Matrix Revolutions

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i'm probably missing something glaringly obvious but when an agent takes over a human that means that human is gone in the Matrix, but are still alive in their pod?

I don't think this was ever explained. As was why Neo and his cronies had no trouble offing a ton of guards and cops, therefore killing a bunch of enslaved humans. (I think I have reached my maximum level of geeking out.)

bnw (bnw), Monday, 1 December 2003 18:31 (twenty years ago) link

As was why Neo and his cronies had no trouble offing a ton of guards and cops, therefore killing a bunch of enslaved humans.

I read an article (NYTimes, I think), that likened their mindset regarding the killing of innocent enslaved humans to that of terrorists.

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 1 December 2003 19:11 (twenty years ago) link

They were certainly very fundamentalist in their views in the same way that extreme groups are cast in the media ("If you are not with us, you are against us").

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 1 December 2003 19:26 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...
Saw this at the weekend at the Imax. Nice 3D trailer in advance.

As for the film...

1) Was giggling at the end. Thought I got it. Explained to mate what my theory was. He looked perplexed. Realised that any film where i have to decide whether it was good or awful isn't actually that good.

2) I reckon this was a bit of an Apocalypse Now for the brothers W. There's a great story in Reloaded and revolutions - How neo does some shit to save Zion. You could ice a lot of the rest for director's Acid Cut on DVD and still be left with a 2 hr 30 minute film that kicked major league ass. For starters, the chase seen from 2 and the battle scenes from 3 are magnificent. They should have done what they did first time - realise that kung-fu. intelligent cgi, chicks in pvc with guns and cod-philosophy make a decent movie. Instead, they gone all Lucas and actually start to believe this shite and take it seriously with equally poor results.

3) I realised that what i like about 1 was the aesthetic of the matrix; it had a similar 'any city' feel to it like 'Se7en' but had this really cool dislocated timeframe through the TV screens being 1950s stylee, offices being late 80s etc. That was all left behind as all scenes in the Matrix became darkened and night-set, especially in 3.

4) At the start of 3, we're told that Merv is a kick-ass dude. Yet he promptly disappears from the film. How does he stop the Architect getting him? Does Smith get him? What / who is he? Help!

5) Ditto Oracle. She was dead. Then she's not. What's going on? Help. Please.

6) What happened in the end? Was the machine god the architect?

Some films use ambiguity well; but they combine the ambiguity to certain key moments which determine the discussion of the film and its reception by the audience. This film wasn't ambiguous; it was fucking incomprehensible. It wasn't art-house. it was a major blockbusting big-budget kick-ass movie. I shouldn't leave a film with so many questions about what actually happened before my eyes. I want to ponder the implications of what's happened, not wonder what on earth just happened before my eyes. I'm still wondering.

Dave B (daveb), Monday, 12 January 2004 01:35 (twenty years ago) link

I am of the 'big clumsy robot fighting is boring as fuck' school and thought this was a really bafflingly shit film, though I really liked the scene where they briefly go above the clouds and see the sky. If Trinity hadn't gone 'BEAUTIFUL!' and ruined the atmosphere it'd've been better.

Ferrrrrrg (Ferg), Monday, 12 January 2004 01:54 (twenty years ago) link

dave, Merv is a rebel program who acquires and uses assets in order to remain out of The Architect/Machine God's control - those assets being information and pawns/treasures such as Neo. we don't know what happens to him but it doesn't really matter.

The Oracle was Smithed but returned to her previous state when A/MG reversed Smith's meddling of the Matrix.

Architect is the manifestation of the Machine God within The Matrix only, so they seem to be one and the same thing.

as time goes by even the most ardently naive defenders of this kind of stuff think of 1000 ways it could've been better. we definitely need a new franchise that combines action with intelligent, non-cliched sci-fi ideologies - 35% Matrix, 65% K Dick/Herbert/M Banks/Gibson...you can now do absolutely anything with special effects technology so with the novelty of that wearing off it would be great to see more cerebral, adult-orientated (not meaning violence or sex particularly) plots and concepts executed with more artistic integrity - again The Animatrix does hint at this with marvellous glimpses in 'Beyond' and 'Matriculated' especially.

stevem (blueski), Monday, 12 January 2004 11:45 (twenty years ago) link

But it has Belluci's perfect breasts.

Leee Majors (Leee), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:51 (twenty years ago) link

Leee OTM.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

Finally saw this at the budget tonight. Since I was expecting it to completely suck, I was very pleasantly surprised that it was a perfectly decent movie with similar strengths and weaknesses to the last one.

However, no one on this thread mentioned the bit in the initial pan across the goth club where one of the dancers pulls his dance partner's breasts out of her corset by the nipples, WTF?!

Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 19 January 2004 04:06 (twenty years ago) link

two years pass...
i'm probably overstating things just a little bit, but this is quite possibly the worst film i have ever seen

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:00 (eighteen years ago) link

so fucking rough.

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:02 (eighteen years ago) link

i mean... the second one is pretty abominable too. could that be worse?

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:02 (eighteen years ago) link

no way, it had the car chase and more belluci

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:03 (eighteen years ago) link

and an exploding cyber-vagina

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i hated the second one so much i waited until last night to finally check this out. i have never seen a film that i wished i hadn't seen more than this one.

