Seven and a half months since the initial theatrical release, and I’ve finally watched The Matrix Revolutions.
Two hours that I’m never, ever getting back. Not even if I gave up smoking, since first I’d have to start smoking which would almost certainly defeat the point.
What a bad film.
Of course, I’m sure that all of my faithful readers have seen the flick already, and know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, then don’t worry! I’ve seen it so you don’t have to.
First of all, yeah, sequels are supposed to have a strong component of MOS (More Of Same), because that’s what your modern moviegoer expects. The classic action sequel is all about more, though; a sequel that seems like it’s badly derivative of the original can generally be counted a failure.
The action scenes were… very dull. Particularly the whole Battle of Zion’s Docks or whatever it was, which was about 90% CG and 10% characters that we don’t know and don’t therefore give a damn about. Maybe it’s part of the whole Matrix Experience thing, where the ideal viewer has played the accompanying console games and bought three DVDs of peripheral materials of varying degrees of quality, but that ain’t me, babe.
And then there’s the story. The first movie was a cyberpunk kung-fu flick, but it at least made a strong case for being considered science fiction. There was a setting there that made no less sense than most other movie SF. Reloaded messed around with the backstory a little bit, cast a whole lot of stuff into doubt, and didn’t make much sense on its own but I was willing to deal with that. After all, it was supposed to be the middle movie in a trilogy, and leaving a few balls in the air under those circumstances can be a very good thing.
But Revolutions? Screw the story, screw making sense, forget any possible claim to the title of Science Fiction. And what did they replace it with? Boring CG and symbolism with the depth and subtlety of a 7-11 holdup.
Gah. I need to go wash my mind out with something.