Revolutions: disturbing and grim ending

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2003)

Spoilers ahead!
I just saw Revolutions, and came out of the theater with one word in my mind: disturbing. Of course, "disturbing" is just a word when you are raking in the millions. By the way , since when a word's definition can save you from answering further questions about the reality behind the word? Of course "love" is a word, and so is "an attachment to other people, blah, blah" (whatever smart definition they give of love in the movie). Duh! But still, if I was Neo, I would ask "How come you computer programs feel attachment to each other". And I further whant to ask, how come computer programs have children? Perhaps I am missing some piece of informations that has been lost either in the movie or outside of it. But never mind, this is not why I was writing here. I'll cut to the chase. The ending of the Matrix is disturbing and grim for many reasons. In order to understand them, one has to understand that the first Matrix was an epiphany. Humanity, relegated to the bowels of the earth for centuries (no human being there has ever seen the sun, lucky Trinity), had a hope after all, namely The One. Now, I am a real human being, and if the machines have usurped my Earth, and I come accross The One, do I stop at making peace with the machines? To hell with peace. Let's destroy the crap out of them! Neo has the power to destroy machines with the flick of a finger. He has just started to tap his powers. Let him go back to Zion and burn the hell out of any borers and whatnot the machines have to send. Let him do the work. Hard? You bet! But let him stay human, for god's sake, not just turn into another machine. When the movie ends, there are many disturbing aspects of what is left that cannot but be considered despairing for both the viewers and the actual inhabitants of Zion: 1. Life on earth for the humans continues being a hell on earth, being relegated to a small colony away from our origins. 2. The machines keep ruling the earth, you know, the nice little earth we have grown so accustomed to, with flowers and rabbits, clouds and rivers, sun and birds. Earth is gone, and so is any chance of getting it back. 3. The matrix stays intact; the human/batteries stay in place. Nice for the machines, not so good for humanity. 4. Neo is gone, and so is any advantage that humans could have inside of the matrix and out. C'mon, let the One be the One, not just a powerless messenger who can only destroy a stupid computer program within thye Matrix (Smith). Smith is just a program in the Matrix. He is nothing. Destroy the machines, and you'll destroy the matrix. 5. Trinity is gone, there goes the cool looks for Zionites. I wonder what Morpheus is going to do now. Poor wretched fellow, nobody to match his wardrobe. 6. Both the Architect and the Oracle are big, self-preserving machine liars at the end. Especially the Oracle, just another piece of software at the service of sentient machines. She is even worse than the Architect, I tell you. All that mushy talk, but she is the one who realizes that the machines have no chance to win against Neo, and that's why she guides him towards his utltimate pointless efforts for peace (peace is better for machines than for humans here). Like she has done humans any big favor. I would have chosen Smith, to be frank. Some real quasi-human piece of software, he was. He could have even turned to be an ally of the humans, who knows... And why is a piece of software the only being on earth who knows how to make chocolate chip cookies anymore? Is hope so lost? So there. Not that the original Matrix was an example of unbreakable logic and premises without fault (not even formal mathematics can explain itself these days). For one thing, to keep human/batteries alive to feed the machines, it follows that the machines need to feed the humans. Who does not know that there is not machine with a 100% energy output? Every machine loses energy in the process of generating it. More so a human being. Smart way for machines to waste energy. Anyway, as a corollary, I expect the upcoming Return of the King to surpass Revolutions hands down, as trilogies go. For one thing, you can always go back to the book and see where they screwed up, always there with Tolkien, ready to give you hope. Not so with the Wachowskis. So I'll give it 5/10