Matrix Revolution!

[RM. Andersson]

It's alarming how many people say the Matrix is a bad movie because the science doesn't make sense.

Yeah, like a starship that magically bends the laws of space and time does. Or the idea of hyperspace.

It doesn't have to make sense--christ. It's Comic-Book-Guy-itis. The science doesn't matter--the Matrix series is not science fiction per se--it's basically trying to make a film out of various philosophical viewpoints.

And THAT is why you have to watch it repeatedly. Because no, you will not get it the first time you watch it.

I think that in a good science fiction book or movie all science should be possible and realistic. Even if we can´t build the things in the movie now they should be possible in theori.

Look at 2001. We could build everything in that movie/book now if we could afford it. And in 1968 they new that it would be possible in the future. And all physics in the movie are realistic. Like no sound in space.
It always makes me loose interest when sounds from explosions and space ships can be heard in space in a science fiction movie.
Some people are very sensitive to things like that and will think the movie is bad.

It depends on personal preferences and taste. I´m a big fan of science fiction movies. But I only like a few of them. Bad science fiction movies can be terrible IMO.

If the movie is not at all intended to be realistic it´s not true science fiction. It should make people think about what might be possible in the future. Even people that know a lot about physics should be able to whatch it and not find anything that we already know for sure is impossible.

 

[Bogotron]

Novellas and short stories are the way to go, but even they are easy to mess up. Take Johnny Mnemonic as an example (Hey! Guess who plays the lead character! ). Not the greatest story ever, but the movie is just awful. Again they kept some (mostly insignificant) parts and put in a whole lot of other junk, probably in an attempt to freshen up the movie.

Someone is bound to mention LotR soon so I might as well be the one: IMO, one of the reasons that LotR works well in a movie format is because the books are huge amounts of scenery descriptions and mood-setting paragraphs interjected by "Theoden, son of whoever, grandson of blahblahblah". And it still leaves out some parts and subtleties and has a running time of 10-11 hours when you play them all back to back.

As soon as you try to stuff a lot of "thought dialogue" or exposition, which many sci-fi books I've read use, into a movie you've already lost the movie audience. At least I have yet to see a movie that manages to convey the information in such paragraphs without the average moviegoer falling asleep. Some people I know where falling asleep at Minority Report due to the "excessive amount of exposition" (their words).

 

[London Geezer]

so, the movie has been played in cinemas all over the world now, anyone back already with impressions?
BUT NO SPOILERS
please, it took all my self-control to stay out of the other MR thread with the spoilers....

 

[RussSchultz]

Sent to me on a mailing list:

Courtesy rottentomatoes.com, currently stands at 39%

"Please someone, get me the blue pill. I want to forget that this ambitious and noteworthy series is ending so weakly." -- Nell Minow, MOVIE MOM AT YAHOO! MOVIES

"Silly humans, Matrix is for kids!" -- Gregory Weinkauf, NEW TIMES

"Reloaded was certainly a lumpy, gaseous treatise of a movie, but viewers of Revolutions may find themselves looking back on it fondly."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

"So disappointing they may as well have bussed in Ewoks to save Zion."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM

Ouch

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I saw it, and my personal review is.....

"meh"

 

[notAFanB]

I saw it, and my personal review is.....

"meh"

agreed, it has some real issues wiht pacing (again) and coherence. the philosphy/ubddism stuff I like, the delivery however repelled me somewhat.


verdict:

wait for the rental

 

[[maven]]

I liked it, but then I haven't thought about it to any extent and I also (used to) watch inhuman amounts of anime, so my mind is skewed...

 

[Tim Murray]

Thank you for making the 2001 reference--now I don't have to bring it up.

Quite simply, 2001 is the closest thing out there to Revolutions. I can't explain it exactly, but if you liked 2001 as a film and not for individual aspects of 2001, you will enjoy Revolutions tremendously as a film. Hell. It's got the best special effects in history--Episode 3 is suddenly quite screwed.

Go in with no expectations, just like how you should watch Reloaded. It's unbelievable.

