Journal FortKnox's Journal: The Matrix Revolutions Review 15
This review will be LeviRamsey style (first half no spoilers, then warning, then spoilers):
My general opinion? Eh... It wasn't the worst thing, but then again, it wasn't the best. My brother said it best when he said something like "The stories people came up with on how the movie would end after Reloaded were tons better than how Revolutions turned out". I think they simply tried to outdo themselves. My biggest gripe is how they took something believable and made it too fantasy-like. Really ripped apart something that seemed realistic and went overboard with it.
Now for spoilers.... don't read after this message. I'll even be kind and put a buncha line breaks so you won't see anything:
Good points:
No orgy scene like in reloaded (but was I the only person to notice when they went to that 'goth' dance club where the Merovingian was, there was a topless chick who's nips were being pinched by another chick? So there wasn't 'official' nudity, cause there was a finger and thumb in the way...). Anywho, that was completely unnecessary in the second one and seemed out of place.
Another good point. The machine city and the big-ol battleships outside of it. Very nicely done.
The battle of Zion. Although no one really cared much about it, cause the story is mostly about Neo, it was really well done. You wanted to see swarming sentinels, and the Warchowski's came through.
OK, now the bad points:
Killing Trinity. Honestly, every teenage kid is craving her in her tight black spandex suit. Killing her is just a bad idea.
Bringing the 'abilities' of the one over to the 'real world'. It made something that appeared realistic into something totally fantasy. The definition of Science Fiction is the suspension of disbelief. Giving Neo his powers outside the Matrix is annihilating that suspension that was so well developed. By far, my biggest gripe. I think there would have been a better solution to this, and I'll put it at the end.
The whole 'killing his eyes so he can see in the real world'. Goes with my previous point. Plus, once that happened, you knew he wasn't gonna live... its like icing the cake on his death.
The whole "place between the worlds"?? Come on! What the hell is that? Again, something realistic going into some la-la fantasy world.
The Merovingian scene? Useless. If they actually HAD the delimma of killing the oracle, then maybe... but just to end it in them winning without consequence?
The 'last' battle. Too anime-ish with the flying and such. Plus agent smith went from power-attack style martial arts to this graceful style (yeah, go ahead and argue that it was from the people he copied himself too). I didn't mind it terribly, but I'd want it more like the other fights and less 'magical'.
And finally, the end. It just seemed so.... anticlimactic? Neo and Smith dead, trinity dead, zion saved, machines still live (hey, the second one showed that the humans and machines need one another, so I'm not gonna complain there), and then nothing... no 'how are we gonna tell the matrix world they have a choice' or 'how can we release them and reconstruct there muscles and stuff' or anything... just done, fini, see ya.
Better Story:
Not to change things much... but keeping Trinity and Neo alive (and neo keeps his eyes). But slowly giving Neo abilities in 'the real world'. Make the abilities seem to appear just like they did in the matrix world. Then, after they beat the machines, and the matrix is destroyed and you think the movie is over, pan into Neo's eye... zoom in to the pupil, then pan out with him in a chamber of the matrix....
End there, or a scene with the architect and either the oracle or smith saying something about "He got so used to his powers he was able to use them not only on the inner shell matrix, but the outer shell matrix" and how they need to ensure it doesn't go any farther... How's THAT for a twist ending??
My general opinion? Eh... It wasn't the worst thing, but then again, it wasn't the best. My brother said it best when he said something like "The stories people came up with on how the movie would end after Reloaded were tons better than how Revolutions turned out". I think they simply tried to outdo themselves. My biggest gripe is how they took something believable and made it too fantasy-like. Really ripped apart something that seemed realistic and went overboard with it.
Now for spoilers.... don't read after this message. I'll even be kind and put a buncha line breaks so you won't see anything:
Good points:
No orgy scene like in reloaded (but was I the only person to notice when they went to that 'goth' dance club where the Merovingian was, there was a topless chick who's nips were being pinched by another chick? So there wasn't 'official' nudity, cause there was a finger and thumb in the way...). Anywho, that was completely unnecessary in the second one and seemed out of place.
Another good point. The machine city and the big-ol battleships outside of it. Very nicely done.
The battle of Zion. Although no one really cared much about it, cause the story is mostly about Neo, it was really well done. You wanted to see swarming sentinels, and the Warchowski's came through.
OK, now the bad points:
Killing Trinity. Honestly, every teenage kid is craving her in her tight black spandex suit. Killing her is just a bad idea.
Bringing the 'abilities' of the one over to the 'real world'. It made something that appeared realistic into something totally fantasy. The definition of Science Fiction is the suspension of disbelief. Giving Neo his powers outside the Matrix is annihilating that suspension that was so well developed. By far, my biggest gripe. I think there would have been a better solution to this, and I'll put it at the end.
The whole 'killing his eyes so he can see in the real world'. Goes with my previous point. Plus, once that happened, you knew he wasn't gonna live... its like icing the cake on his death.
The whole "place between the worlds"?? Come on! What the hell is that? Again, something realistic going into some la-la fantasy world.
