Matrix Revolutions SPOILER filled discussion [and my review]

Kai Lord

Hero
I think a thread is in order for those who want to discuss Matrix Revolutions without having to deal with four pages of blacked out posts so here it is.

Now for my review.

Short version. Wonderfully entertaining. Thumbs up. Not as good as the original, but much, much better than Reloaded. Thank goodness. Overall three out of four stars.

Longer version.

The first 20 or so minutes were "meh" at best. Clearly just clearing the story of that nasty "Reloaded" residue. The Train-man chase was utterly ridiculous. The guy hobbles along as if his shoes were tied together while they repeatedly cut back to the badass Morpheus, Trinity, and Seraph in full sprint and never gaining on him. Then the shoot out with the ceiling walkers was the most uninspired gunfight of the series. I can see how it would have looked good on paper but it was almost yawn inducing on film. But once they said goodbye to the Merovingian, Neo and Bane woke up and everything stepped up a notch BIG time.

I LOVED the climactic action sequences in Revolutions. Unlike in Reloaded, they actually had narrative weight and served a real purpose this time around. The Zion fight was spectacular and was what, 40 minutes? Too cool. Nice to see the W. Bros provide a pay off to all the anticipation of the machines reaching the humans, even if the squiddies did at times seem much more concerned with forming pretty tentacle patterns in the air instead of just swarming over the humans. But it was a visual marvel and fiercely kinetic. Chalk up rushing out to replace the ammo in the Power Armors as possibly the worst. job. ever. :cool:

And all I could think about when Niobe was crashing through the mechanical tunnel on their frenzied run to the Zion docks was this was how Lando's attack on the second Death Star should have gone!

And forget Dragon Ball Z (which I've never seen a single episode of) for me the Neo/Smith fight was pure Superman II. Very cool. I still wish Neo busted out some of the "fist bouquets" he did in the original but I remember watching that and marveling at how well they pulled off showcasing an "epic kung fu fight." With a ton of state of the art Superman/Zod-isms.

The actress playing the Oracle actually did a much better job than Gloria Foster, but the explanation for why she changed forms was very clumsy. At least they addressed it.

The ending was great. I loved all the anime references. The swirling squiddies around the power armors and structures on the Zion docks reminded me of the worm ridden "demons" from Princess Mononoke. And the falling squiddies after the EMP appeared as the many kodama spirits falling from the trees when the Forest Spirit lost its head.

The surface world was very "Nausicaa" what with the collosal beetles spewing their "spore squiddies." And I really liked Neo's teaming with the "Face" of the machine city. A great touch that it was made up of many smaller squiddies.

Trinity's death had been spoiled for me, but I didn't know how it was going to happen and would have been very good if her last speech was at most half as long as it was. As for asking Keanu Reeves to get all weepy and actually emote, (through a blindfold no less!) have mercy and make it short!

Bane was cool. Neo should have immediately recognized that it was Smith but the actor playing Bane was badass. Really nailed Hugo Weaving's cadence and mannerisms.

The ending was satisfying, and wrapped up the series nicely. I was surprised that the machines agreed to a truce and would free all the humans, but the way they did it made sense.

I don't get the criticisms about how Neo killed Smith at all. Of course it was ambiguous, because for all the time the Wachowski Brothers spent trumpeting "belief," and "choice" and the "source", they obviously wanted to play it safe and let each member of the audience fill in the blank as to what the source of Neo's power really was. Is it God? Power of the human spirit? Magic?

In strictly sci-fi terms I think it was pretty obvious he acquired his heightened power at the end from being jacked directly into Machine City, and that was what caught Smith off guard and allowed Neo to merge with and expunge the source of Smith's essence. All Smith's were connected, so doing it to one did it to all. It was much less ambiguous than when Neo killed Smith at the end of the first Matrix, but on a scale that ended the war. Of course a lot of people scratched their heads over the first film, but I wasn't one of them and loved how the series got back to its roots. Merge with Smith, blow him up. Lather rinse repeat until he's gone, which Neo did.