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:05 (eighteen years ago) link

which one had the rave?

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:06 (eighteen years ago) link

The second one.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:06 (eighteen years ago) link

boring, loud, obnoxious, anticlimactic. i read a review that called it "a whimper disguised as a bang", that was pretty OTM but not harsh enough. also: that line towards the end where "the oracle" says, 'i don't think we've seen the last of neo' made me want to break my TV.

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:07 (eighteen years ago) link

ALL 3 MOVIES SUCK. THESE GUYS CANT MAKE MOVIES FOR SHIT. BOUND WAS HORRIBLE TOO. V FOR VENDETTA LOOKS LIKE A STINKER. IF ITS GOOD ILL EAT MY HAT.

chaki (chaki), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:09 (eighteen years ago) link

i think i'm going to sell my dvd of the first 'matrix' now. and there's no way in hell i'm going to see 'v for vendetta' now. fuck these guys.

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:11 (eighteen years ago) link

i was planning to watch it again in a few hours after finally buying the DVD.

i will probably agree more with gear than myself two years ago...

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes, this is truly the worst movie ever. Even the fight scenes suck - oooh, look here's Neo facing off against a million evil guys... but who cares, since we know they don't really die or mean anything, and we know that Neo can't die. Real martial arts action movie are bad enough, this was unbearable.

Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:19 (eighteen years ago) link

you know, I agree with Chaki. However, I've never seen any of the Matrix movies, because I saw "Bound" first and it was SO FUCKING BAD.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm really mad at myself for watching this. i should have rented 'domino' instead.

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:30 (eighteen years ago) link

I like the second two more and more as we move further away from the knee-jerk hype-panning that characterized the criticism around the time of their respective releases. The first Matrix was so self-contained and essentially didn't need a sequel. The second two are overly self-referential (and didn't provide any more pop-post-modern illumination via Baudrillard), but I'm beginning to see more in them as time goes on.

i'm from hollywood, Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link

you would think that, though.

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link

i liked bound! and i still (probably) like the first one, it had some neat movie ideas. that were not exploited at all in 2 and 3 mind.

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 01:55 (eighteen years ago) link

considering the first film had action scenes that were pretty tight in editing and relatively economical, it was amazing how bludgeoning the next two films were, style-wise

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 01:59 (eighteen years ago) link

totally! and stuff like escaping thru the telephone, neat cinematic stuff like that, is not even used in the sequels

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:00 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah this movie's pretty dire

latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:38 (eighteen years ago) link

i just remember the subplot with the crusty old general and that kid who took over his walker-robot thing and then shot open the gate and said, "believe..."

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:40 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah! my god, and one of the cheesiest "council of elders" or whatever in a sci-fi movie ever

latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:44 (eighteen years ago) link

i guess we're supposed to believe in neo half-assing it and selling out humanity for some michael collins-esque "pax machina"

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:46 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, a truce with colonel sanders ain't no truce at all if you ask me

latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:47 (eighteen years ago) link

which reminds me, why wasn't there a tie-in with KFC for this movie?

latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:48 (eighteen years ago) link

KFC declined in favor of the equilibrium account

gear (gear), Saturday, 11 March 2006 02:50 (eighteen years ago) link

matrix 4: protocols of the elders of zion

latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 04:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't consider him "Colonel Sanders" so much as "Not Donald Sutherland"

also, best description of the elders group goes to a friend who called them "Dreadlocked Starfleet Command"

kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 11 March 2006 08:13 (eighteen years ago) link

i still really like Reloaded a lot

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 11 March 2006 10:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Reloaded had some good elements to it, but I recall that most of the plot stuff I had a "It'll be explained in the last one, you'll see" attitude to. And of course it wasn't. At some point I'll watch Reloaded to see whether it can be salvaged. I really really don't think I'll be sitting through Revolutions again.

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Saturday, 11 March 2006 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

I haven't seen 2 or 3

why aren't they called 2 and 3, though? stupid names

RJG (RJG), Saturday, 11 March 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link

reloaded is the only one worth watching. so over the top, so ridiculous.

senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Saturday, 11 March 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link

why aren't they called 2 and 3, though? stupid names

oh it doesn't matter.

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:08 (eighteen years ago) link

isn't 2 just our heroes going from one long-winded bore to another?

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link

if blade trinity were called blade 3 I might want to see it and blade 2

I would like die hard: with a vengeance more if it were called die hard 3: die hard with a vengeance or something

RJG (RJG), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:28 (eighteen years ago) link

i won't see a sequel unless it's using Roman numerals

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:33 (eighteen years ago) link

altho i'd wish they'd get a move on with the prequels to Phase IV

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link

rocky VI?

RJG (RJG), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link

i fell asleep halfway through the second one, woke up at the end, felt no need to ever rent it or see it again to fill in the holes. nice bellucci though.

kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 11 March 2006 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link

I saw this film when it came out. It was probably worth it for the 10 seconds of hott BDSM goths - but that was the best thing about it.

Forest Pines (ForestPines), Saturday, 11 March 2006 17:20 (eighteen years ago) link


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