R.  129 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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X-RT-RatingText: C-