 

[notAFanB]

]I liked it, but then I haven't thought about it to any extent and I also (used to) watch inhuman amounts of anime, so my mind is skewed...

you can never have enough anime 8)

 

[pax]

Spoilatious!

Pretty good 3 out of 4 but slightly weaker than the first 2. Im gonna see it at least 2 more times... I missed a couple small bits tho the story was a lot easier to follow than reloaded which really needed repeat viewings...










SPOILERS!!!

Humans are batteries after all but at least we can speculate there was more to it than mere energy production. The movie leaves a lot the imagination and thats a good thing... Im a bit confused that machines felt they needed to agree to neo's demand after his death for peace. I dnot see why they couldnt just destory zion and just reboot the matrix and repeat their old cycles... I suppose with neo dead vs being the only survivor in the past cycles it created a problem for them at some level...

The power surge at the end : Im pretty sure it wasnt just a power surge. It was neo going to the source. Maybe thats why Trinity had to die to make that believable. Neo going to the source meant he died...

The ending does leave the storyline open to more movies or comics or games later on... I wonder how involved the wachowskies are with the matrix online game and how close to the movie storyline itll be...

Things I felt were missing in this one... Too much orchestral music and not enough modern rock\techno (tho sound system in my theater was oddly sterile and flat. I think they had probs setting it up ... they had to focus a lot at the start too)... Not enough green (matrix) its almost all in the real world. Not enough kung fu. And tho I dont mind some of the missing answers I do think a couple things shouldve been answered...

 

[Sazar]

neo is not the only one assimilated though... so is smith... his code is also deseminated...

overall loved the flick... nicely rounded off... some bits were too bloody long.. bad direction there... but otherwise decent flick...

HIGHLY recommended to watch it @ an imax though... believe me when you watch it @ an imax you will realise what I mean

 

[pax]

I get why the machines honored their deal. Smith was a threat to them. Neo and machines together were able to deal with smith but that was probabaly lucky of them. A new cycle wouldve brought another anomaly that was likley growing in complexity and power leaving eithe neo or anothe uber smith even more diffcult ot deal with.

By breaking the cycle and some kind of truce they coudl retain humans to make energy ( and continue to investigate their sentience ) And remove any new anomaly by simply letting rebellious humans leave. And by mutual repsect both can, for the foreseeable future, prosper.

 

[Sazar]

I get why the machines honored their deal. Smith was a threat to them. Neo and machines together were able to deal with smith but that was probabaly lucky of them. A new cycle wouldve brought another anomaly that was likley growing in complexity and power leaving eithe neo or anothe uber smith even more diffcult ot deal with.

By breaking the cycle and some kind of truce they coudl retain humans to make energy ( and continue to investigate their sentience ) And remove any new anomaly by simply letting rebellious humans leave. And by mutual repsect both can, for the foreseeable future, prosper.

the architect says the humans would be released.. ergo the matrix's existence will become a moot thing since it was a construct to keep people being used for energy in a state where their minds were occupied...

perhaps the whole scene in reloaded with the senator and neo about the machines and people working together is best to explain this with... they will likely come up with a solution to keep the machines powered up and the humans living... probably using the earths core to generate power as with the humans...

 

[Headstone]

Im a bit confused that machines felt they needed to agree to neo's demand after his death for peace. I dnot see why they couldnt just destory zion and just reboot the matrix and repeat their old cycles... I suppose with neo dead vs being the only survivor in the past cycles it created a problem for them at some level...

Because the machines cannot make a choice!!! They agreed to Neo. Therefore they have to abide. There is no turning back. Nor can the Architect reset the system. He cannot make the choice. But if he could he was no longer in complete control, and that is the irony, human choice now powers the system.

 

[Tagrineth]

Im a bit confused that machines felt they needed to agree to neo's demand after his death for peace. I dnot see why they couldnt just destory zion and just reboot the matrix and repeat their old cycles... I suppose with neo dead vs being the only survivor in the past cycles it created a problem for them at some level...

Because the machines cannot make a choice!!! They agreed to Neo. Therefore they have to abide. There is no turning back. Nor can the Architect reset the system. He cannot make the choice. But if he could he was no longer in complete control, and that is the irony, human choice now powers the system.