I can't say I was in love with the final epilogue. Had a bit of a "deleted old Sarah Connor at the playground ending of T2" vibe to it. But even that gets a passing grade (barely.)

Overall Revolutions was just a fun, thrilling conclusion to the saga that showed much more restraint when it needed it than its "predecessor." I'm impressed.
 
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Hey Kai Lord!
Thaks for the "short version" I read it real quick and didn't peak at the longer spoiler filled version, I haven't had a chance to see it yet but once I have I'll come back and see what you had to say in the longer version.

It's funny....I didn't actaully see the first or second one in the theater, is it ironic that I will see only the 3rd one in the theater?! haha!!


I wasn't crazy about the second one...it was "ok" but I think too many people have read too much into what is basically just a "sciFi-techno thriller / action movie."


I am kind of looking forward to seeing the 3rd one though and that is more than I can say about the second one...I Only watched it because my sister bought the DVD. Although I would have likely rented it once I had decided to see the 3rd.

:cool:
 

Short, Spoiler-free Review:

I agree with Kai in that it was much better than the 2nd movie. It explained enough, left enough unsaid, and generally didn't treat you like you were too stupid to have understood the first two movies.

HOWEVER, I thought Revolutions felt much more like a typical action movie than does the series justice. The characters just felt more...stale? Trite? The acting a bit stiffer perhaps? On occasion, some of them even seemed to break character but perhaps they were experiencing paradigm shifts of one degree or another.

Ultimately, the movie lacked the "Whoa" of the first movie but made up for the the "Huh?" or "WHY?" of the second.



Longer Spoiler/Discussion



Again, I agree with Kai on the movie's kickoff. The whole Trainman thing could have been scrapped. It seemed a contrivance to allow two things to happen (to use the Matrix vernacular): allow Neo to appreciate that machines have feelings too (aww...), and capitalize on the absolute entertainment that was the Merovingean from Reloaded. Great character! But much as I love him, the whole scenario left a bad taste in my mouth. Could have been done another way.

The middle of the movie makes up for it in spades, though. All the character buildup from the 2nd movie takes on meaning and I found myself attached to the imperiled humans of Zion. Yes the Niobe-pilots-through-the-Death-Star scene was also a bit stretched, but it was still entertaining. "Damn she's got a fat ass". :D

Neo and Trinity's flight felt a little like the sojourn of Jodie Foster in "Contact". Violent, then surreal, then awakening. The machine city was excellent. The face appearing was a little cheesy but perhaps that's what the W. Bros were going for at that point.

My theory on the death of Agent Smith is this (prepare yourself): The Oracle in the original movie told Neo he wasn't The One. He was waiting on something. When Neo destroys Smith in that movie, we get to see him as Matrix code and he is now yellow instead of green. He is now The One.

In the second movie, Neo sees Seraph in Matrix code as yellow and identifies him as a program. Curious? Smith reappears and explains to Neo that whenever he was destroyed, there was some kind "merging"- some change that occured. I think that essentially there was a blending of the two. Neo never destroys any other program in the way he did Smith, (although Smith certainly aquires a taste for it). Essentially, Neo is now part-human, part-program. This is why he is able to feel the Sentinels outside the Matrix. That was his "gift" from Agent Smith.

Smith, now a sort of virus/worm, is infecting the Matrix, sending it out of control in a way the machines cannot stop without Neo. Why? ...

When Smith copies a person, specifically another program, he seems to aquire a bit of their code. This is how he was able to see the future after copying over the Oracle. When Smith copies over Neo, it's the same as when he copied over Bane. When he woke up, he'd be in Neo-skin. More importantly, he gains Neo's sentience of machines which is how he sees his death/deletion coming. The "Master Program", sensing its newfound connection to all Smiths, proceeded to delete all the copies from there since it was hard-wired into the real-world Neo.

Whew! Thoughts?
 
