Matrix Revolutions
I’d been looking forward to seeing the Matrix Revolutions for quite some time. I felt as if the Wachowski brothers were going to give me a great big hug and sincerely apologise for all the bad things that they’d made me sit through during Reloaded. I wanted them to shake my hand for defending it in a DVD review, and appraise me with the faith I’d shown. “Aw, they’ll explain it in Revolutions”, I kept on telling my friends. Messrs. Wachowski, you’ve let me down.
The first telling sign was when I went to go and see Revolutions for a second time. I must’ve seen The Matrix one hundred times, Reloaded a good few as well, but with Revolutions, once was more than enough. There are multiple reasons for this. In the Matrix, the Wachowski’s cleverly left Zion out of the picture; this is because Zion is not in fact the last refuge of mankind, but actually the last refuge of a gene pool spliced with a paragon of abhorrent actors and dialogue straight out of a made-for-TV movie. You need only witness the keen and patriotic teenager drivel the words “Neo, I believe” and you’ll feel as I do. I’m with the machines. Kill ‘em all.
Sadly, as well as the real world being filled with actors descended from the casts of Neighbours and Hollyoaks, the computer generated Matrix does not fair much better. The Merovingian (smart arse), Persephone (phwoar) and Seraph (hits stuff) are not characters but mannequins designed solely to keep – a very small section of – the plot moving. Revolutions was the chance to give these characters more depth and greater purpose, but for the large part they still remained two-dimensional and irritating.
So, is there anything actually good to say about Revolutions? Well, yes. Previously the relationship between Neo and Trinity seems to have been a particularly difficult area for the Wackowski brothers, but in the third instalment they get past this hurdle well, and Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss are able to share very tender and moving moments which far surpass the ill placed erotic love scene of Reloaded. The final good bye between Reeves and Fishburne is also an excellent moment of Revolutions, highlighting the skill of all involved in creating a moment of great gravity and emotion through incredible simplicity. You will have also seen nothing like the final fight between Reeves and Weaving (above), which I would even go so far as to say is epic, although some of my friends felt that it was a bit too far fetched.
Sadly, there is more bad about Revolutions than good. The constant allusions and homages to the first film were spot on, but only kept on pointing out the fact that the Matrix should have been a stand alone film. Furthermore, the ending to Revolutions is so poor you might actually want to demand your money back, and sometimes the film brings a chuckle in the most inappropriate moments. I would therefore only recommend you go see Revolutions if you’ve seen Reloaded, and then only at a push.
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