re:mote voices

Title: The Matrix Revolutions
Cast: Keanu Reaves, Carry-Ann Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Monica Belucci
Director: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski

the third in the series. i never made a lot of comment about reloaded at the time, so i guess i'll pass comment on the two now. a lot has been said about the pros and cons of both, and i'm not really that interested in contributing to that mass. reloaded was deeply flawed, the problems were evident to most - for me it went too far from the first film, became too alien, without retaining what made the first human. the second was also rank with excess, scenes where they stepped over the line effects wise, so that it no longer looked impressive, but rather a little crap. but on the whole it had its moments as far as i was concerned. revolutions is better, it manages to avoid a lot of those excesses, and while it remains very different from the first, straining that link, it also is more in tune with the first, so we feel a better connection and continuity. the scenes where the computer animation goes hyper are kept for the masses of robots attacking zion - this creates a swarming effect, and is kept at a speed where we don't analyze what we are seeing too much - unlike the big neo-smith fight of reloaded which was a big problem. in turn the neo-smith scene in revolutions learns some lessons, they might kick into the superman territory, but avoiding certain close ups and keeping it one on one lends the feeling of reality (....) that was missing from that previous confrontation. there are some curious aspects, which i perhaps shouldn't mention without getting into spoilers. one thing that did strike me, and i admit its superficial level, is how bad monicca belucci looked in reloaded. a token gesture part in revolutions she might have, but at least looks far better. there are of course excesses and problems with revolutions as well, but maybe they back off a little from being too philisophical realising the hash they made of it in reloaded? still, there are plenty of people who reckon revolutions was bad, i could hear them at the end of the showing i saw. but for me putting too high expectations on a film like this is being too ambitious - cinema is a flashy visual medium, especially when it comes to hollywood. steps forward count for something, but for real innovation and challenging thinking i prefer the likes of a novel or good comic.