I went to see The Matrix Revolutions with Mike last night. We caught one of the showings at the United Artists theater off Park Lane. Of course the movie has been out for over a month now and I wasn’t even sure if it was still playing in theaters. I probably would have seen it sooner, but I was holding off on that in case I had the chance to see it with my brother in Palo Alto over Thanksgiving (as it turns out, we didn’t fit that in).
In an effort not expose myself to spoilers, I avoided all commercials and reviews for the film. But, I did peek and see the 50 score at Metacritic which concerned me a bit. But I’ve liked movies with low Metacritic scores before (such as Equilibrium with 35) and, besides, the first Matrix is my favorite movie :).
I enjoyed Revolutions and I’m glad I went to see it. But, it was still a bit of a let-down. It's not that it was a bad movie — not at all — but I think that the Wachowskis built up the series to such a height that perhaps no director could have been able to satisfactorily conclude it.
Now that I’ve seen the film, I’ve been reading a few reviews. And, I think perhaps Salon’ Andrew O’Hehir put it in terms that I can most relate to. Spoilers ahead — skip to the bottom if you haven’t seen the film.
Is some light to be shed on the cryptic encounter between Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) in “Reloaded,” in which it appears that, yes, Neo may be “the One,” but he also may be trapped in a reiterative cycle he can't control or escape? Well, not much, frankly. Is the Architect himself a machine, a flesh-and-blood being, or something else? Hmm. What about the Oracle (still a cookie-baking black lady, but now played by Mary Alice in place of the late Gloria Foster, a transition handled about as well as it could be) — who is she and what’s her relationship to the Architect? Um, well, see … Why exactly do Neo’s powers over time, matter and space begin to assert themselves outside the Matrix? I guess, er, just because they do. […]
I suppose that I was hoping for Larry and Andy to tie up the loose ends, but they left a few hanging there. For instance, I still don’t quite understand The Architect’s speech from Reloaded. And I don’t get how Agent Swith was able to traverse into the Real World either :-/.
Plot issues aside, I thought they could have done some of the fight scenes better as well. Granted, I enjoyed the homage to the Lobby Scene (though I didn’t understand the gas masks on those guys), but this is more about the final Neo/Smith fight. Sure, it’s cool that they can fly around and such but, as a kung-fu aficionado, I prefer a more tightly cropped frame so that I can follow their respective moves — extended wide-shots are no good to me.
[End Spoilders.] The most recent list of my favorite movies may need a few small revisions, but I’m still not optimistic that Revolutions will make the cut (on the other hand, there’s a good chance Reloaded will appear). Still, Revolutions is worth more than just a rental and I'd recommend seeing it in the theaters if you haven’t already.