NeoBrowser
Jul 20, 2013
And so the much-hyped Year Of The Matrix comes to an end. Truthfully, though, the real Year Of The Matrix was 1999, when the groundbreaking original proved to be the right film in the right place at the right time. Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist and Y2K fears about the power of machines over mankind, The Matrix not only revitalized slo-mo action sequences with its 'bullet-time' style, it had a political relevance that already seems dated in a 21st century world dominated by a war against terror, not technology. The Matrix Reloaded, for all its faults, did try to up the ante, both in its creation of a wider Matrix myth and its budget-heavy effects. Revolutions, however, is content to follow in its wake, the final couple of hours of a four-and-a-half hour slab to which the original movie, in the makers' minds, is but a pre-title sequence. Granted, there's less philosophical babble and more emphasis on action in Revolutions, but the Wachowskis, having backed themselves into pseud's corner, can only deliver with a formula where spectacle and pretentiousness follow on from each other in steady succession. Gut thrills and intellectual stimulation are never integrated as one.
