![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Teh Martix Realvolves
Just got back from seeing The Matrix: Revolutions with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batelf. ("We are not a couple.") Not as bad as I had been led to believe.
No, it's not the greatest film in the world ever ever EVAR, but then it was never going to be. I mean, in all honesty, it's a more than worthy final episode in the Matrix trilogy, considering how much it shares with the first two movies - fantastic effects, mediocre dialogue and wooden acting. You can't complain about the cheesy dialogue in Revolutions "You did it!" "No ... We did it." Mm, ah, mug to camera, say cheeeeese) without acknowledging the creaky scripting in part 1 ("Dodge this!" ... if you've got time to say it, he's got time to dodge it). And at least that captain who thought everybody was "Out of their God-Damned minds" was consistent.
The Cookies line almost worked. I imagine it was intended as a terrible juxtaposition - a schmaltzy line used in an inappropriate context in order to convey a direct message. Everybody knows it means "I have digested your charming little girl." Saying it like that just drives it home. Or is supposed to. I think it just about managed.
Lots of calling upon God. And with the climax's crucifiction scene, I can sort of see why some people are complaining about religious content. Setting Neo up as the messiah and all that.
Knowing Neo and Trinity die in advance may actually have improved the film for me. Normally there's a feeling of "oh, they'll be fine" but this time there was actual tension every time they encountered a life-threatening situation. Of course, I knew they couldn't die until after they saved the world, but there was still an actual twinge. I think I actually giggled at Trinity's death scene when it came ... I was expecting the camera to pull back and there to be one pylon sticking through her, but there were three or four of the buggers. So none of that 'oh noes! She would have been alright if she had fallen three feet to the left' business to feel bad about. Priceless. Worth the admission fee alone, seeing as how I pay a monthly rate for as many movies as I want so technically paid nothing.
People complain about plot holes ... there's a few thin patches but nothing really gaping. Sure, there's some things that aren't explained explicitly, but they're not essential to the plot and can easily be covered by any number of the mechanisms already in place. I think the main one is that Neo doesn't at any point use his ability to "bend the Matrix to his will". He can reach into the code and change it as he wants, but he doesn't seem to have developed any new skill with this since the end of the first movie. He can fly and he's super-strong, and he can stop bullets with his mind. Nothing else, just bullets. A fight A la Dark City would have been cool, tearing up the pavement and throwing buildings with your mind or whatever. (Oh, yeah, there's the "explode machines" power but that's strictly real-world so doesn't count here.) So, Neo's just none too bright and doesn't think of trying anything like that.batelf told me that the Whateverski brothers always said that their aim with the Matrix trilogy was to make a believable superhero - essentially creating the whole Matrix scenario as a world where super-human abilities are explicable - but really, if that was thir goal they should have limited Neo's powers from the get-go rather than just relying on him being stupid. If Revolutions had been a simple superhero movie the final fight would have been fitting but as it was I just sat thinking "Why does it always come down to a fist-fight for this guy? He's a computer programmer, he should be tweaking Smith's code so that he turns into cherry blossom or whatever". Still, it was visually appealing. The few human fights were nicely choreographed and the many ship-fights were solidly put together. Even as the driller's leg was being shot out, I was wondering why some of those swarms of sentinels didn't just jump in there and prop it up until it broke the surface, so it was nice to see them eventually club together and power it up. Oh ... yeah, there's another of those plot holes - Why in God's name was there only one infantry team launching shells? Was everybody else in that one tunnel that collapsed?
A theory. The Oracle said that Smith is "you." What if he is, in a literal rather than metaphorical sense? Smith never actually came back from deletion ... the Smith that ran around consuming people was a puppet controlled by Neo's subconscious, his fears given digital flesh. Neo's restricted by his perceptions of reality, but his subconscious (as in dreams) is not. Just one possible interpretation of events.
Yeah, so anyway ... about what I expected. Diverting eye-candy, nothing really very deep. Will probably buy the trilogy box-set when it comes out. It is inevitable.
batelf. ("We are not a couple.") Not as bad as I had been led to believe.No, it's not the greatest film in the world ever ever EVAR, but then it was never going to be. I mean, in all honesty, it's a more than worthy final episode in the Matrix trilogy, considering how much it shares with the first two movies - fantastic effects, mediocre dialogue and wooden acting. You can't complain about the cheesy dialogue in Revolutions "You did it!" "No ... We did it." Mm, ah, mug to camera, say cheeeeese) without acknowledging the creaky scripting in part 1 ("Dodge this!" ... if you've got time to say it, he's got time to dodge it). And at least that captain who thought everybody was "Out of their God-Damned minds" was consistent.
