the matrix revolutions (and yes, there be a few spoilers here!)
Peter T. Chattaway <
petert@...>
2003-11-04 00:48:53 GMT
*** (To repeat, yes, there be a few SPOILERS here.) ***
The epic conclusion to the epic trilogy ...
... in which Neo goes deep into Mordor while everyone else fights a battle
elsewhere just to buy him some time. (Oops, wrong trilogy, though, well,
that *is* kind of what happens.)
... in which Neo goes one-to-one against Darth Vader yet again already,
despite doing so already in the previous installments, and despite the
fact that the repetition of these battles is beginning to get a little
dull, because This Time He Means Business, And You Can Tell Because There
Are Choral Voices On The Soundtrack, while everyone else fights a battle
elsewhere just to buy him some time. (Oops, wrong trilogy, though, well,
that *is* kind of what happens.)
... in which the potential of the original _Matrix_ is squandered on dark,
dark, dark imagery and dark, dark, dark themes with very, very, very
little in the way of, oh, redemptive material. In the first two films,
the Matrix, while admittedly artificial, was also a bright, sunny, welcome
respite from the grim and dreary 'real world'; but in the new film, pretty
much *every*thing is depressing to look at (not only Zion, but also the
Matrix, because the viral Agent Smith has pretty much taken it over).
True, we do get two shots of the beautiful sky in this film (one
simulated, one not), but these do not serve as relief so much as they make
us think, "Um, but what are we supposed to *do* with these images? Where
do we *go* from here?" Basically, one of these sky-shots hints at
something that remains unattainable so long as the sky is scorched, while
the other ... well, it just leaves us thinking of the ending of
_Pleasantville_, where everything *looks* resolved but *feels* unresolved
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