Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers
SPOILERS
The Matrix 5/5It’s been 17 years since this master class of a film was released in cinemas everywhere, and I only just watched it for the first time this month. I’ve no idea how, but I managed to avoid any and all things Matrix for the last 17 years, and it was definitely worth the wait.
The main casts of characters do an excellent job portraying each of their archetypes. Neo is the main hero "the One", Morpheus is the wise teacher who leads him down the path to freedom, Trinity is a disciple of Morpheus and Neo’s lover, and Agent Smith is an astonishingly formidable adversary.
The scope and feel of this film is incredible. Every frame looks like it was lifted straight out of an award winning comic book with shots and the angles used to elevate its characters to surreal heights. One interesting aspect of the film is that every scene in the matrix is tinted green, and every scene in the real world is tinted blue. It's a great contrast that allows the two worlds to play off of each other, and let's the audience bounce back and forth freely between the two.
Ever hear someone say a film “pushed the envelope of special effects”, well The Matrix says, “there is no envelope”. Anything is possible in The Matrix. Humans fly through the air, rooftops are leapt in a single stride, cameras move faster than bullets, and the computer-generated world I was watching felt as life like as the screen I was watching it on.
All the stunts are fast paced and 100% “grab the edge of your seat” worthy. Every punch thrown, every bullet fired, every blow dealt has impact, drive, and a coolness factor as big as Neo’s shades. Since the film allows its audience to doubt the possibility of these stunts, I never bothered to disbelieve them. I just let my jaw drop as my eyes filled with the Wachowski’s world of the unreal.
I’ve seen The Matrix seven times now, and the fourth time I watched it was after I bought it.
The Matrix Reloaded 0.5/5
I got swept up in the Matrix phenomenon. It was inevitable. After watching the trailers for the sequels, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to watch them. I regret this decision.
The story of The Matrix Reloaded lacks intrigue, enjoyment, and simple continuity (the humans take physical objects outside of the matrix and it's never explained how). On top of that there are very unsettling and altogether odd sexual undertones in this movie, which serve no purpose. The movie would be fine without them (better off even). The most prominent shortcoming in The Matrix Reloaded is its lack luster screenplay. It felt like whenever the writers didn't know how to progress the plot, they stopped to write a long winded and half baked philosophical speech until they decided where to toss their characters next. All the new characters are bland and flat, and all the returning characters have lost the depth they had from the first film. Most stories have a beginning a middle and an end. This movie is all middle, because next to nothing happens in it. Halfway through viewing this disaster I thought to myself “I must get out of here! I must get free!”
The action in this film is boring, though there were two scenes that I thought were okay at best. The first one being Neo’s fight with a legion of Agent Smiths. It’s a cool premise for a fight, because it pins our hero against a literal army of one. Neo takes down each one of the Smiths as if they're made of rubber (or CGI), and in the end he flies away. He could have done that anytime, though. The other scene was the ending battle in a three-part highway chase scene. Morpheus fights an agent on top of a truck using nothing but a katana and his fists. The scuffle ends when the truck explodes in a head on bullet time collision, and Neo flies in to save Morpheus. If Neo arrived sooner, the chase scene would not have gone on for so long. Both scenes do nothing to progress the plot and they could have ended much earlier without changing a thing in the screenplay. They're both interesting to look at, but utterly meaningless.
Lastly “I hate The Architect!” His lines make no sense; it’s actually infuriating to try and make sense of them. He has no purpose being in this film or this franchise. He's a boring character to listen to, and his ramblings bring whatever momentum this movie's climax might've had to a dead halt. If he wasn't in this movie nothing would have changed, which is why his presence is so aggravating.
The Matrix Reloaded is awful. This sequel made the franchise fall from grace faster than Neo did in the jump program. I bet it screamed all the way down too.
The story of The Matrix Reloaded lacks intrigue, enjoyment, and simple continuity (the humans take physical objects outside of the matrix and it's never explained how). On top of that there are very unsettling and altogether odd sexual undertones in this movie, which serve no purpose. The movie would be fine without them (better off even). The most prominent shortcoming in The Matrix Reloaded is its lack luster screenplay. It felt like whenever the writers didn't know how to progress the plot, they stopped to write a long winded and half baked philosophical speech until they decided where to toss their characters next. All the new characters are bland and flat, and all the returning characters have lost the depth they had from the first film. Most stories have a beginning a middle and an end. This movie is all middle, because next to nothing happens in it. Halfway through viewing this disaster I thought to myself “I must get out of here! I must get free!”
The action in this film is boring, though there were two scenes that I thought were okay at best. The first one being Neo’s fight with a legion of Agent Smiths. It’s a cool premise for a fight, because it pins our hero against a literal army of one. Neo takes down each one of the Smiths as if they're made of rubber (or CGI), and in the end he flies away. He could have done that anytime, though. The other scene was the ending battle in a three-part highway chase scene. Morpheus fights an agent on top of a truck using nothing but a katana and his fists. The scuffle ends when the truck explodes in a head on bullet time collision, and Neo flies in to save Morpheus. If Neo arrived sooner, the chase scene would not have gone on for so long. Both scenes do nothing to progress the plot and they could have ended much earlier without changing a thing in the screenplay. They're both interesting to look at, but utterly meaningless.
