Jyotirma.. Tamsogamayah. Review on Matrix Revolutions Movie

Once is providence

Thrice is a conspiracy....

Some knowledgeable soul said that (I don't know who, as I am usually not categorized as knowledgeable), and day after day Hollywood goes on to prove that man/woman right (Gawd, he/she sure must be knowledgeable or powerful or probably both like our Neo). If only we had more of that kind of even of half of it (like Morpheus or Trinity), just to remind me of that three lines before I went to watch the movie, it would have saved me the trouble of writing a page long comment to Suyog bhai's(My very own 'The One' as far as film reviews on MS go) review (resulting in this review and may be one each on M1 & M2 in future), just to confirm that I'm no more than those people plugged into matrix living there life just as before in our mind thinking Everything that has a beginning has an End, even if what you thought was the end was just the beginning and what was the end had nothing to do with the beginning.

Gawd only if some visionary (ala Oracle) would have reminded me that even Matrix was reprogrammed to fit in the inconsistencies to make it an imperfect world so that people like me would accept it without questioning and think that Morpheous was a candy salesman who wanted to sell us the Red candy by an innovative marketing technique and we fooled him by taking the blue one, and walked out with our heads held high thinking that we saved a few bucks and had a free candy (Not to mention the pleasure of not giving in to a brilliantly attired 6 foot tall hunk).

But as nothing of that sort happened to help me, I went to watch Matrix Revolutions with all those expectations to see a sensible, high adrenaline, ground breaking action-special-effects film. I had every reason to be revved up as the first one presented the concept of machine taking over the world so deftly in both script and special effects that they became a trendsetter. Then after four years came part two which again redefined the concept of action. It had chase sequences which made ''Fast and Furious'' look like slow & tedious, hand to hand combat scenes which would be jaw-dropping even for Bruce Lee and then those choreographed group fights which were sheer poetry in motion. Yeh they stuffed it with enough philosophical jargon so that it may look like a natural extension of the first part and not an after-thought. But an after-thought is an after-thought and is evidently clear in those Oracle talks. The part about Neo asking 'how can I trust you?' is gripping but the part about 'what next?' is unconvincing. But with all those action going on who was complaining especially when their was a third part coming, which would supposedly iron out the creases. Both of them were wonderful movies, But alas the creases were not part of the script but the side-effects of an after-thought.

As this was the last part (or was it?) let me rewind the script in short

In the third part fight breaks out in 'Zion' as machines reach there. Neo's friends successfully get him out of the place which is 'in between the real world and Matrix'(his reason for being in coma), where he meets a girl sati, which most probably is next oracle. The other man(who was found injured in one of their other ships destroyed by the machines) turns out to be bodily version (???) of Agent Smith who before dying blinds Neo, who instead of going to Zion decides to go to the surface where machines rule. After long and tiresome battle human achieve temporary victory in their battle. Back on the surface, Neo officially turns into a superman destroying machine by his hand and watching them even without his eyes. Unfortunately trinity dies in the process. Neo finally reaches the 'Mother machine', or whatever you might call it, and offers his services to destroy 'Agent Smith', who has taken over the matrix, in return for peaceful co-existence. Machines agree, Neo destroys Agent Smith and dies(?????) in doing so. Machines agree to release those who are willing from the Matrix.

There is a saying about not stretching a rubberband too far, but it seems Wachowski brothers were too busy with the saying quoted at the start of the review. Matrix was brilliant and I will not mince words when I say that I was literally panting for more. Some reviews (including Suyog's ) mentioned that M2 & M3 should really be taken as one film. If the producers would have released both part as one film of 3 hrs, where events in this concluding part at most made an hour of the film then may be even I would have given it 4 stars with only reservation being that climax was a tad disappointing. But alas they were not, they were released 4 months apart and I had to pay for the ticket again, so if not more I should at least get the same bang for my buck. You can ignore inconsistencies in script if you have quality action scenes like M1 & M2 had, that's why I enjoyed both of them. But that cannot excuse my headache, thanks to M3.

The film was very average as far as script was concerned. The philosophical undercurrent in M1 was one of its strength, which was reduced to a nice side-show in M2 and a complete no-show in M3. And let's not get started about the end. Directors were unsure as to what they wanted to say or even if they wanted to say anything. The film was too long, audiography was goo but nothing extraordinary, dialogues ranged from great to cheezy, most of them belonging to latter. Performances were nothing special to write about, though 'Agent Smith' will be remembered for a long time.

Now coming to other aspects, the film didn't had even one gripping action sequence. Well the battle of Zion was deftly executed as it looked very natural. But however natural, how interesting can a half an hour long scene of machines firing incessantly on thousands of other machines be?? There was not even one decent hand to hand combat scene in the film. The much touted 40 million dollar final fight was damp squib. You would think that after that amazing fight scene between Neo and Agent Smiths in part two you are in for a treat but instead you get two men running at each other just to punch each other away 30 meters and run gain to do the same, then fly into air stopping for a moment on a high rise for a brief fight(You could count the number of punches on your fingers) just to fly again and come down and make a big hoole in the road. Not my idea of a hand to hand combat or a good fight scene. Did I forget to mention a slow motion punch? Going by the numbers that could have at least cost a million dollars. A million Dollar punch??? Well Dollar is cheap nowadays but not that cheap. Even if supposedly the philosophical strength of the original was maintained, it wouldn't be worthwhile with those uninteresting action sequences. After all I never went there to check Wachaoski's claim of Gita's inspiration.

contd..