Topic: Matrix 3 - Review  (Read 2695 times)

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Erik Bethke

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Matrix 3 - Review
« on: November 12, 2003, 06:37:39 am »
Matrix 3 Review

It has to be said that the CG in this film are amazing, so strong that most of the time I could just watch the movie and think it was real.  Only the weird fighting scenes in the air with no sense of gravity did I realize I was looking at some digital frames put together.

The fight scene in the dome was incredible and I loved the Filipino(?) APU captain as he faced the totally insane amount of sentinels.  However the ammo flunky was so shallow of a character I was bored to tears with him and was quite disappointed that a sentinel didn?t make a slipper out of his skull.

I thought the acting of Neo and Trinity was flat.  I didn?t feel the romance there, it was totaled forced.  Neo blinded was cool.  The final fight between Neo and Smith ended in a way that finally made sense instead of just more and bigger punches and kicks.

In addition to the CG quality there were a few very evocative moments like when Neo and Trinity?s ship breaks through the cloud layer ? I thought I shifted momentarily into the movie Brazil (which I highly recommend).  And of course the animating face of the machine leader was cool and the machine city was very intriguing.

All in all I found the dialogue between the Oracle, Architect, The Frenchman, Mr. Smith, Neo and Morpheous all-too predictable in its vague wanna-be mysterious but just comes off fake.

I loved all of the strong female characters in this movie.  I think that is probably the coolest part of it, these females kicked ass.  These females excited me as a male thinking about having a kick-ass partner in life.

The plot was at least occasionally stimulating where the plot in Matrix 2 was reminiscent of my days as a mediocre D&D DM.

The movie did touch upon a few messages such as in the future we will have to accept machines of sentience and emotion, and the inherent conflict between order (the machines) and chaos (the humans).  This law vs. chaos bit did provoke me into thinking a bit about current world geopolitics.

Bottom line, I recommend the movie as it is clearly worth the $6 to $10 you might pay for the ticket, however this is still a movie and not a film despite all the pretentious mystery babble between the characters.  I felt Matrix 2 was a waste and personally I think the whole trilogy would have been much stronger if the creators just stopped with the original Matrix and not caved into commercial pressures to crank out more.  Or perhaps they could have just skipped 2 and I would have been cool with that.)

(As an aside I watched Matrix 3 here in Korea and they have a neat system where you select your seats at ticket purchase time, and the subtitled appeared vertically in the right-hand side in a not too-contrasty color.  I was pleased to see that with the relatively simple vocabulary that is called for in the Matrix I was able to read a fair amount of the subtitles casually.)

Apologies for the bit of a rambling review, -Erik


 

Kaenyne

  • Guest
Re: Matrix 3 - Review
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2003, 10:39:58 am »
Thanks for the well-written review. I'm gonna check out Matrix 3 probably next week.

Erik Bethke

  • Guest
Matrix 3 - Review
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2003, 06:37:39 am »
Matrix 3 Review

It has to be said that the CG in this film are amazing, so strong that most of the time I could just watch the movie and think it was real.  Only the weird fighting scenes in the air with no sense of gravity did I realize I was looking at some digital frames put together.

The fight scene in the dome was incredible and I loved the Filipino(?) APU captain as he faced the totally insane amount of sentinels.  However the ammo flunky was so shallow of a character I was bored to tears with him and was quite disappointed that a sentinel didn?t make a slipper out of his skull.

I thought the acting of Neo and Trinity was flat.  I didn?t feel the romance there, it was totaled forced.  Neo blinded was cool.  The final fight between Neo and Smith ended in a way that finally made sense instead of just more and bigger punches and kicks.

In addition to the CG quality there were a few very evocative moments like when Neo and Trinity?s ship breaks through the cloud layer ? I thought I shifted momentarily into the movie Brazil (which I highly recommend).  And of course the animating face of the machine leader was cool and the machine city was very intriguing.

All in all I found the dialogue between the Oracle, Architect, The Frenchman, Mr. Smith, Neo and Morpheous all-too predictable in its vague wanna-be mysterious but just comes off fake.

