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Adventures with an unreliable narrator.

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Nov 16 03: mea culpa

I have now seen The Matrix Revolutions twice. And while it’s not as bad as some of the reactions to it had led me to expect…well, it’s still not good enough to see a second time. They made me go.

If you go see it with zero expectations, it’s worth seeing, especially if you’re a narrative junkie like myself and just need to know how the damn story ends. But it’s still not good. Why? It takes forever to get moving, and then it still finds ways to lose its momentum even while it’s dishing out a whole lot of Kung-Fu Fighting And Stuff Blowing Up. It doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. It has the insufferable Merovingian in it, but gives his vastly more interesting wife Persephone exactly one line. It puts a couple of interesting ideas on the table and fails utterly to capitalize on them. (For instance: Sati, not Neo, is Smith’s opposite number. Where Smith’s purposeless existence fills him with existential horror—and the desire to fill the universe with himself to escape its loneliness—Sati is content to explore her world and discover what it has to offer. Discuss.) (And why the hell did they introduce Sati with such fanfare if they weren’t going to do anything with her? Pointless. Sheesh.) Morpheus still gets one god-awful portentious soliloquy, although we should be glad there was only the one. Too many minor characters, many of them either annoying or stolen from other movies (I’m looking at you, Vasquez) or both. One-dimensional leads. Keanu. Yet another dance-hall sequence. The Lobby Shootout redux.

Oy. I’m stopping right there. You get the idea. Positives include Mary Alice bravely jumping into the Oracle’s shoes—still the warmest character in the series—and Hugo Weaving, whose scene-chewing performance includes the Evil Laugh to end all evil laughs. Shout-out also to Ian Bliss, who spends his entire screen-time doing a spookily good Hugo Weaving impression.

Now that I think of it, this movie would probably benefit from the IMAX effect in the same way that its predecessor did. If you must see it—and you know who you are—then try to see it on the really big screen. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Commentary

As part of the “they” referenced in the above assertion: “They made me go (see the Matrix twice)” - I feel that I need to clarify.
1. Andrew chose to join a social outing with a pre-existing mission to see the Matrix for the first time.
2. Andrew was more than welcome to see another movie playing at the same time, i.e., Radio or Tupac: Resurrection.

Hee hee and also neener neener.

posted by Sari, Nov 17 03 1:51 PM

I beg your pardon. I was referring to being made to go see it the second time, as if you didn’t know. A choice between Radio, Tupac: Resurrection, and The Matrix Revolutions is no choice at all.

Don’t you neener neener me, missy.

posted by Andrew, Nov 18 03 10:27 AM

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