Reviews

I think I've finally reached a verdict on the Matrix trilogy : not only is it a comic book movie - it is truly a manga film (based on a comic that doesn't exist, but perfectly could have; by the way, most of the story boards and scene designs *were* done by a couple of accomplished comic book artists, including cult icon Frank Miller of "Sin City" fame)! The Wachowski bros. themselves have always been very clear about the anime influences in their work, and with the release of the (rather mediocre) Animatrix some time before the last two movies, it should have been clear to everyone what direction they were planning to go with the next two installments.

And fans of the genre will get themselves a smattering of goodness in this film : mecha battles, massive-scale robotic assaults, Dragonball-Z type combat sequences, frantic and Akira-esque tightly paced action sequences... And of course there are the cliches : the camp, the epics and the larger-than-life drama (like the obligate <START SPOILER>tragic death of the love interest</END SPOILER>) that forms an irrevocable part of the tradition. And the good thing about it : I think it actually works PERFECTLY! This is the first time a project of this type has been attempted on such a scale, making it in itself a milestone in action movie history. As far as I'm concerned, it is also one of the single best comic book films to be released in the last few years, better than the Spiderman movie, vastly superior to the X-Men soap operas (say `character-driven' one more time and I swear I'll break your neck) and in my opinion on par with seminal classics like the original Superman movie and Tim Burtons interpretation of Batman.

I thought the technical quality was also superior to anything seen in any of the first two movies. The SFX actually manage to create a realistic-looking Zion, and a truly apocalyptic machine city /Matrix core. Reloaded had a few scenes in which the CG was just a bit too obvious (especially when the hordes of agents Smith came into play), but that problem seems to have been eliminated in this final issue of the series. Overall the movie looks great. And it sounds nice too : the soundtrack is as epic, bombastic and campy as the rest of the movie, but it is very well performed and does the job nicely. Every frame, every scene is clearly well-planned and the brothers keep their (in my view : limited-talent) acting crew well in line. Even Keanu Reeves manages to make his character believable at times - an achievement knowing that in my not so humble opinion, Reeves just really can't act. Luckily, this is certainly no character-driven movie - none of the Matrix movies were. It's all about cartoon action fun with enough cool plot elements to keep you interested all the way through the ride.

The plot explores further into the story lines launched in Reloaded, and brings them to an epic and fitting conclusion. The only moment that felt "off" was the very ending of the film, which was (a) just a bit too melodramatic for my taste, and (b) was rather convoluted, in the same vein as Otomo's movie adaption of Akira but using a more christian inspired theme. Apart from that, I really had a roll watching this one.

All in all, it was worthwhile spending time in the personal cartoon-action universe of the Wachowski brothers and I'll look forward to their next work. Certainly worth watching, I think, even for non-anime lovers,. After reading this review, you should at least know what to expect.

A word about some of comments I've read on IMDB : it seems like opinions on Revolutions are as divided as over the previous episode. Personally, I liked "Reloaded" better than the first, and I like this one even more. Contrary to some people, I didn't see a philosophical treatise in the first - it was so campy you just couldn't really take it serious and most of it was *very directly* inspired by anime with similar themes anyway. Nothing new there, certainly for the people who had seen previous movies using the same premise, like "Dark City" or "The 13th Floor". And the action wasn't nearly as groundbreaking as most people seemed to believe as well : bullet-time effects had been done before in a couple of other movies and Kung Fu had been coming back in style for a long time. Of the two high-profile martial arts flicks of that year, "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", I have always considered "Tiger" to be the vastly superior film (and felt it was dearly cheated off of its "Best Movie" oscar - Gladiator? Sheesh...). Reloaded had more action, more fights, with more, really groundbreaking visuals (maybe a bit too "on the edge" even sometimes), less opportunity for Reeves to show he can't act and more and better plot twists. What more could one ask for? Well, hear ye, hear ye : I feel that what more you could ask for, you get it here! If you really hate the style of Japanese animation, don't go watch it, but one shouldn't break down on a film that is truly a milestone in its genre exactly for being just that.

Okay... it seems like so far, only the Barman fans have commented on this film - time for a counterpoint. Beware, this writeup is *LONG*.

For those not in the knowing (mostly the non-Belgians) : Tom Barman, director of this film, is the frontman of dEUS, one of the better known rock bands of the late 90's here in Belgium. Basically, they made a couple of very adventurous and innovative albums and quickly rose to fame on the national scale. Then, egos started hurting and the band basically fell apart, with Barman and a couple of others remaining to go on making albums under the dEUS-monicker. The way it always happens in such cases, the post-breakdown dEUS was a lot tamer and less interesting than the original. They tried to go for an international breakthrough with their album "The Ideal Crash" in 1999, presenting a much diluted form of their earlier style of songwriting. They didn't quite make it. However, egos were still pretty big it seems : big enough for Barman to consider himself enough of an artist to try on movies.

More often than not this sort of thing is a VERY big mistake, and this film does not make the exception. And Barman clearly went for *art* on this one, another very big mistake. For one thing, he's a musician, not a movie director. For another, dEUS at it's best made fun and provoking music, but never anything close to what I would consider *art*. It shows.