Nah, you aren't quite right.

When Neo died, the Machines stored an image of his mind (what was required for The One cycle) and when Neo was absorbed by Smith, the Machines gained access to Smith's code and deleted it, but again retained his mind.

The difference in THIS One cycle was that unlike all previous cycles, The One had a counterpart. The Machines had no other choice but to agree to Neo's terms for defeating Smith, else they too would die... and as the Architect said, he isn't Human. Duplicity is a human trait. Anyway, the Machines still got what they wanted - Neo and Smith's 'mental programmes' were incorporated into the Source and the matrix version 7 was born, this time a more complete version because both sides of the equation were included in the upgrade (Neo AND Smith).

 

[pax]

The architect could make a choice but only one based on equations. My opinion now is that the machine world including most of the sentient programs behaved this way. Only a few like the oracle were in someway higher or more evolved levels of code and were exceptions to that rule...

However those programs werent in the decision making situation. War mightve been shorter or the war might've resumed had they been. I think the architect simply agreed with the equation that another war of zion reboot of the matrix wasnt a feasible option anymore...

 

[fbg1]

and as the Architect said, he isn't Human. Duplicity is a human trait.

Funny you say that, considering the whole construct of Zion and the Matrix is a machine ruse to control the humans. Duplicity not a human trait indeed... Although, I do agree that's what the Architect meant to imply when he said he wasn't human. Perhaps when it comes to a face-to-face deal with The One, he isn't duplicitous....

 

[Tagrineth]

and as the Architect said, he isn't Human. Duplicity is a human trait.

Funny you say that, considering the whole construct of Zion and the Matrix is a machine ruse to control the humans. Duplicity not a human trait indeed... Although, I do agree that's what the Architect meant to imply when he said he wasn't human. Perhaps when it comes to a face-to-face deal with The One, he isn't duplicitous....

The Machines as a whole are sentient AI and thus have the capacity for duplicity (that sounds cool ^_^).

The Architect is a simple programme without full sentience, and has to 'follow the winding codepath'.

 

[nggalai]

Seen it, and loved it. But prospective audiences beware--if you're expecting a Sci-Fi movie or even what you think The Matrix was all about, you'll be in for a bumpy ride. Yes, it has lots of action, yes, it is "science fiction" on the surface, but what came apparent already after watching Second Renaissance, and quite clear after Reloaded, is now full-blown concept: the Matrix trilogy is not a cyberspace, sci-fi flic. It just uses that form (topos) to convey the narrative.

The trilogy is more intelligent than it is given credit, and Revolutions ties it up quite elegantly, if you actually look behind the form and at least try to understand the first and foremost question: What is the Matrix?

Technically, though, the movie sucks, just like The Matrix and Reloaded did. Rather bad acting, aimless direction--the only good thing is the music and art direction, albeit only if you like the style to begin with. I personally don't mind as it still works for me, but if you're after clean screenplays, gorgeous camera work and great performances, rather watch Kill Bill.

Personally, I hold the Trilogy as one of the best things ever to come out of Hollywood. Audiences who actually care to think for a moment and at least strive to see behind the form will appreciate both content and structure. If you expect to see that super-intelligent Matrix-within-the-Matrix conclusion you've made up after Reloaded, or hope to revisit the original "Matrix groove" of cool bullet time moments and stylish shoot-outs, you'll be disappointed and quite probably scream bloody murder.

As a "movie" in the traditional sense, I'd give Revolutions 6/10 points. As part of what's quite possibly the most prestigious concept to make the big screen (yet), it's a clean 10/10 from me.

It's a bit like the H.P.Lovecraft situation, really. Technically, his novellas and short stories suck giant mammal testicles, but it was the only viable way to transmit the intended "message" to his audience. And it worked.

93,
-Sascha.rb

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Personally, I hold the Trilogy as one of the best things ever to come out of Hollywood. Audiences who actually care to think for a moment and at least strive to see behind the form will appreciate both content and structure.

On the other hand, I'd say that only audiences who care to "think up" and contrive for themselves what is behind the form, would appreciate it.