Matrix Revolutions comments
Nov. 11th, 2003 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolinWell, I did say I'd post my comments.
There are people who loved this movie, and then there are the people who called into the radio station this morning to bash it in only five words. (The most prolific of these: "Bad romance, great fight scenes.")
I think I'm officially on the fence. I'd braced myself for pain the likes of "Highlander: Endgame," and thankfully it was nowhere that bad.
It seriously helped that I'd watched the short films of the Animatrix before seeing this flick - especially "Final Flight of the Osiris," "The Second Renaissance, Parts I and II," "Kid's Story," and even "Matriculated" (although that last one wasn't directly tied into the plot, it added some insight).
Is it just me, or did anyone else find themselves less hooked into Trinity and Neo than in previous films? I mean, in the other two - the "obligatory booty scene" in Reloaded notwithstanding - I felt like I was made to care more about the two of them. Here, they seemed sort of shoved to the side as soon as Trinity threatened the Merovingian into letting them get Neo.
The recasting of the Oracle was handled pretty well; they took the time to explain it without pounding it over our heads too much. But I had the feeling they could have just cut her scenes down - I don't know why.
I may be the only one, but I liked the conversation between Neo and Rama-Kandra at the train station. The discussion of love and connection was interesting. (Again, I referred back to some points made in "Animatrix" - love is a human emotion, but so is anger and arrogance, and if programs like Smith could pick up the last two, why wouldn't a program attempt to save its "child?")
The club scene was just damned frightening. But I was amused by the Merovingian (Plague, we are going to sit you down and have you translate EVERYTHING HE SAID in Reloaded someday soon), and the line about love having so much in common with insanity cracked me up. (Me: "Yeah, so what?") I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't follow up on what the hell was up with his wife - we thought there was more to that kiss she demanded from Neo - but I guess they had to cut it down.
Did anyone else sit there staring at Smith-in-Bane going, "Hello! It's Smith! Neo, get a freaking brain already, he's all but TOLD you who's really in there!" or am I just impatient?
As for the ending... some people complained that it wasn't happy enough. But come on - that was as happy as you could get while still being somewhat realistic. I didn't care for some of the overdone imagery, and the timeline seems a bit screwed up. We walked out of there debating just how long Zion had really been around... if Neo was the 6th "One," wouldn't it have only been around as long as he'd lived? Or do humans live longer in the Matrix?
So will someone enlighten me as to the correct name of the actor who played Seraph? He's listed as "Collin Chou," but if IMDB is to be believed, he's only used that name for a couple recent *cough*American*cough* films.
Another moment where "Animatrix" helped - Kid's role in getting the gate open to Zion. If you didn't see "Kid's Story," you wouldn't understand why the hell they made it so important for him to be the one to get the gate open. Without that, you'd probably be even more annoyed at the fact that he got the gate open while Mifune - who I thought was cool - died.
Was it cliche that Cas and Sabrina were the ones to get the lucky shot that took the drill out? Yes. Did I really care that much? Not really. I haven't seen this much female ass-kicking in one movie in a while.
When Kid ran down to the temple to yell "It's over! The war's over!" my first thought was, "That boy should not be allowed any sugar." My second thought, when they took it at face value and cheered with no proof, was, "Wouldn't that be a nasty prank to pull if you'd lost and were all about to die?"
All in all, it was okay. Hell of a technical achievement, although the symbolism was laid on too thick in places and the relationships we were supposed to care about got shoved aside a bit.
Non-spoilery stuff: "Animatrix" helped me understand this one slightly more than it helped with "Reloaded." I'd recommend watching "The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 and 2" and "Kid's Story" if you can; it'll make one or two things clearer.
There are people who loved this movie, and then there are the people who called into the radio station this morning to bash it in only five words. (The most prolific of these: "Bad romance, great fight scenes.")
I think I'm officially on the fence. I'd braced myself for pain the likes of "Highlander: Endgame," and thankfully it was nowhere that bad.
It seriously helped that I'd watched the short films of the Animatrix before seeing this flick - especially "Final Flight of the Osiris," "The Second Renaissance, Parts I and II," "Kid's Story," and even "Matriculated" (although that last one wasn't directly tied into the plot, it added some insight).
Is it just me, or did anyone else find themselves less hooked into Trinity and Neo than in previous films? I mean, in the other two - the "obligatory booty scene" in Reloaded notwithstanding - I felt like I was made to care more about the two of them. Here, they seemed sort of shoved to the side as soon as Trinity threatened the Merovingian into letting them get Neo.
The recasting of the Oracle was handled pretty well; they took the time to explain it without pounding it over our heads too much. But I had the feeling they could have just cut her scenes down - I don't know why.
I may be the only one, but I liked the conversation between Neo and Rama-Kandra at the train station. The discussion of love and connection was interesting. (Again, I referred back to some points made in "Animatrix" - love is a human emotion, but so is anger and arrogance, and if programs like Smith could pick up the last two, why wouldn't a program attempt to save its "child?")
The club scene was just damned frightening. But I was amused by the Merovingian (Plague, we are going to sit you down and have you translate EVERYTHING HE SAID in Reloaded someday soon), and the line about love having so much in common with insanity cracked me up. (Me: "Yeah, so what?") I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't follow up on what the hell was up with his wife - we thought there was more to that kiss she demanded from Neo - but I guess they had to cut it down.
Did anyone else sit there staring at Smith-in-Bane going, "Hello! It's Smith! Neo, get a freaking brain already, he's all but TOLD you who's really in there!" or am I just impatient?