The Merovingian scene? Useless. If they actually HAD the delimma of killing the oracle, then maybe... but just to end it in them winning without consequence?
The 'last' battle. Too anime-ish with the flying and such. Plus agent smith went from power-attack style martial arts to this graceful style (yeah, go ahead and argue that it was from the people he copied himself too). I didn't mind it terribly, but I'd want it more like the other fights and less 'magical'.
And finally, the end. It just seemed so.... anticlimactic? Neo and Smith dead, trinity dead, zion saved, machines still live (hey, the second one showed that the humans and machines need one another, so I'm not gonna complain there), and then nothing... no 'how are we gonna tell the matrix world they have a choice' or 'how can we release them and reconstruct there muscles and stuff' or anything... just done, fini, see ya.
Better Story:
Not to change things much... but keeping Trinity and Neo alive (and neo keeps his eyes). But slowly giving Neo abilities in 'the real world'. Make the abilities seem to appear just like they did in the matrix world. Then, after they beat the machines, and the matrix is destroyed and you think the movie is over, pan into Neo's eye... zoom in to the pupil, then pan out with him in a chamber of the matrix....
End there, or a scene with the architect and either the oracle or smith saying something about "He got so used to his powers he was able to use them not only on the inner shell matrix, but the outer shell matrix" and how they need to ensure it doesn't go any farther... How's THAT for a twist ending??
Neo ain't dead... (Score:2)
Re:Neo ain't dead... (Score:2)
Re:Neo ain't dead... (Score:2)
Re:Neo ain't dead... (spoilage in this comment) (Score:2)
Ok, here's the deal, when he's being carried off to wherever by the giant machine at the end:
1. He's sprawled out looking like he's been crucified. (Think resurrection)
2. The camera view changes to be the orange/black Neo/Matrix/Human view. Neo's body on the back of the machine is as bright as the sun (my interpretation: Still life left in the old bones yet, 'eh Neo?)
3. Oracle/little girl discussion. Sure, the Oracle could have been just appeasing her, but she said its possible we might just see Neo
Re:Neo ain't dead... (spoilage in this comment) (Score:2)
One thing I was impressed with in this movie was the expressions of love, not done in a typical annoying Hollywood fashion, but in a true, sacrificial way. People were doing whatever they could to protect and help the ones they loved. I thought, personally, that the love aspect was a particularly poignant part of Revolutions. I'm not a chick flick fan or anything, but this was really done well. A typical action movi
Re:Neo ain't dead... (spoilage in this comment) (Score:2)
It might sound a bit sacriligious but as a modern twist on the sacrifice of Christ, I think the Matrix films did a far better job of communicating the idea behind Christ's sacrifice than reading the Bible ever will. Neo HAD to die for the parable driving the movies to make sense; I would've been vastly disappointed if they'd neglected this for a Hollywood ending.
I did, however, join FK in mourning Trinity's leather-clad loss.
-j
Re:Neo ain't dead... (spoilage in this comment) (Score:2)
Then there's Reloaded - didn't the Architect want him to go through the door and re-enter the Source so that his code could be disseminated through the Matrix and resolve the equation? And isn't t
I expected it to be what it was. (Score:2)
Unfortunately, just like the Battery idea, it probably was seen as "too implausible"... like sentient machines wouldn't come up with the idea of redundancies and back-ups to ensure that the humans didn't wake up.
Although... consider this... what if Zion/RealWorld really is the backup to the Matrix, and that the only reason the Machines within the Ma
Never the "Real World" (Score:2)
Cat got your tongue? (Score:2)
Man, THATS the ending I've been quietly dreaming about since I walked out of Reloaded on that rainy afternoon...
Everyone loves russian nesting dolls! Matrix within a matrix! "What if our solar system is just an atom in the Outer-universe? And our atoms are solar systems to an inner-universe? Oh shit! I just blew my own mind!" This is what it should be about!
fuckers. Make movies MY way. Then I'll like 'em!
The basis for the Matrix? (Score:1)
Huh? WTF? (Score:2)
So aren't reviews/spoilers redundant here?
No Matrix-in-a-Matrix! (SPOILERS) (Score:2)
I'm sorry, but I've seen too many direct-to-video hack jobs that used nested VR worlds to force a twist on the story. When Morpheus asked, "Is this real?" as the Sentinels flew away, I mumbled "Don't you dare. Don't you f***ing dare." Thankfully, they didn't. Instead, they stuck to their theological guns, and made Neo a true Messiah, complete with miracles.
The one thing that was missing from this film was a sense that the Matrix was breaking down. All we got was one glimpse of the messed-up codefall on th
Two bits and ideal end (yes, it's a spoiler!) (Score:1)
2: Killing Trinity was horrible literary practice. Despite the climatix desinty-changing end of the second movie, Neo gets no reward for saving Trinity's life. Plus, having the same charac
You're not alone... (Score:2)
However, I believe that Neo had to die, if they were to continue the whole Jesus metaphor they started in the first film. Neo died so that others could live- I agree with what was said above about his resurrection.
Whether or not Trinity had to die, I don't know. I don't think it was much of a plot aid, so they could have left that one out.