'Matrix Revolutions': First Look
I'm going to tell you a couple of things that happen in "The Matrix Revolutions." So this is an upfront warning. Don't read on if you don't want to know some things from this movie.
First of all, I actually have no idea what happened in "The Matrix Revolutions." It is sorely lacking a script of any kind.
That doesn't mean it's a bad movie. There's plenty to look at and enjoy, lots of explosions and terrific special effects. But woefully missing are plot, story, and dialogue.
I mean, the movie just starts as if the last one, "Matrix Reloaded," had been stopped for a popcorn break. You really can't say "Revolutions" is even a separate movie — just a continuation.
After last night's screening, just in case I'd missed the point of the whole thing, I asked a few from the audience what it was they'd seen. Could they explain it to me?
Only one out of 10, a lovely young woman named Nicole, had an answer.
The story has something to do with Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovering that Smith (Hugo Weaving) is really the evil inside himself. And to vanquish the machines, Neo must kill Smith.
Got that?
Of course, this sequence doesn't come until most of the movie is done. By then we've seen a very long battle in which Laurence Fishburne and Jada Pinkett Smith seem to triumph over some enemies in space.
The only problem is that once they're done, they're told by their superiors that they made a huge mistake. Hmmmm. All that for nothing.
So what does happen? Here we go: A major, major character dies long before the film is over, and another one dies just as it ends.
Let's put it this way: no couple walks into the sunset holding hands. Great romance is not the resolution of the "Revolutions." If you're somehow invested in the main couple, prepare to be disappointed.
The great theatre actress Mary Alice replaces the late Gloria Foster as The Oracle and just about steals the movie. Monica Bellucci's much vaunted reappearance as Persephone is short-lived, and Nona Gaye's turn as Zee shows that she can act and be striking looking at the same time.
Like any second sequel, or third movie in a series, "The Matrix Revolutions" will seem like a letdown, I think, except to the most die-hard fanatics.
Sure, the effects are super, but where is the humanity? And where is the dialogue? Some of it is so banal you can only imagine what the actors' rehearsals were like.
In the heat of battle, for example, Weaving exclaims, "I'm supposed to say something here! What am I supposed to say?"
This is what you should have said, Hugo. "This is the last 'Matrix' movie. We've milked this thing farther than anyone expected. And now we're done."
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