Matrix Revolutions

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the 'behold: sunlight!' when you exit is k-classic

cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

raveolution

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 18:21 (twenty years ago) link

plus, it had the fuck scene with the metal spine holes!

Ludwig Van Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:40 (twenty years ago) link

early-morning screenings are especially great when it's a slow-moving or otherwise languorous movie. sipping on a coffee, it's a great way to wake up.

s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:42 (twenty years ago) link

I saw it too. I liked it. Can we declare a spoiler zone from here on down?

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:20 (twenty years ago) link

fuck it, from whom am I asking permission?

SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********SPOILER ZONE***********

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link

there's that other thread, but I don't like that Donald Sutherland pic.

This is now an official SPOILER ZONE!

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:23 (twenty years ago) link

oops, sorry, missed the other thread. Just got back, so excited, etc.

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:24 (twenty years ago) link

Fine then spoilinator. T-minus 6 minutes and counting 'til I can leave work, eat this big fat ganja browny, and go see this fucker...later I'll come back and tell Teeny she's OTM.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:25 (twenty years ago) link

discussed it at lunch with coworkers who saw it - I've decided it's a great film and I'm mystified by the reviews.

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:26 (twenty years ago) link

dude! nza! I had to come back to work! And I got no brownie!

Okay, I saw that other thread, and boy, I think it was doomed anyway.

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:26 (twenty years ago) link

Seriously, there was less wrong with this movie than the other one. My only (v minor) complaints are that it was a little sappy at parts and the symbolism was a little heavy-handed. I'm really dense about getting symbolism, though, so it was probably gag-worthy to a more perceptive person. and/or perhaps to a christian; I swear there's so much shit that I think is so cool and original and someone lets me in that it's just the story of Cain and Abraham or whatever, I mean I wasn't raised Christian, so step off, mister master race, I probably learned all that shit by playing Vampire anyway.

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:30 (twenty years ago) link

I believe Geoff L. on Metacritic say it best:

"I'm going to say something about this movie that is my choice to say. Something that I've wanted to say and will say after I say this. Before I say it it is important to understand that I choose and know why I choose to say what I want to say. I believe I know why I choose to say what I am going to say but what matters is why you beleave that you understand why you choose. It is also important that you understand that I do not use the word 'choose,' only the meaning behind the word...the word that does not mean anything to me--except fot the meaning associated with the word. So now I'm going to say it.... Take the above said add in some kick'n FX and two hands full of corn. Mix it all together and bake it with some hype and you'll have enough Matrix Revolutions for 8 - 10 soft headed guests."

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 6 November 2003 06:19 (twenty years ago) link

Well that's the dialogue style down pat. I like the bit where Neo says to Trinity ""I'm going to say something now" AND DOESN'T EVEN SAY IT.

Not as terrible as I thought. Bad enough for me to be laughing all the way through.

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 6 November 2003 10:44 (twenty years ago) link

i laughed a lot too but not as much as Pete The Cynic. funniest lines of the film:

Oracle: You really are a bastard
Smith: You'd know Mom

Neo: You're gonna have to drive

The majority of the reviews disgust me. This is a hugely entertaining movie as were the last two. As many great lines as bad ones, far more great ideas than bad ones. Strange stilted slow moving first half balanced bravely by exhilirating second half. Best fantasy war scene in cinematic history. Playfully and RIGHTFULLY referencing countless anime and sci-fi of the past. Neo/Smith battle was a bit too drawn out for me but the ending just about saved it. Neo's battle with Bain was far better tho. The new Oracle was better than I expected her to be though not quite matching the previous one. Merovingien and Persephone were under-used/under-exploited perhaps. We find out very quickly who that guy in the restaurant was (aha). Morpheus did bugger all but that's a good thing. The Kid was kinda cute. The Captain's sentinel-slashed face was NOT cute (fucking ew). The CGI for the machines and the APU battle scenes was superb. The dialogue was adequate and true to form. Keanu wasn't THAT bad. Robot insects are the best thing ever. Hugo Weaving is super as ever (you'll say his duplication was pointless because only one of him fought Neo - well, he's a nihilist, get over it). Interesting notions raised (why is it the machines seem to value and honour concepts such as 'trust' and 'trade' more/better than humans? as both the Machine Godhead and The Architect demonstrate)...several annoyances I really can't be bothered raising because I'm too busy thinking about and enjoying all the good stuff (maybe some critics should try that some time).

