The Matrix

[JarodRussell]

I've seen the end of Matrix Revolutions again today, and I hated it just like years ago (I actually thought that would change over time like it happened with my opinion about many other movies, but no). What the hell were they thinking?!

I loved The Matrix because - despite being new and shiny and mysterious - it was also surprisingly straight forward, no bullshit at all. You got to know everything you needed to know as soon as you needed it to know, the twists and characters made perfect sense. I left the cinema completely satisfied, there were no questions that I felt were unanswered.

And then came Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions and turned it into a convoluted mess. The ending to all of it felt like they didn't have the slightest idea where they were actually going. And it didn't answer anything. When in Reloaded Neo was told that he isn't actually the first one, I thought, okay, let's see how that one turns out. And it didn't turn out at all. It was completely forgotten about.

But then again, my biggest gripe with the ending of Revolutions was that it just was so fucking over the top. Yeah, it's Neo and Smith in a computer generated world, they can do anything they want... but geez, it just didn't end, and they kept going, and it got crazier and crazier... ugh.

I wonder how Reeves or Weaving are feeling about these movies today.

 

[TheBrew]

IIRC (since I haven't seen the movies in a while) Neo not being the first one was explained. The One is actually a failsafe within the Matrix to prevent reoccurring catastrophic failure (i.e. more and more people waking up) by escalating the battle to the point where the system was reset and Zion wiped out. The cycle then repeats.

 

[Aeon]

I understood and liked the overall idea behind the sequels, but there is no denying that they are a horrible mess. Something definitely went wrong with the scripts.

 

[Morpheus 02]

IIRC (since I haven't seen the movies in a while) Neo not being the first one was explained. The One is actually a failsafe within the Matrix to prevent reoccurring catastrophic failure (i.e. more and more people waking up) by escalating the battle to the point where the system was reset and Zion wiped out. The cycle then repeats.

So says the guy who created an ENTIRE world that is fictional (i.e. the Matrix)...just because he says something, doesn't mean its true (or that there is some truth that is twisted into a believable lie)

 

[Starbreaker]

I still don't understand Matrix Revolutions. I pretty much just watch the action scenes in Zion.

 

[RoJoHen]

I actually tried to watch the first Matrix movie a couple months ago and was blown away by how BORED I was! Yeah, it was groundbreaking for its time, but so much has managed to surpass it in the years since its release that it has lost all re-watchability for me.

 

[spinnerlys]

I too was confused by all this bullshit the two Matrix sequels offered and was astonished by this fuck up the two brothers delivered to use.

When I watched one of those two Matrix sequels in the cinema, I don't remember which, maybe I haven't even seen the last part in the cinema, it was running its third day (Saturday) and the cinema had only twenty people in its audience and I think it could hold 400 or 500 people in it. It was the 22.00 screening though, maybe many people had better things to do.

Shit, I forgot why I posted.
Have a look at The Animatrix, which I quite liked, despite me not really liking anime.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I still don't understand Matrix Revolutions. I pretty much just watch the action scenes in Zion.

That's the only thing I find redeeming about the sequels as well.

It's sad because these three movies were marketed as "the thinking man's action films," but really the only good part was when shit got blowed up real good.

 

[Dream]

Remember when the Matrix was the coolest thing ever?

Everyone said that we would just need to wait for the Revolutions to get all the answers to our questions.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

 

[sojourner]

I still thought the "superhero" fight between Neo and Smith in the third movie was awesome. It just should have taken place in Superman Returns.

 

[Myasishchev]

I still thought the "superhero" fight between Neo and Smith in the third movie was awesome. It just should have taken place in Superman Returns.

Man after my own heart, this one.

Without getting into the whole thing again, the Matrix series was fine right up until the last few seconds of Revolutions.

 

[Gaith]

I think a big issue was the massive tonal disconnect between the first movie and the sequels. In the first movie, the Matrix was portrayed as a monolithic playground run by Agents, with the Oracle as the lone non-Resistance singular entity. But that was too restrictive a vision for more than one story, so the sequels threw all sorts of rogue and feuding programs at us. While that world was quite interesting in its own right, the scripts really dropped the ball on not having the character be noticeably surprised by this shift.

