I never saw The Matrix on the big screen, in fact I had never heard of it till it came out on DVD. I watched it and was amazed. Such a unique take on a familiar concept (Dark City anyone?). New and fantastic special effects and good flowing and thought provoking dialogue. This was surely a film that the filmmakers could see as risky, since all the special effects were groundbreaking and cost so much. Adding to the problems was that it starred Mr. Whoa!, Keanu Reeves, who I feel has never proven himself a strong lead in any role. In sense I could tell they were holding back what they were capable of, mostly due to lack of money. In time The Matrix became a huge success and the Wachoski's had all the money they would ever need. With the money came the possibilities of a sequel. (it seems these days that if any film makes enough money that it deserves a sequel.) Well the ideas started brewing and soon Reloaded and Revolutions were announced and then filmed back to back.
I went into Reloaded with really high expectations. My expectations were so high based on the possibilities The Matrix left us with and where the story could go from there.. Boy was I let down. The negative definitely outweighed the bad in Reloaded. The editing, the pacing, the dialouge, and the acting, all horrendous. The only saving graces of Reloaded are two action sequences, Neo vs. The Merovingian's henchman and the freeway chase. The burly brawl was cool, but not needed and overdone. It seemed to be filmed only to make the fanboys cream thier pants. Overall a slow and pointless transition for the trilogy. Pointless, only because none of the questions asked in it are answered in Revolutions.
Revolutions on its own is good film. It doesnt quite fit into the trilogy, but considering Reloaded, that is a good thing. It's nowhere near as good or wonderous as The Matrix, but it has it's own sense of wonder. We finally get to see the scorched remains of the earth. We see how populated the machine world actually is and what it looks like. The first twenty minutes or so are just filler and confusion that leaked over from Reloaded. Once the main conflict gets started, the film really grows on its own. The defending of the dock in Zion was incredible, some people have said it's overdone, I disagree. The attack is massive and it needed to be. I was just in awe at the swarms of squids streaming in. The people of Zion knew it was hopeless, yet they fought on.
Neo vs. Smith, probably the one moment in film I have been anticipating all year. Was it cool? Yes. Was it necessary? Probably not. It was a combination of the subway fight and the burly brawl. I couldn't help but laugh a bit as these two unstoppable forces beat the crap out of each other in each overly exaggerated shot. Have you ever wondered what a fist looks like flying toward a face in pouring rain? Well Revolutions shows you.
This film worked for me because all the stuff that was pounded into us in Reloaded was dropped. All the philosophy is gone, for the most part. The ending itself is a bit anti-climatic, too happy and sequel fodder. Why can't films just end anymore? Why do filmakers insist on leaving open possiblities for sequels? I just don't get it. The Matrix Reloaded was a dark, violent and sometimes over the top action movie. I bought it and I liked it.
And to those of you who haven't heard of or seen Dark City. Go see it and watch a much better movie than The Matrix that has almost the exact same concept.
***/*****