Neither better or worse than the other two for me. I like them all. A lot.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:14 (twenty years ago) link

I saw Reloaded again a few weeks ago on Imax and it was much better the second time around - although it made the Zion tribal shindig scenes even more ridiculous.

But I don't think even Imax can save Revolutions... I came away not hating it, but bemused. I kept finding myself rolling my eyes at the hokey dialogue. And the leader in machine city made me giggle - he looked like one of those toys made out of pins that you press onto your face.

They should have left it at the first one...

elisabeth k, Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:17 (twenty years ago) link

Never forget that 'revenger' and 'reporter' begin with the same letter.

Lemmy Caution (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:18 (twenty years ago) link

why do some people care so much more about the dialogue than the aesthetic quality and execution in other areas?

he looked like one of those toys made out of pins that you press onto your face.

this is a good thing

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:27 (twenty years ago) link

It's irrelevant whether many Smiths or a single Smith fought Neo, because Smith technically won the fight only as one. Had he been about to lose, the others surely would have jumped in. He eventually lost overall (even though he won the fight) because winning meant absorbing Neo, which quite clearly destroyed the Smiths.

Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:49 (twenty years ago) link

I await Neo's 'Suedehead'

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:53 (twenty years ago) link

ARF! I'm quite proud of that.

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 11:57 (twenty years ago) link

stevem, because clunky/corny dialogue prevents me from getting swept away by the FX/aesthetic. I need both for the whole thing to work.

elisabeth k, Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:16 (twenty years ago) link

clunky/corny lyrics turn me off a lot of really well produced/arrange/played music, but I seem more determined to not let it bother me with films such as this (because there's much more to it than that, and dismissing a film just because of a few crap lines seems completely deconstructive and OTT to me, much more than with a song)

Smith's war was with his own irrelevance as much as with Neo. he seemed caught between trying to ascertain new meaning to himself and at the same time finding no meaning in anything else. One disappointment was that with Smith rampant within the Matrix we didn't get to really see the consequences of that e.g. thousands of him running around the busy city streets turning everyone in sight into another him. Instead Neo is jacked in by the Machine and straight into the showdown, with Smith apparently having already taken over an entire city and turned it into a stormy stage purely for the purposes of destroying Neo.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:22 (twenty years ago) link

actually it wasn't a disappointment as such - i suppose it would've been an obvious thing to include and in a way it's kinda cool that they just cut to the chase everytime someone went back into the Matrix (as with Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph at the beginning)

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:24 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, but don't you see -- 'The Smiths' being 'destroyed' -- haha, like with Morrissey... who went on to do... 'Suedehead'!!

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:25 (twenty years ago) link

Corny dialogue made me laff like a drain. FX left me pretty cold truth be told.

The final agent Smith, Neo fight is very, very reminiscent of the Death Of Superman.

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:26 (twenty years ago) link

Yes Yes Enrique. We get your "The Smith's" joke. Very funny. Etc etc.

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:27 (twenty years ago) link

Okay then -- thanks. Now I can get on. Sheesh.

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:35 (twenty years ago) link

Corny dialogue made me laff like a drain. FX left me pretty cold truth be told.

it bothers me a bit that people are more influenced and responsive to the former over the latter. i suppose this is natural as we tend to be more sensitive to the aural rather than the visual. i'm not one of these people who champions blockbuster action films all the time because they have 'amazing' effects (incidentally i thought the quality of effects in this film re the machines and the sentinels matched Jurassic Park 3 for projected realism and environmental attachment by and large - maybe not quite WETA standard or even Terminator 3 standard...but the sentinels had an ethereal quality and it's to their advantage that they have no real life precedent unlike the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park perhaps, but still they blended very well with their environment and interacted with it satisfactorily) when they are gimmicky, and in the Matrix films sure there's a LOT of gimmicky stuff but it's good gimmick and often necessary. of course we don't need to see Neo punching Smith in the face close up and in revolving bullet time, but then again, why the fuck not? i don't expect everyone to start doing that in films now though, and i certainly hope they don't.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:36 (twenty years ago) link

So no one else is shocked by the abandonment of all the stuff that made the first two films even remotely interesting (fake philosophy and a sense of style etc) to make a bloated CGI-fest about the Power of Love and Believing in Yourself?

