I wanted to like it...

The Matrix Revolutions that is. Truely I did. How bad did I think it was? Well, let's just say that I'm temporarily putting my positivity mandate on hold for the duration of the review. Normal service will be resumed once I've gotten over it.

Spoilers ho...

I went into the cinema with an open mind, having largely succeeded in avoiding any commentary on the film. Needless to say, I was a big fan of the first film, and whilst I had a few gripes with the second film I enjoyed it for the most part - certainly it managed to throw up a number of interesting questions that I was looking forward ot seeing answered in the last of the trilogy... except for the most part they weren't. I just can't believe how much the film got wrong.

Oh, where to begin?

From the very beginning where we discover Neo stuck in a train station - why? What purpose did that scene serve? It took Neo off the board for a while, but it also told us nothing new. Consequently, the entire first act of the film came across as unnecessary padding. Neo was placed in danger in a completely arbitrary fashion - he faints, goes into a coma and somehow ends up trapped in the nether reaches of the matrix, and must then be rescued in an equally pointless and arbitrary fashion:

"Bring me the eyes of the Oracle and I shall return Neo to you."

"No."

"Oh, fine take him anyway then."

That entire act could quite happily be excised from the film without affecting later events. Admittedly it was an excuse for a big fight scene, something the series has excelled in, but even that seemed a little overly familiar. Yes, there were bad guys running around on the ceiling, which was novel enough, but didn't stop the scene feeling and largely playing out like the lobby scene in the first film. It was cool the first time around, but I was getting deja vu in a bad way the second. This extends to the repeat of Trinity's signature jumping kick - it simply overshadowed anything new that was going on.

I should also point out that the train station scene wasn't entirely without consequence since it also served as an introduction to The Cute Child. That would be the small, adorable helpless child who serves no purpose other than to be small, adorable and helpless so that our heart strings can be suitably tugged at the appropriate time. It didn't work. This leads into another of my gripes with the film. It scarely managed to generate a single genuine emotion. Where it tried it came across as manipulative (cf small child) and where it failed it came across as flat. Trinity's death should have been the emotional crux of the film and yet I was strangely unmoved by the scene. Again, it came across as being entirely arbitrary. It felt mechanical, as though to service the plot Trinity realised that she had to die at that point.

The capriciousness of the plot continued after Neo awoke from his coma:

"I need a ship."

"Why Neo?"

"I must go and resolve the plot, uh, I mean I must go to the machine city."

"But why Neo?"

"Uh, say, nice weather we're having. Did I mention that I need to go to the machine city?"

That's just plain sloppy scripting for which there's no excuse. When a character decides without warning or precedent that they need to be in a particular place at a particular time for no apparent reason other than to further the story, it's time to shoot the writers. This problem was repeated throughout the film, cool action sequences which barely manage to hold together around a poorly structured and badly thought out story.

Revolutions also committed a cardinal sin in failing to service all it's lead characters. Much of the appeal of the first film derived from the unflappable coolness of it's characters. Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus of the first Matrix for example. Here Morpheus is given virtually nothing to do. This might be excusable if there was too much else going on... which arguably there was - however near the entirety of the war in Zion focused on characters introduced in the second film who weren't terribly well defined and who, again, I had trouble caring about. Why not slot Morpheus into this battle - it would have increased the audiences stake in the war whilst giving Morpheus the shining moment he so clearly lacked. Instead he's reduced to sitting around playing cheerleader to Niobe - a far cry from the inspirational leader he was introduced as.

Sigh. And I haven't even gotten around to mentioning the film's sins of omission. Gaze back at the Reloaded for a moment. There were two moments that captured my attention and which made me rather look forward to seeing Revolutions. The first was the scene with the Architect, replete with revelations that Zion is not the first Zion and the role of the One is basically play Adam in the foundation of a new Zion. The second is the Neo's surprising ability to affect machines in the real world. Both indicated that events were happening on a larger tableau that had previously been indicated.

And how are they addressed in Revolutions? Well, the first is simply ignored - it's not referenced again, even in passing. Not even a tip of the hat to Chekhov's law. And the second? Well, when Neo asks the Oracle how he can affect things in the real world he gets this response: "You are the One." And that's pretty much that. I would honestly have been more impressed if the Oracle had simply answered "I don't know" or "You tell me" - instead we get a meaningless non-answer, followed by some additional verbal tap-dancing to make it clear that's the best answer we're going to get. In short events seem to be happening without rhyme, reason or explanation.

And so we wend and wind our way to the grand finale. Wait, you're thinking, why did you just jump to the end like that? I know I had similar thoughts during the film too. I don't have too much to say about actual fight between Neo and Agent Smith. Like nearly all the effects scenes in the film it was extremely well put together (whatever problems I had with the film were mostly story related - I really can't fault the effects work). I even noted one particular homage to a comic, Miracleman , when Agent Smith is hovering in the air framed by lightening. I will however fault the conclusion of the fight. It simply ends with what is arguably a literal deus ex machina. Smith consumes Neo and vanishes a twinkle of light. Why? Who knows? Is Neo left alive at the films conclusion? Who knows? There are some films where the refusal to answer questions is a strength. Here's it's a frustration. And please, God, we've had some two thousand years of Christ allegories. No more, I beg of you.

Sorry, I know I've been venting. It does frustrate me that I can find so little to praise in the film other than as technical tour de force. I tend to look upon that as much as a fault of myself as of the film itself. Wasted potential, or at least what I consider to be wasted potential, frustrates me more and more as the years pass by, and Matrix Revolutions practically buckles under the weight of it. The first film came came out of nowhere and was stunningly original. The sequels have easily excelled the production values set by the first, but are carried along by a story that seems confused, meandering, leaden and unengaging - traps the first Matrix defly avoided. Is it really that bad? I'm not sure. My feeling towards it are suprisingly visceral, so I can hardly claim objectivity on the matter? But could it have been better?

Yes.

Thought iMark at November 10, 2003 11:01 PM | TrackBack