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My biggest quibble w/ the movie is the title. IT IS NOT MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, it is Matrix peace treaty. Life is for the most part the same.

I cant help but think the sequel movies would have been better as a TV show. Reloaded threw so many ideas out there, that simply were not expanded upon in Revolutions. The nature of the machines is somewhat muddled, from very human, to incomprehensibly dense. Why given that emotions would seem to be common ground for both humans and machines, couldnt an acord be made earlier?

I love the fact that the humans never picked up on the fact that the oracle was yanking their chain and pulling the strings. How happy would the humans be if they knew the oracle had created Smith.
 

I will only amend one thing:
votecool.jpg
 


A few of my own comments as a reaction to those above:

The acting of the guy that Smith uploaded himself into was amazing. Probably the highlight of the movie. His masssteryyyy of the smith vooiice was incredible. :)

Kai Lord: what makes you think that the machines are freeing all of the humans? I didn't interpret that at all. When the oracle referred to the exiles being left alone at the end, I assume she meant exile programs.

Why was seraph's code gold in Reloaded? I thought that was reserved for machines in the real world.

I was dissapointed by the character of Morpheus being tossed aside. He got very little screen time. I suppose his time, as the herald of prophecy, was done. But still...

Anyways thats enough rambling for now.
 
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Velenne said:
SPOILERS.....


My theory on the death of Agent Smith is this (prepare yourself): The Oracle in the original movie told Neo he wasn't The One. He was waiting on something. When Neo destroys Smith in that movie, we get to see him as Matrix code and he is now yellow instead of green. He is now The One.

In the second movie, Neo sees Seraph in Matrix code as yellow and identifies him as a program. Curious? Smith reappears and explains to Neo that whenever he was destroyed, there was some kind "merging"- some change that occured. I think that essentially there was a blending of the two. Neo never destroys any other program in the way he did Smith, (although Smith certainly aquires a taste for it). Essentially, Neo is now part-human, part-program. This is why he is able to feel the Sentinels outside the Matrix. That was his "gift" from Agent Smith.

Smith, now a sort of virus/worm, is infecting the Matrix, sending it out of control in a way the machines cannot stop without Neo. Why? ...

When Smith copies a person, specifically another program, he seems to aquire a bit of their code. This is how he was able to see the future after copying over the Oracle. When Smith copies over Neo, it's the same as when he copied over Bane. When he woke up, he'd be in Neo-skin. More importantly, he gains Neo's sentience of machines which is how he sees his death/deletion coming. The "Master Program", sensing its newfound connection to all Smiths, proceeded to delete all the copies from there since it was hard-wired into the real-world Neo.

Whew! Thoughts?

Very good theory. Probably the best and most concise I've seen and it wraps all my own theories together in a sensible compilation.

Good job!
 
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uv23 said:
Kai Lord: what makes you think that the machines are freeing all of the humans? I didn't interpret that at all. When the oracle referred to the exiles being left alone at the end, I assume she meant exile programs.

Why was seraph's code gold in Reloaded? I thought that was reserved for machines in the real world.

I was dissapointed by the character of Morpheus being tossed aside. He got very little screen time. I suppose his time, as the herald of prophecy, was done. But still...

Anyways thats enough rambling for now.

The Architect says that all those who want to will be freed.

Seraph's code was indeed yellow/gold. It wasn't the same as Neo's golden vision in Revolutions. It looked identical to "normal" matrix code, but was yellow/gold in color.

I missed Morpheus too. He should have taken Zee's time in the spotlight.
 
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Ashrem Bayle said:
The Architect says that all those who want to will be freed.

Hmm I don't remember the coversation at the end completely anymore but I remember thinking two things: the Oracle had negotiated for all of the exiled programs to be left alone, i.e. don't need to be smuggled around anymore. And that yes, humans could be allowed to leave the matrix, but not that they would be let go en masse or anything like that. So essentially, very little has changed for humanity...
 

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