Revolutions was crap. What's fun about watching a zillion stupid-looking flying robots blow up for like seven hours while people (straight-faced) recite insipid cliches and do that war-movie yell? I hate the war-movie yell. AND HOW COME ALL THE KIND OF INTERESTING QUESTIONS FROM THE SECOND ONE GO UNANSWERED? Oh, yeah, Neo's magically in the Matrix... it must be, uh, robot magic. Yeah, Smith copies the hell out of himself. Robot magic. Also the King of the Robots was extra-lame. And oh thanks I really enjoy endless shots of a burned out techno-apocalyptic Robot Cityscape. That's very original.

adam (adam), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:30 (twenty years ago) link

maybe you should never listen to any music featuring guitars again either adam

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:34 (twenty years ago) link

there is a quotient of fake philosophy and sense of style in this film - ARE YOU BLIND? the Indian guy's diatribe about love etc. - no less interesting than any of the other concepts bandied around regarding programs in the Matrix and their nature. the film has style in abundance but it was necessary for it to take place mostly in the real world dystopia/Zion so form follows function somewhat there.

What's fun about watching a zillion stupid-looking flying robots blow up for like seven hours while people (straight-faced) recite insipid cliches and do that war-movie yell?

what's NOT fun about that? "i've had sex before but not in THAT position/with THAT person/wearing THOSE things..."

Neo's 'magical' persistence in the Matrix is surely just the next progression of his capabilities - I don't think there's any real need for a specific explanation there.

You make the idea of 'robot magic' sound like a BAD thing? jeez. let's see more cyborg warlocks I say. Science IS magic.

Machine Godhead/Robot King/whatever was fine - what the hell do you want?

Post apocalyptic dystopia is a mainstay of the genre so complaining about it in this film is pretty stupid as well.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:40 (twenty years ago) link

(xpost)

Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine!

Jesus Christ, you people are pissed off because you didn't get what you wanted there to be! Accept that you didn't write the fucking thing and just let them tell you the story as they want to! Most of the things that I've heard people complaining about "not being resolved from Reloaded" were either
a) totally irrelevant, or
b) answered in the story, but not to your satisfaction - which is to say to a completely quibbling and/or literal-and-physically-possible-in-the-real-world level, or
c) answered in the story, but you didn't get it.

Sorry, but that's how it is in my eyes. Some people just couldn't sit down and suspend their disbelief. But really, there are a ton of answers and a lot of resolution - just because not all of it was specifically delineated doesn't mean that you can't figure out the parts that matter. So you either believe that, yes, by him going to the Source in Reloaded, it fundamentally changes his interconnection to the Machines (and thus the Matrix), or you don't. So many people just can't cope with this one - let it go. Smith copies himself because he no longer is taking orders from the Machines and is power hungry. And because he's the complete opposite of Neo. To sum up the whole fight scene: 1 + (-1) = 0

Burned out techno-apocalyptic Robot Cityscape. Hmm. Well, what were you expecting, the city at the bottom of the ocean in The Abyss?

Again, sorry if I'm being kinda pissy myself, but I just don't get what you people wanted (or if you really would have wanted that anyway). It seems that you want a bunch of silly stuff answered (or didn't see the answers that were obviously there for the stuff that was answered), you seem to magically believe that there was no cheese factor/hammy dialogue/wooden delivery in the first one, and you were all psyched for a Zion battle that you expected would somehow transcend the entirety of massive sci-fi battle scenes. I believe I wanted to say something else here, but I'm forgetting it at the moment. I'll get back to you.

Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:48 (twenty years ago) link

Girolamo otm. it's all happening again for me. i had a few bugbears with all three films yet i feel compelled to defend them to the hilt against all this absurd negativity that surrounds them. perspective here - these films still piss on 95% of everything else within the respective genres they affiliate themselves with.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:51 (twenty years ago) link

First of all I'm not down with spending 8 bucks to see a film, major components of which I've seen a million times before and probably done better, that features the very original and interesting idea that Love and Believing Will Make Everything OK. Ugh.

I didn't hear a diatribe about love, just a half-assed gesture toward semiotic bullshit. And Neo's abilities do need an explanation--The Matrix and sequels are positioned as science fiction and I was thrown when they trashed the sf/fantasy background, abandoning self-consistency and internal logic for Robot Magic, as were other people I've talked to. I like SF and I like fantasy and I like chocolate and I like garlic but unless you tip me off right at the start that we're going to be mixing them I'm gonna be pissed off.

King of the Robots spoke with a deep voice with crazy echo. Come on. And postapocalyptic dystopia is less a mainstay than a wretched embarrassing cliche. Why isn't Robot City all clean and happy and well-lit? It's not like they have Robot Bums and Robot Criminals and Robot Cockroaches.

adam (adam), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:59 (twenty years ago) link

You are all Matrix apologists!!!

adam (adam), Thursday, 6 November 2003 13:59 (twenty years ago) link

If Keanu put as much into playing Neo as Hugo Weaving did Agent Smith this would've been one of my favorite film serieses of all time. I wonder if the Neo-going-blind-wearing-blindfold thing was a sneaky way of hiding his lack-of-ability-to-express-emotion when Trinity died?

