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| Movie Forums :: Reviews :: The Matrix Reviewlutions |
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Posted on 11/05/03
The Matrix Reviewlutions
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One can't help but notice that there are a significant number of films about the potential danger inherent in artifical intelligence. In A.I, we're warned of the moral problems that would inevitably arise. Bicentennial Man asks us to consider the civil rights that a sufficiently intelligent machine might expect. And The Matrix trilogy show us the ramifications we might face for handling either of the two poorly. With so many mainstream films preaching technological caution, I've come to the conclusion that perhaps the Terminator franchise has it wrong: the human rebels haven't been sending robots back in time to aid us. They've been sending filmmakers.
So, perhaps Andy and Larry Wachowski can be forgiven for putting pixel pleasure before plausibility. A trilogy, however (unlike a single film) absolutely demands a satisfying conclusion, and The Matrix Revolutions does not deliver.
Revolutions begins as suddenly as Reloaded ends. It starts off with a greal deal of promise, thanks primarily to a surprisingly compelling dialogue between Neo and a three-person family in a train station between the Matrix and the machine world. The discussion he has with them provides plenty of foreshadowing, but like many of the film's more interesting concepts, it's never exploited properly.
A lobby shoot-em-up reminiscent of the first film follows, and then gives way to a confrontation with the Merovingian, who is one of the more intriguing pieces in the puzzle that Reloaded spilled on the table in front of us. Unfortunately, he is underused here (as is his wife, Persephone), and Neo's exile in the train station comes to an abrupt end.
The movie's centerpiece battle, ironically, takes place in the real world, as we watch Zion defend itself against an onslaught of sentinels and drills. This section of the film is nothing short of breathtaking, and flawlessly executes the jump-between-several-battles technique made famous by Star Wars.
The film's climactic battle between Neo and Smith (complimented by an epic-sounding choir) fails to top the Zionites' battle to hold the dock, but does allow us to indulge in a bit of a comic book coolness. Anyone unable to appreciate the sci-fi grandeur of watching Smith (now able to fly) match Neo blow for blow has probably turned their nose up at action films enough to sniff the ceiling. The sequence is a little underwhelming given its buildup (and what comes before it), but it's still fun, and offers the same kind of geeky glee as Freddy .vs. Jason. If you judge it on what it intends to be, it scores highly.
All of this, though, is marred by the headscratch-inducing conclusion, which only vaguely answers the puzzling questions that Reloaded asked. While it is true that a good film often allows the audience to work certain things out for themselves, the quasi-answers that the Wachowskis offer us are inadequate, and in some cases nonexistent. Too many of our questions are answered with what boils down to "Neo is The One." It is, simply put, a crutch of an explanation that the story rests on far too often.
I recognize the absurdity of asking for realism in a movie like this, but the line between science fiction and fantasy is an important one. For the first two films, we were presented with a fantastic, yet believable world. The third asks that we suspend our disbelief so far that we more or less leave the sci-fi genre. Had the first two films adopted a similar attitude, this might be acceptable, but instead we're left feeling as if the rules we had agreed to have been changed on us.
The end result is a movie that abandons the at least somewhat realistic parameters that made it famous. It's entertaining in its own right, and might have been brilliant in a more consistent trilogy. Instead, it stands out in stark, glossy contrast next to its more consistent predecessors.
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