The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Directed by Lilly Wachowski
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
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11 films that influenced The Matrix Revolutions
What critics say influenced The Matrix Revolutions
Of course, the idea of humans enslaved by machines in all three Matrix movies owes a huge debt to The Terminator, but even the visuals here borrow shamelessly from Cameron, particularly the Armored Personnel Units — the lumbering, robotic exoskeletons worn by the Zion soldiers seem inspired by the similar apparatus Sigourney Weaver uses to fight the creature at the end of Aliens.
We cut from soldiers fighting in big Aliens rip-off machines, to a couple of chicks trying to shoot missiles into the center of the Death Star, or whatever that big drill thing is, to a ship being manually piloted by Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) -- with an uncharacteristically stressed out Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in the passenger seat -- making its way back to Zion.
Having said their peace about quantum physics and bending spoons already, homage is paid to sci-fi classics while showcasing all the best in today's jaw-dropping special effects: Ripley's power loader 'mech' from "Aliens," the gun turret / Death Star escape sequence on board the Millennium Falcon from the from the original "Star Wars," and even a bit of "Starship Troopers."
The APU battle bots the Zions use look like they were taken straight from the dock movers in Aliens with all the clunky vulnerabilities that implies.
Of course, the idea of humans enslaved by machines in all three Matrix movies owes a huge debt to The Terminator, but even the visuals here borrow shamelessly from Cameron, particularly the Armored Personnel Units — the lumbering, robotic exoskeletons worn by the Zion soldiers seem inspired by the similar apparatus Sigourney Weaver uses to fight the creature at the end of Aliens.
The view of life as a dream had been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world had intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others.
One scene late in the movie will remind almost anyone of Frank Morgan's comeuppance as the fabled wizard in The Wizard of Oz, an unfortunate smoke-and-mirrors echo for filmmakers Larry and Andy Wachowski, who now appear to have pied-pipered our pockets into emptying.
When Machine components swirl en masse, we're reminded of The Swarm, and a distracting Reeves eye mishap suggests Lasik gone terribly wrong — or maybe he's auditioning for Oedipus Rex.
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When Machine components swirl en masse, we're reminded of The Swarm, and a distracting Reeves eye mishap suggests Lasik gone terribly wrong — or maybe he's auditioning for Oedipus Rex.
Even though the gloomy environs of Zion are far less interesting sites for CGI derring-do than the contemporary city spaces in the first film or Reloaded's sublime freeway sequence, the action is still sufficiently dazzling and the firefight between Zion's infantry -- led by the hilariously hard-bitten Mifune (Nathaniel Lees) -- and the swarming, bug-like machines recalls the high-tech splatter of Starship Troopers.
Having said their peace about quantum physics and bending spoons already, homage is paid to sci-fi classics while showcasing all the best in today's jaw-dropping special effects: Ripley's power loader 'mech' from "Aliens," the gun turret / Death Star escape sequence on board the Millennium Falcon from the from the original "Star Wars," and even a bit of "Starship Troopers."
Sure, the insect-like swarms of invading machine sentinels look cool (reminiscent of Starship Troopers ), but without any established characters to root for in Zion, it?s…
As Neo and Smith duke it out for the last time — tumbling through the Matrix’s stormy, virtual-reality skies, wholly unbound by the laws of physics — we don’t feel like we’re soaring alongside them, the way we did with Christopher Reeve in the old Superman movies, but rather like we’ve been stranded behind on Earth, watching as someone else plays the final level of an incredibly high-tech, emotionally uninvolving video game.
The view of life as a dream had been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world had intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others.
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Admittedly, the rather exceptional heights of the freeway chase scene in Reloaded isn't remotely matched by anything anywhere in Revolutions; even the only decent-sized fight scene in Reloaded, the famous Neo vs. Army of Smiths sequence, is better than its companion moment in the finale, when the entire arc of this grand, vasty saga culminates in a fight sequence that is, honestly, kind of boring; while Reloaded mostly held its own despite how much the wire-fu aesthetic that The Matrix so effectively popularised had become old hat even as early as 2003, just four years later, Revolutions runs splat into the issue that by the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , there pretty much wasn't anywhere else to take the style, and from there it was all so many people hanging about in the sky, zapping towards each other at high speeds with arms and legs in photogenically poised combat positions.
It’s a sequence whose only comparison — in length, volume, scale, intensity, brutality, and filmmaking virtuosity — is the D-Day landing that opens Saving Private Ryan.