Was there any question in our minds that the ammo kid was gonna get to do something extraordinary? I'm guessing no.

The funniest moment wasn't in the goofy dialog, but when Neo tried to get out of the train station. Okay, and when Niobe calls dude's ship she's piloting back to Zion "a fat bitch" or whatever.

All in all I'd say it was a really good film, quite engaging and just on this side of the border of too-corny, but not quite what it could have been (and assumed itself to be)...revolutionary.

x-post I'm not an apologist, I agree with Stevem that this tops just about everything of it's 'genre', but I personally am still a little disappointed in the execution. I wonder if, had they not rushed to get these films (Reloaded incl), they might have been something much more exemplary.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:02 (twenty years ago) link

I ain't apologizing for shit! ;)

The city is clean (I would presume). I don't know if it's happy - neither do you, for that matter. Why should it be well-lit?

BTW, you people all would have hated Return of the Jedi had it been released today, but still remember that despite ROTJ's weaknesses, we still lovably accept it as part of the Holy Trilogy. That was a much weaker film than Revolutions.

Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:04 (twenty years ago) link

we still lovably accept it as part of the Holy Trilogy

I can name a slew of people off the top of my head who will challenge this assertion until the day they die. And some of them post here.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:05 (twenty years ago) link

First of all I'm not down with spending 8 bucks to see a film, major components of which I've seen a million times before and probably done better, that features the very original and interesting idea that Love and Believing Will Make Everything OK. Ugh.

in other words you went to see this film because you KNEW you were going to hate it and you wanted to...


I didn't hear a diatribe about love, just a half-assed gesture toward semiotic bullshit. And Neo's abilities do need an explanation--The Matrix and sequels are positioned as science fiction and I was thrown when they trashed the sf/fantasy background, abandoning self-consistency and internal logic for Robot Magic, as were other people I've talked to. I like SF and I like fantasy and I like chocolate and I like garlic but unless you tip me off right at the start that we're going to be mixing them I'm gonna be pissed off.

well i have no problem with SF and fantasy being mixed together like that and I don't need to be warned beforehand.


King of the Robots spoke with a deep voice with crazy echo. Come on.

deep voices with echo never go out of fashion. it's a black jacket.


Why isn't Robot City all clean and happy and well-lit? It's not like they have Robot Bums and Robot Criminals and Robot Cockroaches.

BECAUSE the machines clearly prefer not to spend time and effort cleaning up the skies (or perhaps this was a process underway but not completed yet) when they can cope fine without the Sun and other niceties. nor do they require much light. also it spooks the humans foolish enough to venture out there enough which works to the machines advantage a little.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:19 (twenty years ago) link

nobody complains this much about the SF/fantasy conflicts in anime do they?

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:19 (twenty years ago) link

Ned so OTM I hardly have words.

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:20 (twenty years ago) link

well it doesn't take that many words to say 'actually some of us always thought Star Wars was pants' but whatever

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:24 (twenty years ago) link

You wanna know what really is lame-looking? The friggin eye of Sauron in the LOTR movies. WTF? That's not even in the book, IIRC, it looks kinda crappy, and it doesn't do anything itself visual exciting except continue to act more flaming than Richard Simmons. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

And, um, then let me have a hit - God knows I'm tense now.

Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 6 November 2003 14:34 (twenty years ago) link

Everyone loves tha flaming vagina!

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:08 (twenty years ago) link

Are you on crack?

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:10 (twenty years ago) link

But everyone does love that flamin' vagina. Love as in likes the look of. It is obviously difficult and dangerous to actually physically love a flamin' vagina, and Sauron - wot looks like a flamin' vagina, being a personification (of vaginfication) or pure evil is probably less than loveable.

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:20 (twenty years ago) link

Nothing to do with Wayne Coyne? I haven't seen LOTR OR Harry Potter OR Star Wars 5 OR Matrix 2/3.

Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:22 (twenty years ago) link

Will watching The Animatrix make the vampire scene not so WTFish?

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:23 (twenty years ago) link

are they actually vampires? i thought they were just manipulating the code of the Matrix in order to walk upside down. no there is nothing in the Animatrix about that.

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:40 (twenty years ago) link


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