Too bad it will be televised...on cable.

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2004)

The Matrix trilogy is a very valuable piece of cinema. I think it should be required viewing in film classes around the world, by would be actors, directors and screenwriters. Every aspiring Hollywood executive out there should also be made to watch the films. In fact, an entire course should be created around it:
Film 101- How to ruin a perfectly innovative and intelligent movie by turning into a plot-hole ridden, cliched, self-refferential, commercialized, disaster of a trilogy. The Matrix Trilogy
As an addendum , the course should also include:
Marketing 101- How to dupe hundreds of fans into buying crap because you lie and tell them that in order to 'understand' all of your Trilogy, fans must purchase video games, animated movies, play online games, Happy Meals, decoder pins, etc. The Wachowski Brothers, The Heirs of Disney.
After the first Matrix movie, it seems as if the Wbros'(Wachowski brothers)only remaining creative ideas pertained to marketing. None of that creative energy was spent on the script, to the woe of nearly all casual Matrix fans and the dissapointment of many a fanboy and girl.
What once started out as a hard sci-fi cyberpunk action adventure story with heavy philosophical and eastern religious undertones and influences in 'The Matrix', devolved into a ridiculously sentimental, cliche war movie in 'Revolutions'. Gone were many of the coherent eastern-philosophy undertones and most of the issues of western philosophy. By the time Revolutions starts, the theme had gone from the free-will philosophy of Buddhism( with a sprinkling of christ references) to all out Calvinism in Reloaded, and culminated with The Easter Story by the end of Revolutions. That's progress?
Now, before I get to the rest of the film, let me give some of the few goodpoints. Keanu Reeves is still hot whenever he is in his 'Matrix' gear- the man can flat out rock tight black pants, a black t-shirt, and shades. The Attack on Zion was great, great CGI. Smith was good. Trinity called the frenchman 'Merv'- that was great.
As for the rest...where to start? Here's a point by point breakdown.
1) The MacGuffin- Maybe the Wbros are Hitchcock fans, because it seems as though half the characters in the film were nothing more than MacGuffins(look it up if you dont know). The 'ghosts' in Reloaded? No significance. The Merovingian( Merv lol) and his wife? No significance. Seraph? ( no real significance, just a bodyguard). The Kid? Just a gopher. The Zion PTA(Council)? Nada. So many conspicuously named characters, so much speculation, and it was all for nought. Nothing more than a giant Maguffin by the Wbros, meant to stimulate the mental masterbation of the fans, in order to..to keep them coming back for more( i..e movies, games, pop tarts, etc). Someone else put it excellently. The reason the Matrix films are popular is the reason why religions are as well- they tell everything and nothing.
2)Communication Breakdown-I was so sick of the dialogue by the end of Reloaded, and Revolution continued with more of the same. Not so much the content of the dialogue( although that was cheesy in some instances, usually in regards to general mifune). I was so tired of everyone having the same conversations. Here's an example:
"I don't know" "You will know in time" "How will I know?" "To know the why is to know the wherefore." "Do you know?" "I know as much as you know" " But I dont know so that means...." "I dont either"
Now, other than the non-sensicality of the above passage, the annoying thing is just the didactic structure. Every conversation, every single one, in Reloaded and to an extent in Revolutions is structured this same exact way. Now, giving the Wbros credit, maybe they intended the speech to emulate the sort of deductive logic used in philosophy. But even if that was their intention, it got really annoying, and is unrealistic to boot. Now wonder why all the characters are stale and lifeless- everyone speaks in the same monotonous and soulless way.

3) Deja Poo- Cliche Cliche Cliche. Now, Im not against film cliches. They are cliche for a reason- they are usually integral elements to certain types of stories. When used succesfully, the cliche can be very effective. But when used inappropriately, cornyness is the result. The best(worst) examples being- Mifune and The Kid aka Officer and a Gentleman. The Neofix- now religious types, dont get me wrong. Im not saying christianity is cliche, just the visuall allusions to it. All of Neo and Trinity's 'romance', especially hear death scene; all 20 minutes of it.
4) To answer your question..what was it? Maybe if they had called the film 'Matrix Resolutions', less people would have been disappointed. Not much was successfully resolved in this film, or at least, not resolved in the way people had hoped. Some answers were glossed over(ergo not really answered) such as- How can Neo have powers in the real world? How come the other humans dont get hurt anymore when they fight in the Matrix?
Other questions are a result of the of the films conclusion- Why should the machines keep the peace? Inst the peace just temporary? Wont the freed humans eventually want to be rid of the machines and vice versa?

Other questions ..hoo boy, these are the ones that made me want to throw my Sprite at the screen when I was watching. They are the result of the directors' idiocy such as: What did Neo do that was different from any other One?-the Matrix still got rebooted. What was the whole point of Mobile Ave?(aside from metaphor) How come the Machines can create Zion, and create a huge integral network like the Matrix, but they cant build a pole large enough that has solar panels on top that they could use to harness damn sunlight?!?!?!? What was the whole freakin' point to the trilogy if there was a clear atmosphere above what seemed to be only 3 miles of cloud cover, why even use humans at all?!?! How come the resolution of film 3 didnt match the implication at the end of film 1, is it just to leave the door open for more sequels? When did the Wbros turn into soulless greedy B****rds!? Where can I get a blue pill, I want to be plugged back in so I can forget I bothered with this movie.
A.N.