Thoughts on Matrix Revolutions

[cmdr_zoom]

The early scene with the three self-aware programs was so TRON-esque, I kept imagining the train platform in black and colored neon.

Bane's actor did an excellent job with Smith's mannerisms and delivery.

When it comes to driving, Niobe 0wnZ.

As others have noted, the Battle for Zion was every war movie cliche on parade. But damn, it was impressive.

I was quite glad to get a glimpse, just for a moment, of the sky above the clouds. I was particularly touched to see the Moon still up there, looking down on our troubled, storm-tossed globe.

The fight between Smith and Neo really is so Dragonball Z, it hurts.

The ending... hm. Was it uncertain? Yes, but so is life. And it had sacrifice and hope, which all good endings need.


And on a more general note:

I understand why a lot of people think that Zion must be another layer of the Matrix (and technically, Revolutions leaves the question open). We doubt Zion's reality for the same reason we want to declare all of Total Recall to be just a dream: because otherwise we'd have to accept the giant plot holes and scientific howlers as "true." But in this case, I don't think there's any in-movie justification. It's like that simply because it IS a movie. Neo can do these things "because he can."

What was the last science fiction/action movie that you saw that was scientifically accurate? Yeah, that's what I thought. But the Matrix trilogy has virtual reality, and so we clutch at that straw, that excuse to declare that there's another layer, so far unseen, where everything is consistent and logical and not arbitrarily decided by directors and writers. That layer does exist, but not on the movie screen; it's what you see when you walk out of the theater (unless you think OUR world is a Matrix too... in which case, keep peeling that onion).

Heck, I bought the battery thing the first time I heard it, sitting in a darkened movie theater, as did the people around me. It was only days later, looking at the concept by the cold light of hindsight, without being swept up in the narrative, that I realized just how badly it broke the Second Law.

I firmly believe that the Matrix (along with LOTR) is the successor to Star Wars in the modern consciousness. It's got a lot of philosophy that seems pretty profound and mind-blowing at first look, and you can pursue it for a while, but the talking is really just there to fill the quiet spaces between the ground-breaking special FX action sequences. Expecting it to be more than 6 hours of fine entertainment is, IMO, unfair. And on that standard, the trilogy satisfies me.

Comments

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

... calling The Lord of the Rings a successor to Star Wars is sort of non-Euclidean, isn't it, in an overall cultural sense? :)

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

<mrpeabody>Quiet, you.</mrpeabody>

(Yeah, you're right, but you know what I mean. :) )

[keshwyn]

I miss the potato chip. It's a shame they didn't go with the wetnet idea, but oh well...

I liked it. But then, I also like the Force. :)

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and look what happened when George decided he had to explain that.

"Midichlorians."
"LALALALALALALA!"

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

It just doesn't make sense that Neo has a body if he is a program and that the body looks the same in every incarnation.

It also doesn't make sense that his _Matrix_ powers carry on in the real world.

Their history makes no sense either.

This doesn't get into all the other problems like the battery. There are just too many holes. I could have lived with one or two, the way I live with hearing explosions in space: I grumble, but I watch it anyway.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

You're right. It doesn't.
Because it's a movie, not Truth.