The Cookies line almost worked. I imagine it was intended as a terrible juxtaposition - a schmaltzy line used in an inappropriate context in order to convey a direct message. Everybody knows it means "I have digested your charming little girl." Saying it like that just drives it home. Or is supposed to. I think it just about managed.
Lots of calling upon God. And with the climax's crucifiction scene, I can sort of see why some people are complaining about religious content. Setting Neo up as the messiah and all that.
Knowing Neo and Trinity die in advance may actually have improved the film for me. Normally there's a feeling of "oh, they'll be fine" but this time there was actual tension every time they encountered a life-threatening situation. Of course, I knew they couldn't die until after they saved the world, but there was still an actual twinge. I think I actually giggled at Trinity's death scene when it came ... I was expecting the camera to pull back and there to be one pylon sticking through her, but there were three or four of the buggers. So none of that 'oh noes! She would have been alright if she had fallen three feet to the left' business to feel bad about. Priceless. Worth the admission fee alone, seeing as how I pay a monthly rate for as many movies as I want so technically paid nothing.
People complain about plot holes ... there's a few thin patches but nothing really gaping. Sure, there's some things that aren't explained explicitly, but they're not essential to the plot and can easily be covered by any number of the mechanisms already in place. I think the main one is that Neo doesn't at any point use his ability to "bend the Matrix to his will". He can reach into the code and change it as he wants, but he doesn't seem to have developed any new skill with this since the end of the first movie. He can fly and he's super-strong, and he can stop bullets with his mind. Nothing else, just bullets. A fight A la Dark City would have been cool, tearing up the pavement and throwing buildings with your mind or whatever. (Oh, yeah, there's the "explode machines" power but that's strictly real-world so doesn't count here.) So, Neo's just none too bright and doesn't think of trying anything like that.
batelf told me that the Whateverski brothers always said that their aim with the Matrix trilogy was to make a believable superhero - essentially creating the whole Matrix scenario as a world where super-human abilities are explicable - but really, if that was thir goal they should have limited Neo's powers from the get-go rather than just relying on him being stupid. If Revolutions had been a simple superhero movie the final fight would have been fitting but as it was I just sat thinking "Why does it always come down to a fist-fight for this guy? He's a computer programmer, he should be tweaking Smith's code so that he turns into cherry blossom or whatever". Still, it was visually appealing. The few human fights were nicely choreographed and the many ship-fights were solidly put together. Even as the driller's leg was being shot out, I was wondering why some of those swarms of sentinels didn't just jump in there and prop it up until it broke the surface, so it was nice to see them eventually club together and power it up. Oh ... yeah, there's another of those plot holes - Why in God's name was there only one infantry team launching shells? Was everybody else in that one tunnel that collapsed?A theory. The Oracle said that Smith is "you." What if he is, in a literal rather than metaphorical sense? Smith never actually came back from deletion ... the Smith that ran around consuming people was a puppet controlled by Neo's subconscious, his fears given digital flesh. Neo's restricted by his perceptions of reality, but his subconscious (as in dreams) is not. Just one possible interpretation of events.
Yeah, so anyway ... about what I expected. Diverting eye-candy, nothing really very deep. Will probably buy the trilogy box-set when it comes out. It is inevitable.
no subject
Theory: He was a computer programmer, and an unimaginative one at that; all of the enlightenment he received took much time and effort on the part of his teachers. If "the one" had been a painter or sculptor, perhaps a more surreal and perpendicular solution would have presented itself in his mind. But he usually fell back on what he knew, and given the way he was trained upon being freed from the matrix, Neo had a double-major in code and ass-kick and that's it.
He not a programmer...
Re: He not a programmer...
Also there were many, cooler ways to handle the climax. I would have liked the black tarlike infection process to slowly clear to show the Agent suit (as it did), then move upwards and reveal ... it's Neo, still in control. Smug grin, pithy one-liner, Agents Smith all melt away, possibly screaming. It was all part of Neo's master plan. But no, he's just a tuna sandwich; his big plan was in fact "I go in and hit him lots."
Meh. Still pretty, and Seraph was cool.