DIRECTORS: Andy & Larry Wachowski
STUDIOS: Warner Bros. & Village Roadshow Pictures
RATING: R
WEBSITE: whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com
RELEASE DATE: March 31, 1999
DIRECTORS: Andy & Larry Wachowski
STUDIOS: Warner Bros. & Village Roadshow Pictures
RATING: R
WEBSITE: whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com
RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2003
There is no single word that can describe this movie. The first Matrix was the breakthrough, and this one is the breakdown. The Matrix movies are the reason people go to movies. To see something new, to be entertained, to be able to "free their minds." The visual effects were stunning (much props to the Wachowski brothers and John Gaeta), and the actual plot moved further into philosophical points and biblical references. This movie is for everyone. People who never come to see a movie the rest of the year come to see this. The people in the theater were so entertained by the MovieTickets.com ad (after the frequent movie-goers have seen it a billion times), it was obvious. The Burly Brawl (where Neo (Keanu Reeves) fights 100 Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving)) and the 14-minute car chase (on a freeway built solely for the movie), which involved almost all of the characters including Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Morpheous (Laurence Fishburne) and the ghostly twins (the Rayment brothers), lived up to their hype, sitting as two of the best action sequences ever filmed. They make any scene in the orignal look like a walk in the park. Bottom line: If you don't see this movie, you don't know what you're missing. And when you see it, you must stay through the 1900+ list of credits to see a sneak peek of the third movie, November's The Matrix Revolutions.
DIRECTORS: Andy & Larry Wachowski
STUDIOS: Warner Bros. & Village Roadshow Pictures
RATING: R
WEBSITE: whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com
RELEASE DATE: November 5, 2003
As the third and supposed final movie of the Matrix series, The Matrix Revolutions doesn't disappoint - for the most part.
Like the original Star Wars movies in the '70s and '80s, the Matrix movies have been some of the biggest box-office and cultural phenomenons of the past five years. Star Wars revolutionized special effects with its 1977 release, as did The Matrix in 1999 with its fast-paced slow motion special effects, which, if they're used in another movie, are dubbed "Matrix effects."
Back from the first two movies, Revolutions stars Keanu Reeves (Neo), Laurence Fishburne (Morpheous), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) and Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith). Revolutions was supposed to feature Gloria Foster in her third go-around as the Oracle, but due to her untimely death, Mary Alice has taken her place. Returning from The Matrix Reloaded (the second movie in the trilogy) are Helmut Bakaitus (the Architect), Jada Pinkett Smith (Niobe), Harold Perrineau Jr. (Link), Nona Gaye (Zee), Harry Lennix (Lock) and Monica Bellucci (Persephone).
Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures released Revolutions, with producer Joel Silver. Like the previous two movies, Revolutions was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. As their brainchild, the Matrix movies contain everything one would want in a movie: romance, action, war, philosophy, and incredible special effects. It is impossible to go on without mentioning John Gaeta, the visual effects supervisor, and Steve Courtley, the special effects supervisor. Without these two, the movies would not be the same.
Reloaded boasts two of the best action sequences in any movie: the Burly Brawl, where Neo and 100 Agent Smiths duke it out, and the infamous 14-minute highway chase, on a highway built entirely for the movie, which included almost every member of the cast. While those two sequences were spectacular, Revolutions has brought two new contenders: the heavily-commercialized fight where Neo and Agent Smith fight mid-air and the 19-minute battle in Zion, the last human city, where its citizens fight against Sentinels, mechanical insects that have one mission: to rid the earth of humans.
These two new sequences were still inventive (especially one punch Neo throws at Agent Smith), but they weren't on the same level as the two previous movies, and that pretty much sums up the whole movie. The original Matrix and Reloaded relied more on the action of the individual, while Revolutions, especially with the drawn-out battle in Zion, relied more on the action of the machines, and the Matrix movies' special effects are much more creative in the more intimate action scenes.
Overall, The Matrix Revolutions was still a great movie - a movie that makes people love movies - even if it wasn't on the same level as the first two movies. In the words of the Oracle, "Everything that has a beginning must have an end."