Been awhile since I saw the second one, this one here being the third in the series, released to theaters only about 6 months after the 2nd one, which I thought of as “An Ode to Monica Belluci’s Cleavage.” But I was mistaken, apparently. As brief of a scene as it is, she still looks magnificent here. And then there’s some robot squids and blind Messiahs, but that’s Secondary. Kinda.
This picks up pretty much right after the cliffhanger of Matrix Reloaded. Neo still in some weird coma, his hospital-mate Bane on the slab next to him. Interesting use of words vs concepts to explain the situation he finds himself in. Purgatory vs Train Station. Love versus Robot Love. Karma, though? Still a bitch. And that Merovaginaian Guy is still a real puke, ain’t he? His S&M Club is a bit much, too. Good thing for Monica Belluci, though. See notes above. Then the last of the human race and giant mechanical squidmonsters proceed to knock the living shit outta each other. It’s rather exciting.
After the foul taste that Poopiter Ass-Ending left in my brain, I didn’t really expect too much from this upon revisiting. But the somewhat convoluted plottenings of the second one, minus the extended fight scenes, were alright I guess. And this one isn’t too sucky either if you just let the movie flow. Sure, there’s about 40 minutes of extended fights, mostly between two major scenes, and they are well done in that respect. The mecha-warriors are cool, though impractical design, I would think. But the story kinda settles into the 3rd act it’s supposed to be, with all the pseudo-religious connotations that come with it. I was just happy to see the Gyrocopter Guy from The Road Warrior make a decent little appearance, as a Charon-type of character ferrying 1s and 0s across the river Styx. Well done. Agent Smith continues to chew the scenery like nobody’s business, and in a suitably maniacal fashion, kudos to Hugo Weaving and his 1 million clones there. Even the Bane character fuckin nails it. Is it a bit over the top and melodramatic? Sure. But if you want a good action movie, this does a decent enough job of ending the story. Well, until they made that new one a couple years ago. I guess I’ll have to DMR that one too, for duty’s sake. Hehehheh. Doody. Thanks Viva Frei, now I can’t ever not think of that.