I loved all of the strong female characters in this movie.  I think that is probably the coolest part of it, these females kicked ass.  These females excited me as a male thinking about having a kick-ass partner in life.

The plot was at least occasionally stimulating where the plot in Matrix 2 was reminiscent of my days as a mediocre D&D DM.

The movie did touch upon a few messages such as in the future we will have to accept machines of sentience and emotion, and the inherent conflict between order (the machines) and chaos (the humans).  This law vs. chaos bit did provoke me into thinking a bit about current world geopolitics.

Bottom line, I recommend the movie as it is clearly worth the $6 to $10 you might pay for the ticket, however this is still a movie and not a film despite all the pretentious mystery babble between the characters.  I felt Matrix 2 was a waste and personally I think the whole trilogy would have been much stronger if the creators just stopped with the original Matrix and not caved into commercial pressures to crank out more.  Or perhaps they could have just skipped 2 and I would have been cool with that.)

(As an aside I watched Matrix 3 here in Korea and they have a neat system where you select your seats at ticket purchase time, and the subtitled appeared vertically in the right-hand side in a not too-contrasty color.  I was pleased to see that with the relatively simple vocabulary that is called for in the Matrix I was able to read a fair amount of the subtitles casually.)

Apologies for the bit of a rambling review, -Erik


 

Kaenyne

  • Guest
Re: Matrix 3 - Review
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2003, 10:39:58 am »
Thanks for the well-written review. I'm gonna check out Matrix 3 probably next week.

Erik Bethke

  • Guest
Matrix 3 - Review
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2003, 06:37:39 am »
Matrix 3 Review

It has to be said that the CG in this film are amazing, so strong that most of the time I could just watch the movie and think it was real.  Only the weird fighting scenes in the air with no sense of gravity did I realize I was looking at some digital frames put together.

The fight scene in the dome was incredible and I loved the Filipino(?) APU captain as he faced the totally insane amount of sentinels.  However the ammo flunky was so shallow of a character I was bored to tears with him and was quite disappointed that a sentinel didn?t make a slipper out of his skull.

I thought the acting of Neo and Trinity was flat.  I didn?t feel the romance there, it was totaled forced.  Neo blinded was cool.  The final fight between Neo and Smith ended in a way that finally made sense instead of just more and bigger punches and kicks.

In addition to the CG quality there were a few very evocative moments like when Neo and Trinity?s ship breaks through the cloud layer ? I thought I shifted momentarily into the movie Brazil (which I highly recommend).  And of course the animating face of the machine leader was cool and the machine city was very intriguing.

All in all I found the dialogue between the Oracle, Architect, The Frenchman, Mr. Smith, Neo and Morpheous all-too predictable in its vague wanna-be mysterious but just comes off fake.

I loved all of the strong female characters in this movie.  I think that is probably the coolest part of it, these females kicked ass.  These females excited me as a male thinking about having a kick-ass partner in life.

The plot was at least occasionally stimulating where the plot in Matrix 2 was reminiscent of my days as a mediocre D&D DM.

The movie did touch upon a few messages such as in the future we will have to accept machines of sentience and emotion, and the inherent conflict between order (the machines) and chaos (the humans).  This law vs. chaos bit did provoke me into thinking a bit about current world geopolitics.

Bottom line, I recommend the movie as it is clearly worth the $6 to $10 you might pay for the ticket, however this is still a movie and not a film despite all the pretentious mystery babble between the characters.  I felt Matrix 2 was a waste and personally I think the whole trilogy would have been much stronger if the creators just stopped with the original Matrix and not caved into commercial pressures to crank out more.  Or perhaps they could have just skipped 2 and I would have been cool with that.)

(As an aside I watched Matrix 3 here in Korea and they have a neat system where you select your seats at ticket purchase time, and the subtitled appeared vertically in the right-hand side in a not too-contrasty color.  I was pleased to see that with the relatively simple vocabulary that is called for in the Matrix I was able to read a fair amount of the subtitles casually.)

Apologies for the bit of a rambling review, -Erik


 

Kaenyne

  • Guest
Re: Matrix 3 - Review
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2003, 10:39:58 am »
Thanks for the well-written review. I'm gonna check out Matrix 3 probably next week.