Matrix Revolutions--Holy CRAP

[Robert Maxwell]

I thought Reloaded built substantially on the mythology started by the original. Revolutions was a total letdown, though. The battle scenes were cool but frankly I expected something a little more thoughtful than "a bunch of shit gets blowed up." The first two movies at least paid lip service to some basic philosophy, but the third jettisoned all that in favor of kewl 'splosions. Yawn. The attitude seemed to be "bigger is better." I would counter that "different is better." There was nothing in the third movie to make it stand apart and provide a satisfying conclusion. And the vast majority of the fighting was being done by characters I barely knew and didn't care about, which sapped all the urgency and drama from it. Bleh.

I don't know how such a promising franchise went so horribly wrong, except that, yeah, they must have stolen the story for the first film.

 

[Trekker4747]

Thirded. (Is that even a word? I'm getting a 'correction' red line under it, so I guess not..)

Anywho, 'The Matrix' used to be one of my favorites, but not so much now.

Maybe the sequels tainted it for me?

Saying "seconded" is just a more higher-brow way of saying "ditto" it doesn't actually mean you're the second person to agree. You could be the millionth person to agree and you'd still say "seconded."

Anyway, it's been a while since I've seen any of the movies but I think the sequels really hurt the original which as I recall was a well-made movie with a lot of potential, some great sci-fi elements in it and some fun pseudo-philosophy BS in it.

The sequels were just pure crap and eroded the original one.

As for comparisons to Lost I see it but I think Lost is worst. In The Matrix the original one set up this fantastical world with some looming consequences and nice building action to the freeing of humanity. This all culminated to a movie that pretty much ignored the whole "real world" thing in favor of giving Neo super-powers in the real world and a final "battle" which resulted in a stalemate. Free humanity my ass.

Lost on the other hand? Was four seasons an interesting mystery filled with questions, a season of meh, and a season of WTF that resulted in not answering a damn thing. So, pretty much, every question they raised over six seasons pretty much went unanswered with a shrug.

At least The Matrix sort-of answered questions or made resolutions to the problems it raised, the answers just sucked.

 

[The Wormhole]

I actually thought Reloaded was a worthy sequel. As for Revolutions, well, the big Smith/Neo fight at the end was cool.

 

[Beagleman]

Love all three Matrix movies - love 'em I tell ya. Don't understand the hate. Watching the trilogy straight through on Blu-ray is an awesome experience.

I'm right there with ya! I don't rewatch them very often but I still love all three, never got the hate...

 

[Trekker4747]

I actually thought Reloaded was a worthy sequel. As for Revolutions, well, the big Smith/Neo fight at the end was cool.

Re loaded was... ok. But the FX in it were worse than the first one and I think the pseudo-philosophy was a bit over-done. I mean there was stuff in it that just didn't fit and really helped nothing (the woman in the restaurant with the exploding vagina of cheesecake goodness) and don't get be started on the "burly brawl" scene.

 

[label]

Count me as one who still enjoys the Matrix very much, but never cared for the sequels. Reloaded had a few redeeming aspects but revolutions was almost wholly devoid of those.

Matrix : 9.2/10
Reloaded: 6/10
Revolutions: 4.6/10

 

[Too Much Fun]

Did anyone not bother with Revolutions in the first place? I thought the first sequel was okay. A lot more bloated than the original and certainly boring in parts, but the hilariously crazy fight with the Smiths and freeway sequence were worth the price of admission. When it said "to be concluded" at the end, I thought to myself, "yeah, I'll be there", but then the reviews were so bad, I lost all interest. I regret nothing. I feel no frustration from lack of closure because I simply stopped caring.

 

[Goliath]

I still like the first movie, and even the second. The last time I watched Reloaded, I found myself thinking what a kick-ass action movie it was.

Unfortunately, that's all it was. And the third movie--meh. Like so many other people, I found Revolutions a serious, Prequel-trilogy let-down.

 

[FPAlpha]

The sequels suffered from a too successful initial unique movie. The writers/producers (in this case the Wachowski brothers) managed a unique hit and spent all their ammunition on this movie.. this being Hollywood one cannot lay a successful movie to rest if there's the slightes possibility for a sequel and Matrix was wide open for one.

So the writers had to scramble fast to write something up to the quality of the first movie but since they never gave it much thought the result is almost always subpar.. i just remember how much they hyped their own sequels.. "Fight scenes the like have never been seen before!!11!!" - there was even talk about zero g fight choreographies.
But instead we only got more wire fu/bullet time fights and most of them were not really all that because the novelty has rubbed off.

I liked the additional stuff that broadened the universe.. the comic book, Animatrix and the game but the sequels were forgettable.. a cool scene here and there but that was it (the fight for Zion and the APU corps was cool though).

 

[Professor Zoom]

If I had the time, I'd give that a shot. For starters, you could lose upwards of 15 minutes just from the car chase sequence in Reloaded. But I just don't care enough about the trilogy to make the time. The first film was fun, the others were, at best, pretentious.

I don't think it's possible to just reedit the two and make a decent film.

