Memorable mundane and metaphysical moments

Matrix Revolutions stands out for two astounding aspects – narrative and visual effects. While the same applies to its previous films in the Matrix trilogy, they are more pronounced in this final part.

As written by the film’s directors Larry and Andy Wanchowski, Matrix Revolutions’ plot is straightforward and linear without any extended circuitous flashback and recall that tend to confuse.

Its takeoff continues where ends its prequel Matrix Reloaded, a cliffhanger abruptly fading out as the subterranean city of Zion grapples with angst over an impending attack of the machines while its comatose hero is rendered dysfunctional by a mishap.

Neo the hero rouses from inertness on successful desperate efforts of Trinity, the love of his life, to retrieve him from the tight grip of his nemeses like Agent Smith and the Merovingian.

After an intriguing encounter with the Oracle to ascertain the likely end to the internecine conflict with the Enemy, Neo asks for a ship to sail to Machine City to confront the master of the marauding machines.

The massive assault starts and Zion wages a valiant stand to fend off the insectlike machines in an intense battle that consumes 25 minutes of screentime displaying enormous military hardware as well as amazing visual effects which gained wide renown for the Wanchowskis. (The New York Times dubs deservedly the duo visual virtuoso.)

Neo reaches his destination, losing along the way Trinity who dies as his ship repels an aggressive assault.

His face-off with his quarry foe is depicted no more in greenish grey and gritty earth tones as in the machines’ raid on Zion but in bright flashes of scintillating white and red-orange.

The climactic scenes show Neo’s startling transformation – accompanied by heavenly choirs of hossanahs – into a Christ-like Savior immolated upon a symbolic cross form.

This is followed right after by a sudden stop of the raid, with Zion’s creme de la creme and hoi polloi erupting into a veritable eardrum-shattering hallelujahs of relief and gratitude.

Matrix Revolutions reaches its denouément by breaking through various layers of reality juxtaposing one against the other in a hitherto uncommon depiction of events deviating from a traditional epistemological cause-and-effect sequence.

Memorable moments, both mundane and metaphysical, include the rain-swept showdown between Neo and Agent Smith in a hair-raising bare-knuckles fisticuff virtually symbolizing a rivetting fight between Good and Evil.

Movies of this magnitude normally attract their undeserved share of carping, subtle and otherwise, if not outright flak, from vitriolic viewers with a jaundiced eye.

According to TIME magazine "the Wanchowskis didn’t have many more tricks up their sleeves" and "a simple thing has gotten lost in these sequels: they’re not much fun."

The New York Times decries: "There is very little that is tantalizing or suspenseful. The feeling of revelation is gone and many of the teasing implications of Reloaded have been abandoned."

This influential broadsheet based in the Big Apple flatly pans the performance of the film’s lead actor: "(Keanu) Reeves, perhaps worried that he was showing too much range, has purged himself of all expression apart from a worried frown and a sorrowful grimace."

(I recall his acting in Reloaded drew a wry comment from somebody from the Hollywood press that if he learns how to act he would be dynamite.)

What a put-down all this is.

Happily, majority of moviegoers know what they want to see without needing any assist from carping critics.

All they go by is what makes them feel good after a purge of their emotions, like what a real catharsis should be.

Who can deny feeling good after viewing a narration of events which end with Good vanquishing Evil?