The Matrix Trilogy

The Matrix. You love it. You hate it. You could give a shit about it. I'm into it. So when I saw the complete set on blu-ray for $30, I picked it up, cause son loves a deal.

The Matrix
(1999) [Trailer]
Directors: Andy Wachowski (IMDB), Lana Wachowski (IMDB)

This is the best of the series and the movie that shook up the modern action flick. I really love this film, and it still holds up nicely.

Neo (Ted Logan) is a hacker working a shitty desk job who gets a rude awakening by Lawrence Fishburne (aka Morpheus.) He finds out the world he lives in is a sham put on by machines who took over years ago and enslaved the humans. This world is called The Matrix. In reality, not The Matrix, you're either living in a cocoon plugged into a network the machines feed off of, or you're a freedom fighter in the resistance ...pretty heavy shit right? Morpheus takes Neo to meet the Oracle who tells him what he wants to hear. Neo learns Kung Fu and helps Lawrence fight back against the Agents (bad guys) in the Matrix. All kinds of craziness happens. The End.

Where to start with this? First, It really did change the direction of action movies in the 2000s. Now I will be the first to admit, not everything in the Matrix is original. It definitely borrows from Hong Kong action flicks and they should be paying Bruce Lee's relatives royalty checks. However, they really took all of that and a lot more then elevated it to the next level. It truly is unlike any sci-fi action flick before it. The Wachowski Brothers (now brother and sister) made their directing stamp with this in many ways. Not only is the energy incredible, the cinematography, writing, and art direction are all amazing. I would say Keanu would be my least favorite thing about this, but even he's serviceable for the most part. On the other hand Hugo Weaving makes up for it with an awesome performance as Mr Smith. I would recommend revisiting this movie if you haven't seen it for a while.

The Matrix Reloaded
(2003) [Trailer]
Directors: Andy Wachowski (IMDB), Lana Wachowski (IMDB)

The follow up to 1999's blockbuster hit. Not only is this the second installment, it's also personally in second place for me.

Neo and Morpheus are back at it again. This time the story isn't so straight forward. Actually it's a bit convoluted. You finally see Zion. There's a hippy rave. Neo is looking for the Oracle again. There's a lot of Mr Smiths. There's a Frenchmen. There's a key master. There's two twins with gray dreads. Cornel West is counsel member? Neo is basically Superman. There's an architect and yeah...

There's a lot going on in Reloaded. The story is a little confusing at times but not impossible to follow. There's tons of cool action scenes and more of the same from part one. But...some things were annoying. Like Neo can fly away now. Why doesn't he just fly away from all the Mr Smiths right away, instead of fighting them for an hour. The dance scene is lame. The two twins are basically indestructible? There's some other smaller things, but I digress. I'll give it a passing grade.



The Matrix Revolutions
(2003) [Trailer]
Directors: Andy Wachowski (IMDB), Lana Wachowski (IMDB)

The final chapter in The Matrix epic. It's in my opinion, and I think in the opinion of most, the worst of the three.

This time around the movie starts with Neo, who is stuck in a train station. He's gets saved by his girlfriend and leaves the station. Zion prepares for a war. There's a new Oracle (you mean to tell me they couldn't get the original one back, what's she doing that's so important.) There's even more Mr Smiths. We find out Mr Smith is Neo's opposite or something along those lines. Neo goes to the machine city. And I wont ruin the rest for you...actually I will in the next paragraph.

There's a lot that's wrong with this. The first 20 minutes of the film are completely unnecessary. Actually if you were to start the movie right after the scene when Trinity saves Neo from the train station, it wouldn't have affected the movie at all. Why couldn't they just keep pushing that EMP button over and over and just keeping killing the machines once their ship lands inside the hanger? Why didn't the humans just make ships that could fly above the clouds all the time? Then BAM! No machines to worry about. What the hell happens after the machines make peace? Do they free the humans in the cocoons? If they did, how could the survive? If they didn't, why the hell would the humans be cool with a bunch of other humans being slaves?

The action scenes were still OK, but by the 3rd movie the whole schtick starts to wear itself out. I just started to find myself getting really bored with it. The sad thing with this is, I had thought before watching it "It's strange that I never saw the last Matrix." Then as I started to watch it, I realized I had seen it before. It's definitely forgettable.