Back to basics

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2003)

Spoilers
Sitting in my seat in the cinema at the start of Matrix Revolution, I felt as if I had just been to the washroom during the middle of a movie and now back to continue watching. Maybe that's exactly what the Wachowski brothers wanted: no fanfare, no fancy opening scene, but a simple continuation of Matrix Reloaded. I have no problem with that.
The first Matrix received a great deal of compliment on its originality. The idea of humans going into the computer is, however, hardly original, if you have seen movies like Tron (1982). Indeed, Matrix packages this idea into a pseudo philosophical trip, but the accent here is pseudo. The beauty (very literally) of Matrix is in the choreographed action sequences, as well as the stylish and cool art direction. Matrix Reloaded expanded on all these aspects of Matrix, materialised the world called Zion, added a few interesting characters, and topped everything off with a legendary highway chase scene filmed on a highway they actually built for this very purpose.

At the end of my IMDB comments on Matrix Reloaded, I asked a rhetorical question: how is Matrix Revolution going to keep up with, let alone surpass, Matrix Reloaded. The answer is: it doesn't. In this final chapter of the Matrix trilogy, there are three main action sequences, which I'm not going to deal with in chronological order, but rather in reverse order of merit.
The most disappointing is the supposedly titanic duel between Neo and Agent Smith. The effect-enhancing background of rain and water has been used before, and better, elsewhere. One is Hong Kong's `A Man Called Hero' (1999); the other is Korea's Volcano High (2001). The choreographed action, somewhat overused, has ceased to impress. And (I really must apologise here) Neo's resilience in coming back time after time, despite the noble sentiments behind it, is beginning to look a little bit like Jason (you know, the guy who just fought Freddy). An improvement would have been a finale duel scene between Trinity and Agent Smith, for a change. Carrie-Anne Moss does her wire-fu thing a lot more stylishly than Keanu Reeves, with due respect to the non-action portion of his performance.
Somewhat better is the second of the three main action sequences, i.e. the shooting rampage which is really a repeat of the scene in Matrix where Neo and Trinity were blasting their way through to rescue Morpheus. The only difference is that this time it's Trinty, Morpheus and Seraph instead, with some of the enemies walking up-side-down on the roof.
What really makes me feel that the movie is worth watching is the third and last of these main action sequences: the attack of Zion, and this is where `back to basics' comes in. The scene is well set up, with preliminaries such as marshalling of hard ware, brief coverage of each of the characters taking part, etc, etc. The strategy is clearly set out, from the full-blast, head-on assault the moment the shield has been broken (drilled, to be exact) through to the last heroic stand at the entrance of the temple. The parallel action line of the Niobe's (Jada Pinkett Smith) ship is also given due recognition. To the cynics, I'd say: yes, we've seen all these before. The mechanical colossus shaped fighters are expanded versions of the mechanical loaders that Sigourney Weaver drove to blast the `bitch' into space in Aliens. Come to think of it, the metallic swamping squids are not unlike the metallic crawling creatures in Aliens. Niobe's ship running the impassable passage is really Luke Skywalker in Star Wars running the gauntlet again. Some may even say that you can get all these in a video game lounge. However, I'm not going to let these observations deter me from full enjoyment of this thirty minutes of spectacular visual audio extravaganza, plus the good old fashion good-against-evil sentiment going back to Star Wars, Spartacus, as well as forward to Return of the King. Best of all is fiercely beautiful Jada Pinkett Smith, on whose performance alone the level of this sequence, and possibly the entire movie, is raised several notches.