Lastly “I hate The Architect!” His lines make no sense; it’s actually infuriating to try and make sense of them. He has no purpose being in this film or this franchise. He's a boring character to listen to, and his ramblings bring whatever momentum this movie's climax might've had to a dead halt. If he wasn't in this movie nothing would have changed, which is why his presence is so aggravating.
The Matrix Reloaded is awful. This sequel made the franchise fall from grace faster than Neo did in the jump program. I bet it screamed all the way down too.
The Matrix Revolutions 2.5/5
This one’s better. Not by much, but it is better. It foregoes its immediate predecessor’s forcibly thought provoking waste of a story-line in favor having an all out special effects battle to the bitter end.
The Matrix Revolutions is the ultimate climax of the entire series. It has flaws but it always maintained enough focus in order to see this franchise through. The screenplay dragged it's feet a couple of times (Trinity, die already), but it did manage to carry itself through all the way to its respective conclusion.
The action scenes felt like they were cool. Most of them featured giant robot mech suits fighting an onslaught of machines. As the battle progressed, I couldn’t help but think, “there must be a better way to fight these machines than in these suits”, but then again the first film told me the EMP was the only weapon the humans had against the machines, so the lack of effectiveness makes sense. Either way it was cool watching these machines clash in their bloody battle.
The final fight of this franchise is Neo vs. Agent Smith in the rain while a large choir sings. It was a bit of a let down to not see all of the Agent Smith’s fight (considering he assimilated every single person and program in the matrix), but it was refreshing to see these two fight in hand to hand combat. One of the coolest visual effects elements was that every time Agent Smith and Neo would fly and crash into each other the force of their impact would blast away all of the rain surrounding them in to a massive water sphere. Overall I thought the fight was decent.
Their battle interestingly enough ends with Neo being assimilated by Agent Smith, and then all the Agent Smiths explode. The film ends showing all of the programs living happily in the new matrix. There are no humans present, so it makes me wonder if Neo actually saved the people from the matrix or if he killed all of them when he made all the Smiths explode. The film never answers this question, and before I had time to ponder this possible tragic ending, the credits rolled.
And so The Matrix (shouldn’t really have been a) trilogy comes to its slightly epic conclusion. Needless to say, I liked this film. It’s not a good film, but I liked watching it in the same way I liked watching “Spider-Man 3”. If a film is outlandish and over the top enough, then some enjoyment can be found in it.
Even the absolute most terrible parts of "The Matrix Revolutions" are better than all of "The Matrix Reloaded", because ridiculousness is more enjoyable than pointlessness, however both pf these films are a waste of time compared to their superior original. More or less, I'm glad this whole thing's over.
The Matrix Revolutions is the ultimate climax of the entire series. It has flaws but it always maintained enough focus in order to see this franchise through. The screenplay dragged it's feet a couple of times (Trinity, die already), but it did manage to carry itself through all the way to its respective conclusion.
The action scenes felt like they were cool. Most of them featured giant robot mech suits fighting an onslaught of machines. As the battle progressed, I couldn’t help but think, “there must be a better way to fight these machines than in these suits”, but then again the first film told me the EMP was the only weapon the humans had against the machines, so the lack of effectiveness makes sense. Either way it was cool watching these machines clash in their bloody battle.
The final fight of this franchise is Neo vs. Agent Smith in the rain while a large choir sings. It was a bit of a let down to not see all of the Agent Smith’s fight (considering he assimilated every single person and program in the matrix), but it was refreshing to see these two fight in hand to hand combat. One of the coolest visual effects elements was that every time Agent Smith and Neo would fly and crash into each other the force of their impact would blast away all of the rain surrounding them in to a massive water sphere. Overall I thought the fight was decent.
Their battle interestingly enough ends with Neo being assimilated by Agent Smith, and then all the Agent Smiths explode. The film ends showing all of the programs living happily in the new matrix. There are no humans present, so it makes me wonder if Neo actually saved the people from the matrix or if he killed all of them when he made all the Smiths explode. The film never answers this question, and before I had time to ponder this possible tragic ending, the credits rolled.
And so The Matrix (shouldn’t really have been a) trilogy comes to its slightly epic conclusion. Needless to say, I liked this film. It’s not a good film, but I liked watching it in the same way I liked watching “Spider-Man 3”. If a film is outlandish and over the top enough, then some enjoyment can be found in it.
Even the absolute most terrible parts of "The Matrix Revolutions" are better than all of "The Matrix Reloaded", because ridiculousness is more enjoyable than pointlessness, however both pf these films are a waste of time compared to their superior original. More or less, I'm glad this whole thing's over.
No comments:
Post a Comment