The Matrix Revolutions

DVD, The Matrix Revolutions (film, 2003)

The film doesn't have the punchy, brilliant moments that you can pick out and say 'wow, that bit was so good' like the second film, but somehow it's still as good, mainly for the building on the characters and story set up in Reloaded, and for being a mite more understandable, not trying to live up to the first film and not doing obvious conclusions. Oddly, the scenes in the real world are better than in the Matrix, which is a turn of the tables, as Reloaded was the opposite. The first half doesn't have much to really enjoy (apart from the train man running!), and Seraph and the others don't get a really proper awe-inspiring fight (the best was the people on the ceiling), but the second half with the attack on Zion and the bravery of the fighters (especially the young guy, who, despite having seen this several times before I'm never sure if he's going to die - he went from annoying buzz in Reloaded to believable hero and turned into one of the best characters. Even though I can never remember his name!) and the ending which, despite not really explaining much of anything still manages to be beautiful and satisfying (until you start to wonder about loads of things, but we can only hope they do another film sometime).

One thing that is obvious is the gore level which is higher than the other two films and went too far for the story's needs. Bane was a very well acted character that sounded just like Hugo Weaving's Smith, although that's another confusing thing - anything can happen in the Matrix, but it's difficult to connect these things to the real world: Neo was somehow connected to the machines mentally, which was how he could be jacked in without physical means. Likewise Smith had made the move to organic, taking over Bane's mind. The ending implied a virus or some such thing - Smith 'assimilated' the Oracle and she destroyed him, he being fooled by her foresight that he would win, and Neo sacrificing himself so the machines could connect through him and destroy the infection of Smith. It makes more sense if you watch it several times!

Originally Trinity's death and Neo's apparent death (they make it sound like he could return, perhaps the machines can somehow fix him?), seemed stupid and needless, but when you get used to it and accept it, it's really sad and braver than a happy ending, and at least Link and Morpheus get that. It also means so much more when they say goodbye to their friends and you know it's the last time. It's a very different end to the way these films began, and I feel it was a lost opportunity to explore people's everyday lives in the Matrix and suddenly something really weird happens like in the first film. Instead it became a spectacle, trying to outdo itself, and the third film is left to tidy up the pieces and add elements of realism and depth.

They were painted into a corner with the final confrontation because the series has shown that good and bad fight it out (and a round table discussion with Neo negotiating strenuously wouldn't have worked either!). It would have looked completely ridiculous to have Neo fighting thousands of Smith's, but the battle (it's... inevitable) can never live up to the fights of the previous film, and ends up like a child with two action figures smacking them together. The martial arts lose all sense when they can fly around and lump each other into buildings although the dojo-type part inside is good, especially Neo's superb upper roundhouse kick, lower roundhouse kick and then a final upper kick, all done in one fluid motion, with no cutting showing the level of dedication the actor's put into these scenes. I'm not sure how they could have made a satisfying confrontation, maybe with Neo rushing around saving people as Smith destroyed them, but the fight isn't really important, it's the final words between them, with Smith's inability to understand Neo's continued resistance, and his reply that it's because he has a choice.

This may be controversial, but the new Oracle might be even better than the last one, and certainly having an older version made her have even more power and gravitas. It's skimmed over how she changed, but you get an idea, although it's not so clear how she survived at the end, but maybe that was because of the restart of the Matrix.

The story cries out for a sequel and I hope they do one someday. The war is over, but peace is hard to keep going, and there would no doubt be factions (perhaps some in the machine world, and maybe some in the human) that would be against the new state of affairs. The Merovingian (Merv), would have lost his empire, for example, and would not be too happy. The humans would need to be woken up gradually, brought into their future, while the machines would need to find a new power source. These changes and trials would be fascinating to watch unfold. A TV series please...?

***