As for the ending... some people complained that it wasn't happy enough. But come on - that was as happy as you could get while still being somewhat realistic. I didn't care for some of the overdone imagery, and the timeline seems a bit screwed up. We walked out of there debating just how long Zion had really been around... if Neo was the 6th "One," wouldn't it have only been around as long as he'd lived? Or do humans live longer in the Matrix?
So will someone enlighten me as to the correct name of the actor who played Seraph? He's listed as "Collin Chou," but if IMDB is to be believed, he's only used that name for a couple recent *cough*American*cough* films.
Another moment where "Animatrix" helped - Kid's role in getting the gate open to Zion. If you didn't see "Kid's Story," you wouldn't understand why the hell they made it so important for him to be the one to get the gate open. Without that, you'd probably be even more annoyed at the fact that he got the gate open while Mifune - who I thought was cool - died.
Was it cliche that Cas and Sabrina were the ones to get the lucky shot that took the drill out? Yes. Did I really care that much? Not really. I haven't seen this much female ass-kicking in one movie in a while.
When Kid ran down to the temple to yell "It's over! The war's over!" my first thought was, "That boy should not be allowed any sugar." My second thought, when they took it at face value and cheered with no proof, was, "Wouldn't that be a nasty prank to pull if you'd lost and were all about to die?"
All in all, it was okay. Hell of a technical achievement, although the symbolism was laid on too thick in places and the relationships we were supposed to care about got shoved aside a bit.
Non-spoilery stuff: "Animatrix" helped me understand this one slightly more than it helped with "Reloaded." I'd recommend watching "The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 and 2" and "Kid's Story" if you can; it'll make one or two things clearer.
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Date: 2003-11-11 06:42 pm (UTC)Merovingian annoyed. Vague philsophical ramblings and I only understood one word in ten. I liked the Architect much better.
These movies work better if treated as intellectual playthings and aren't taken too seriously--but also not as if they have no meaning, either. They're not nearly as meaningful as they appear to be, but seeing Matrix Revolutions certainly gave me some food for thought. It was *fun* to puzzle it out. A game. Heh.
Some of the imagery was really neat. I like the hand-to-hand fighting much better than the silly shoot outs.
Oops!
Date: 2003-11-15 01:57 am (UTC)Is it just me, or did anyone else find themselves less hooked into Trinity and Neo than in previous films? I mean, in the other two - the "obligatory booty scene" in Reloaded notwithstanding - I felt like I was made to care more about the two of them. Here, they seemed sort of shoved to the side as soon as Trinity threatened the Merovingian into letting them get Neo.
Yeah, I felt this was kind of rushed. Maybe because this movie put more emphasis in trying to save Zion, and the fact that they wanted to pack everything in the whole length of the movie wasn't enough.
The recasting of the Oracle was handled pretty well; they took the time to explain it without pounding it over our heads too much. But I had the feeling they could have just cut her scenes down - I don't know why.
I miss the actress who first played the Oracle, but they did a good explanation on how she (the new actress) changed and all that. Actually, I kinda thought that her scenes were not enough. Weird? This includes Seraph's part.
The club scene was just damned frightening. But I was amused by the Merovingian ... I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't follow up on what the hell was up with his wife - we thought there was more to that kiss she demanded from Neo - but I guess they had to cut it down.
On this part, I was somewhat confused. My reaction was, "Eh?!" I mean, it was too short and abrupt. What, Merovingian will give up "just because" Trinity threatened to end his life, just like that?! I mean, c'mon! There were a lot of henchmen there! It's just seemed too unrealistic to me. He's also a "worm"! And, I would have thought they would make more scenes on Merovingian and the wife. As I said, it seemed to short and abrupt. (I'm kind of starting to notice a trend, where they were prevalent in the previous movie, they weren't as prevalent in the next. Example: the Architect, Merovingian and wife, Neo and Trinity, etc.)
Did anyone else sit there staring at Smith-in-Bane going, "Hello! It's Smith! Neo, get a freaking brain already, he's all but TOLD you who's really in there!" or am I just impatient?
Hehe, I couldn't agree with you more! I was like, even back in the Reloaded one...it's Smith! IT'S AGENT SMITH! I mean, hello! :P
As for the ending... some people complained that it wasn't happy enough. But come on - that was as happy as you could get while still being somewhat realistic. I didn't care for some of the overdone imagery, and the timeline seems a bit screwed up. We walked out of there debating just how long Zion had really been around... if Neo was the 6th "One," wouldn't it have only been around as long as he'd lived? Or do humans live longer in the Matrix?
He was the 6th? Hm...I don't know why I was thinking he was the 11th. Anyways, I had no complaints of the ending. I had a feeling that was eventually going to happen. I mean, Trinity died, what could Neo have the hope to live for (sorry, my romantic streak peeking out). This reminds me so much of opera where most of the stories are tragedy ones.
When Kid ran down to the temple to yell "It's over! The war's over!" my first thought was, "That boy should not be allowed any sugar." My second thought, when they took it at face value and cheered with no proof, was, "Wouldn't that be a nasty prank to pull if you'd lost and were all about to die?"
Like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, eh? ;)
So, on other parts of the film, I thought Jada kicked ass, and Morpheus just seemed to sit there and STARE. Hehe.
The ending part of them doing a little emphasis about "the end is just the beginning" makes you think (obviously) there will be another world created in the Matrix, another war, another Morpheus, Trinity and Neo...great, not again?! :P It's a never-ending "Circle of Life", I guess.
I really do hope they have an extended scenes DVD out soon. Because I sure am going to see that and find out what REALLY happened in the in-betweens! And as the other Matrix movies, I have to watch it again to catch stuff I missed. :P