It goes SO off the rails. The whole battle of Zion...ugh...I HATED all of the characters, I was sort of rooting for the machines.

To me, the problem is the point of the Matrix--the first one--we are here to FREE people, it's US vs. The Machines. And with the 2nd one, it expanded, now it's not just US vs. The Machines, it's US vs The Machines, US vs Stray Programs and THEN Us vs. Smith, Smith Vs. the machines. A muddle of conflict.

A good action movie (and the Matrix films are action movies) should have really clear conflicts. Not a pile that is ultimately distracting.

The mervingian? WTF.

So the humans in black being freedom fighters seemed to be pushed to the side.

I didn't care about Zion. I didn't care. All of them were walking talking cliches.

So, just reediting, won't help. I think destroying the negatives would be the only thing.

 

[RoJoHen]

I didn't care about Zion. I didn't care. All of them were walking talking cliches.

I agree. First of all, I didn't understand Zion. You have to completely white and shiny control room for the ships, yet the rest of the place looks like cave with random machines everywhere. And they entertain themselves by throwing S&M raves. Fucking weird.

Then there are the characters, who are just boring as hell! I really could not bring myself to care about the wellbeing of Zion.

 

[Samurai8472]

Reloaded bored me to sleep with the massive CGI Agent Smith pile up during the park brawl.

There was no emotion in the fight. It was just empty CGI.

 

[doubleohfive]

There were some fun set-pieces but a lot of what was Reloaded and Revolutions really fell flat for me, and neither were particularly memorable. Add to this the extreme explanations some people have postulated over the years about 'what it all means' when really they were just two bad movies rushed in to production together ... well, someone upthread suggested the term "missed opportunity" and they were right on the money.

Lost on the other hand? Was four seasons an interesting mystery filled with questions, a season of meh, and a season of WTF that resulted in not answering a damn thing. So, pretty much, every question they raised over six seasons pretty much went unanswered with a shrug.

You missed the point of the series entirely, it sounds like.

 

[Squiggy]

Revolutions was so bad it retroactively made the first movie a little dull.

 

[777]

Last night, just for a lark, I rewatched Matrix. Great movie. Beginning to end.

Coincidentally, the whole Matrix trilogy was on TV today. I just finished watching Matrix Revolutions.

Holy crap. I forgot how bad it is.

I know I'm just slagging off... But, seriously, cliche dialogue delivered by cardboard characters.

I was thinking of starting a poll about which is the most annoying characters in sci-fi.

At first, only the Kid would have been represented on the list, but then, slowly...I wanted to add:

Mifune
Niobe
Lock
Merovingian
even Morpheus became annoying.

At the end, when the Kid is running through Zion screaming, "it's over! It's over!" I was really hoping a strain Sentinel would just punch a metal arm through him.

I haven't seen it since it first came out, and then I was just disappointed. Watching it this time, I'm just mad. MAD. What a wasted opportunity.

I seriously got a headache watching it.

I think they just got lucky with The Matrix.

Let's not forget that the Bible is also full of cliches...

Huh?? How is that statement relevant to the Matrix?

 

[knine]

First was great. Second continued some of that greatness, but then we had to throw in Zion and some stupid bits here and there, and then end it with a big WTF. I had hoped the third would fix that WTF, but it was more Zion, dumb annoying boy and before long I found myself bored and wanting it to be over.

 

[Avalon]

First of all, I didn't understand Zion. You have to completely white and shiny control room for the ships, yet the rest of the place looks like cave with random machines everywhere.

The control room didn't actually exist -- it was a virtual control room. Which is seriously ironic, if you ask me...

 

[Trekker4747]

There were some fun set-pieces but a lot of what was Reloaded and Revolutions really fell flat for me, and neither were particularly memorable. Add to this the extreme explanations some people have postulated over the years about 'what it all means' when really they were just two bad movies rushed in to production together ... well, someone upthread suggested the term "missed opportunity" and they were right on the money.

Lost on the other hand? Was four seasons an interesting mystery filled with questions, a season of meh, and a season of WTF that resulted in not answering a damn thing. So, pretty much, every question they raised over six seasons pretty much went unanswered with a shrug.

You missed the point of the series entirely, it sounds like.

Possibly, but the whole series set up all these questions and mythos and stuff and it gave us nothing in return. If they wanted to do this dramatic character study stuff they could've done it without throwing out all of the crazy island shit.

 

[RoJoHen]

But they didn't throw it out. Pretty much every single mystery, if you were paying attention, was explained. They just weren't explained outright. You had to put the puzzle together yourself a little bit, but the pieces were definitely there.

 

[Trekker4747]

But they didn't throw it out. Pretty much every single mystery, if you were paying attention, was explained. They just weren't explained outright. You had to put the puzzle together yourself a little bit, but the pieces were definitely there.

Ehhh I dunno. It left me unsatisfied and like I had wasted the last six years of my life watching the show and getting involved with it, the mystery and the characters. Seriously, to the point I'm contemplating selling my DVD sets because with an ending like that it makes me think the series isn't fucking worth it. The only way it could've been worse would be if it had a St. Elsewhere ending.