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ That's a good idea, especially since they went to the trouble of having the characters notice that a different actress was playing the Oracle in Revolutions.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I really enjoy The Matrix and even their sequels for what they are. I think The Matrix Reloaded introduced a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts into the franchise that didn't exist before. Some may think it overly convoluted the series, but at least it kept things interesting and relevant. However, I don't think the Wachowski's did a good enough job at integrating those ideas into the subsequent films well enough.

I think the sequence with the Architect in Reloaded, for example, alluding that even the real world might be an illusion, was way too philosophically jumbled to even cohesively understand. I mean, I think I got it, but I always had to really think about, and at that point, I was pretty much over it. I think Inception honestly handled its philosophy better than at least the later two Matrix movies did. For some reason I feel like as a sub-conscious response to all the ideas and themes and thoughts cobbled together into Reloaded that the Wachowski's felt it necessary to make Revolutions less philosophical and more straight-forward, however I think all of the revelations toward the end felt not as interesting or compelling as I thought they were going to be. In the end, verses constructively expanding the ideology of the first film, I think the sequels unnecessarily diluted the premise and concept. I don't think anyone leaving the theater after The Matrix Revolutions felt any positive sensation or desire to re-visit this world. If anything I think it put a damper on it.

I still maintain that Dark City was a much more cinematically provocative film than any of the Matrix movies, but I digress.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I think the sequence with the Architect in Reloaded, for example, alluding that even the real world might be an illusion, was way too philosophically jumbled to even cohesively understand.

I think everything in the sequels, aside from the action scenes in Zion, is way too philosophically jumbled to understand.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I agree that the philosophical subjects they brought up within the sequels just weren't really well executed and explained well enough for an audience to grasp what they were trying to touch on. I love the first "Matrix" film...could take or leave the sequels. I agree about the Smith/Neo fight, it was more Dragonball Z than Superman but I was thinking about Superman at the time.

 

[Set Harth]

I think the sequence with the Architect in Reloaded, for example, alluding that even the real world might be an illusion, was way too philosophically jumbled to even cohesively understand.

As I recall, the part of Reloaded which had people speculating "the real world might be an illusion" -- i.e. another Matrix -- was when Neo had the ability to affect the Sentinels in the "real world". But ultimately Revolutions did not go in that direction.

One could also blame the first film's DVD packaging...

 

[JarodRussell]

They totally dropped the ball on the Architect. In Reloaded it was all about this great revelation that Neo wasn't the first One and that there had been many, many, many Matrices before.

And in Revolutions, it's totally forgotten about. Neo goes to the Oracle "Why didn't you tell me." - "Yeah well, you didn't ask, and now you know, go on." - "Uhm, okay." And then... NOTHING.

 

[stj]

The mystery to me is why people like The Matrix so much. The instigator of the action is the Oracle about whom we know nothing. The world is supposed to be one where somehow machines get more energy out of people than they expend feeding them, which is grotesquely stupid. Either the Oracle somehow knows about the real world, which makes no sense, or that guy who amazingly survives Cypher's attack, then save Neo just in the nick of time is a miracle of plotting. It makes no sense that Neo just comes back to life in the story, even if there is really cornball music telling us to feel all triumphant. Neo and Trinity slaughter real people by the dozen without turning a hair, which is a new low in the cool, no matter how well they're dressed.

The movie is pretty bad, saved partly by a new departure in FX, an inspired rationalization for wacky stunts that defy physics and Keanu Reeves' performance. If you didn't like Keanu Reeves' performance, how the hell could you tolerate this move? Even if you did like Reeves, how is The Matrix good?

 

[Joel_Kirk]

The sequels didn't need to happen.

The mystery of The Matrix, of Morpheus, the agents...went downhill....

(And Trinity didn't look that hot in Revolutions or Reloaded....although, Monica Belucci was pretty delicious as Persephone).

Hmmmm....Persephone...

I like that name.