So, what's this movie about? Basically, it tells the story of a bunch of completely uninteresting people, doing equally uninteresting things over the course of a totally uninteresting friday in Antwerp, as even more uninteresting stuff happens to them in the act of being uninteresting. The characters are shallow, the plot totally pointless and the film just doesn't have any other redeeming qualities to make up for these shortcomings. Humor? The whole film made me smile (slightly) about 3 times, and actually managed to provoke a single 5-second laugh (not quite loud). Mood? The film just doesn't seem to show any kind of emotion or feeling at all. Mystery? Well, (*MINOR SPOILER*)the idea of the "wind-man", inspiring the name of the film, is as enthralling as a banana pepper pizza - not very, and has been done a thousand times before (anyone remember Johny Destiny - one of Tarantino's worst appearances on film to date)(*END MINOR SPOILER*). And well, its *artistic*, so don't expect any kind of real action to make up for all the previous. In other words, except for the few smiles, it bored me out of my shorts.

So what remains? Well, the soundtrack is pretty good, though it suffers from some of the same problems that other OST's have shown lately : first, it makes the movie seem like nothing more than a commercial for the CD. Second, it gives the impression that Barman is trying to hide the weaknesses and lack of emotional content in the film behind the content quality of the songs, which simply doesn't work. In the end, it makes the film look like nothing more than an illustration to the songs. And sadly, it's Barmans own contribution to the soundtrack which gets the most attention, though it is the weakest part of the whole soundtrack as far as I'm concerned. All in all, it just stands to show that Barman knows more about music than movies. Camera work is okay as well, though not anything that would make you scream out with joy.

The only thing about this movie that kept me watching was the sight-seeing factor. Since I originate from Antwerp, it was fun to play a kind of "guess-the-location" game. I would hardly consider this as a quality though.

All in all, another chance lost for Flemmish film. I keep on noticing that lately, the best Belgian movies have been coming from the French part of the country. This is mostly because at least, they have something to tell and manage to tell it in way that is both sharp and emotional (the brothers Daerden come to mind). Maybe the Flemmish art-house filmmakers should try that too.

Well, a lot of lengthy comments have already been made here so I'll try to keep it short. (*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*)

I have to admit I rather disliked the first Matrix movie. I thought it was shallow, it's themes mostly stolen from the excellent anime Serial Experiments Lain and predecessors like "Dark City" or "13th Floor". The acting was bad (Keanu Reeves can't act. period.), and the SFX were not nearly as groundbreaking as some people want it to seem (I had seen the rotoscoping and bullet-time effects a couple times before in other films - I even have to admit that I had an "oh no, not that again"-moment when first seeing it). Over time, however, I came to appreciate it as a good "comic-book" type of movie, which it clearly was despite it not having a real comic book to be based upon. I started to like it, though I still cannot say it was great.

The second Matrix blew me away. From the opening scene to the cliffhanger end, I had payed ticket price for the whole seat but only needed the edge. This movie is not at all like the first Matrix, which is why so many fans of the original I know seem to dislike it so much. It is an action movie. Final stop. And a great one at that, probably the best you'll be seeing for the whole of the year. From the opening sequence over the fight with the agents Smith to the famous car chase it all blasts off of the screen with a kind of energy that simply leaves you breathless. Many of the stunts had a very XXX feel to them, as tongue-in-cheek as they were spectacular, which many people seem to have missed completely (come on... the explosions in the opening scene - the Keanu superman gig, the white-suit style of the spectres vs. the black suits of the agents - the fight with the traffic sign - the dozens of agents Smith saying "More, more..." : the camp factor was just high enough to be funny, but not too high to make it annoying). The quality of the action leaves XXX far behind though. Some of the action sequences are just a bit too over-digitized, making it is very clear that computer animation has been used. However, I did not find this to take away from the quality of the choreography or excitement value of the scenes in question.

And most importantly, the flaws of the first movie were fixed : less plot ripped off of other movies, less opportunities for Keanu to show he can't act and SFX that really move the limits this time, though perhaps they do sometimes push the envelope a bit too far as I mentioned in the above paragraph. There has been loads of discussion on the "talk-moments" in this film. I liked them, even if it were just because they gave you a much needed breather in between action scenes - for that alone, they were REALLY needed. And they do advance the story. A lot. Sometimes, the dialog and action seems a bit overly serious, but that's just part of the style of this movie, together with the black leather, dark sunglasses and Keanu-preacher cloth look of it all. It made me smile more than once, and I'm convinced that's exactly what the directors wanted - it's cheesy, but again, in a XXX kind of way, it just works.

The story takes a sharp turn away from the original, simplistic premise presented in the first Matrix and sets the stage for a grand finale in Revolutions. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit frightened about Revolutions : it can't nearly be as good as this. Hardly. I think. Though I didn't expect much of Reloaded either, and see what we got!

Conclusion :

If you love ground-breaking action, this movie gets you a full 9/10 (-1 point for over-digitized effects in some places). It's not just that they look cool : they're fast-paced, thrilling, exciting, very well choreographed as we are used from Lo Ping and they generally keep you on the edge. And there is enough intriguing story there to keep you going between all of the action - it's not just an action flick!

If you loved the first matrix because you thought it was an existential parable on the one true nature of reality, a deep philosophical treatise on the fate of men, you'll HATE this sequel - give it a 5/10 just for being like the first one. But that's exactly why *I* hated the first movie so much the first time I saw it.

So much for trying to keep it short :) - but at least, you'll know what you get!