Another disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (7 November 2003)

Well I saw it today, and thought it was alright, but nothing special at all. Gave it 4/10.
The only reason it got 4 is cause I still really like the story. Everything else either was crap or used far too much of a good thing.
I don't mind CG effects at all. When used right they can make a good film/scene a brilliant film/scene. For me, they should be used to enhance a film/scene, not replace it. And like the new Star Wars films, this is where Revolutions (and Reloaded) falls down. People will probably argue that a lot of what they were trying to show would not have been possible without CG. Well yes, that may be true, but that is where creativity comes into play, something I feel is somewhat lacking these days. The original Star Wars trilogy managed fine all those years ago...

SPOILER WARNING! THERE ARE PROBABLY SPOILERS IN THE TEXT AHEAD!
Anyway, absolutely none of the action set pieces in Rev got me going at all. It all just came across as run of the mill stuff. The big attack on Zion... too much fancy CG to give it any great impact or emotion. The final fight had a bit of power to it, but because of all the "It's my world here" style comments from Smith, it lost its power. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Throughout the trilogy we have been told that Neo was the saviour or the people... I got that point. He sacrificed himself to save them all, yes I saw that. But was the Jesus cross pose for him on the ground towards the end really necessary?!
After the battle with Smith was won, the film went into Cheese overload. The rave section was by far the worst section of Reloaded, and from when the Smith fight was won onwards is by far the worst section of Revolutions.

Colin Chou was completely wasted in both films. He only had one fight with Neo in Reloaded, where he obviously wouldn't be allowed to win as he couldn't beat Neo... the only properly trained martial artist in the film, and they give him two guns in this one...

END OF SPOILERS!

I could probably moan for a while about the film, longer than my 4/10 rating would suggest. So why did i give it that score? Well it was still entertaining. Despite giving nothing new in the action dept. and basically being run of the mill stuff throughout, it was still entertaining, and I do like the story. From what I've read and heard other people saying, I can honestly state that I do believe there are many parts to the story that I don't understand and probably don't even really know about. But the way I have the story in my head, and what I think I understand, I like. It makes me think, and there are still some open ends to allow my imagination to wander. So for me that is where the film does score well. It is just a shame the story wasn't really handled that well IMO.

Part 1 had everything working well together in good balance. Great action, great style, and great story. Part 2 had action and style which was no longer fresh and seriously underwhelmed. The good elements from part 1 were discarded. But for me it had a story which was thought provoking and complex enough to make part 3 a must see. Part 3 was pretty much the same, the story was its only realy plus point. Nothing else had a wow factor to carry the film.

So for me The Matrix is one film, the first one. Parts 2 and 3 will be completely ignored as they just drag down an brilliant film.

How could I forget to mention this - one of the other main (although brief) best parts of Revolutions. The meeting Morpheus, Trinity and Seriph have with the Meriv... Mervi.. Morvign... the french dude, who else even bothered to look at him when they had Monica Bellucci's fantastic looking cleavage to stare at? And to think that little scene alone got her mentioned in the main credits at the end! Other people have had bigger roles in films and just been mentioned in somewhere far down the credits as "girl with hotdog" etc. Although from that I am not implying that Perisiphone have a hot dog at any point in the film, it was just an example!