All The Realism We Can't Stand Cuts To The Bone

The Good: Good performances, Good direction, Good writing, Realism
The Bad: Tries to do too much/conceits of the genre
The Basics: To The Bone does what it sets out to do exceptionally well, though its ambition occasionally exceeds its grasp.


I learned a long time ago that mental illness is not a good point of bonding and works about it are not an easy genre to objectively evaluate. Learning truths about yourself are a great thing, but trying to relate to other people who might have similar experiences is frequently more perilous than one might anticipate - and "I heard you had a complete psychological breakdown after high school, too" is not a great ice breaker for someone you barely know who you haven't seen in twenty years. Works about mental illness resonate with different people in different ways and as a genre it is tough to discuss without pissing off people for whom that work resonates. So, the people who fell in love with Girl, Interrupted accept no criticism of the film as a work of art and I recall It's Kind Of A Funny Story (reviewed here!) speaking to me. Sitting down to watch the new Netflix film To The Bone was a known minefield for me.

As much as the creators of To The Bone want to reject the premise; it has become a sub-genre, the mental illness recovery drama. The works within that genre have some conceits - "I have a bad feeling about Suicidey!" - and once one is familiar with the genre, it is tough to make something that is both truly original and completely compelling. In the case of To The Bone, the longer the film went on, the more problematic it became; the film is ambitious and, unfortunately, its attempt at being inclusive and having a bigger scope drags the movie out of effectiveness and its initial universal insight. To be clear, as I discuss To The Bone, my critiques are of the film as its own work of art, not a commentary on the people who created it and might have drawn from their own experiences to make express their own personal narrative.

To The Bone is a film that focuses on a young woman, Ellen, who suffers from anorexia nervosa and the movie starts with a very engaging and compelling quality that comes from a strong, universal quality of the depiction of the character's disorder. But as To The Bone progresses, it moves further and further from the universal quality and loses focus on the film's tortured protagonist to give voice to other people suffering from eating disorders. That both leads to the introduction of the conceits - one of Ellen's peers at the in-patient home is pregnant and her arc is entirely predictable - and distracting elements. The underlying factors of Ellen's body dysmorphia are painfully obvious from the way she is introduced in To The Bone, but the process of delving into her issues is distracted by the realistic depiction of the faults of a group home situation and the issues of other characters there.

Ellen is released from her in-patient treatment for her eating disorder and returns home, where she experiences friction with her step-mother. Susan tries to keep on top of Ellen's condition and Ellen's half-sister continues to express fear about what might happen to Ellen. Susan gets Ellen an appointment with the very successful Dr. Beckham. Beckham gets Ellen to commit to several weeks of in-patient treatment. There, Ellen meets other patients, like Luke (a former dancer), Megan (who is pregnant), Pearl (who has a feeding tube initially), and her bulimic roommate. At the in-patient treatment, Ellen is given a new name by Dr. Beckham (Eli) and she struggles to overcome the problems that made her anorexic.

To The Bone is instantly problematic as a character study because Ellen gets marginalized in her own story. The way the film is set up, Ellen's underlying problem is made painfully obvious - she is neglected by both of her birth parents (her father never shows up on-screen) and she craves a sense of stability - but To The Bone fails to get around to addressing those core issues at all. Dr. Beckham is charming as a character, but his psychological prowess is deeply suspect - how wise is it to give someone suffering from body dysmorphia a new name?! And how can Beckham not recognize that Ellen requires a sense of stability that an in-patient treatment center with a rotating patient-base cannot provide? In other words, the charm factor of some of the ancillary characters distracts from the core themes and character traits of the protagonist. By the time Ellen ends up in an electricity-less yurt in the desert being bottle-fed by her lesbian mother, the film has lost any pretense of trying to express a universal story. (And to be clear, Ellen's mother's sexuality is not a problem in the film - who cares why Judy abandoned and later pushed away her daughter, she's a self-centered narcissist and well-characterized as a flake - the running away to the desert to the place so remote and hippy dippy that it doesn't even have electricity seems like a forced conceit.)

So, a group home setting where Ellen is surrounded by people cheating the system seems like the wrong therapeutic setting for the character (How is it that Susan could believe that the fifth time is a charm?!) and while To The Bone includes characters who are realistically gaming the system and suffering their own issues which confuse them, they make for a more jumbled narrative. Ellen has a compelling backstory that is slowly revealed in a compelling way, but writer-director Marti Noxon does not seem to know how to make that compelling and retain focus on that or Ellen. As a result, To The Bone takes a shotgun approach to the characters and includes the pregnancy conceit and a whole field trip for the residents that serves Alex much more than any other character. Alex's presence in the narrative is useful in that it is good to remind viewers that men can suffer from eating disorders as well, but To The Bone pulls toward his story whenever Ellen's story is drifting.

The net result is that for a film that begins with a stark sense of realism and unsettling focus, To The Bone diverges and waters down its own intensity and character drama. Ellen is an angry, isolated young woman who is suffering and the process by which she either hits bottom or moves toward recovery could have been compelling. Instead, To The Bone treads toward predictable, logical and distracting divergences.

That said, the performances are quite good in the film. Carrie Preston steals her scenes in To The Bone. Preston seems to get cast frequently as a somewhat out-of-touch hick, a well-meaning woman who is nevertheless the product of a very conservative upbringing (I'm not sure if Preston chooses those type roles or after True Blood she just got pigeonholed into them); her stepmother character in To The Bone seems similar. But in To The Bone, Preston plays a character who clearly loves her step-daughter and wants desperately to do right by her. Susan is written to be like a mother who has done all the research she can on her daughter's disorder, tries hard and occasionally overcompensates and Preston plays the aspects needed to make such a character pop.

Alana Ulbach similarly shines for her brief performance that is uncharacteristically neither manic nor sarcastic. Keanu Reeves is fine as the poorly-written Dr. Beckham. Lily Collins is good as Ellen - she carries the beginning and last five minutes of the film and there are moments in To The Bone where she is able to emote wonderfully with the simple changing of her eyeline or a slouch that manages to instantly characterize disappointment and fear. The rest of the performers might be fine, but they are granted such thin characterization to play that they appear more as a "type" than an actual character (sadly, To The Bone is woefully out-of-balance with both distracting from the protagonist and then not developing many of the characters used to divert from the main character).

Ultimately, To The Bone tells an initially important story and perspective that explores a tragic disorder, but it becomes unable to sustain or develop one character's narrative in a compelling and effective way.

For other Netflix exclusive films, please check out my reviews of:
Okja
You Get Me
Shimmer Lake
War Machine
Girlfriend's Day
Take The 10
Clinical
Barry
Spectral
True Memoirs Of An International Assassin
I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House
Mascots
ARQ
XOXO
Tallulah
Special Correspondents
The Fundamentals Of Caring
The Ridiculous 6

6/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Dull Legal Drama: The Whole Truth Sinks!

The Good: Decent-enough performances, Sense of realism
The Bad: Poor writing, Characters are flat for the bulk of the film, Oppressive mood (dull!), Voiceovers
The Basics: The Whole Truth is a legal drama that is horrifying for its accuracy and dullness; not an entertaining or at all gripping film.


I've reached that interesting point in life where the a-list actors of my childhood are unable to successfully open blockbuster films. Indeed, twenty years ago, a film starring Renee Zellweger and Keanu Reeves would have been a major cinematic event in the United States. Now, however, the pair is headlining a film that is getting virtually no press, The Whole Truth.

The Whole Truth is a legal drama, which focuses on a murder trial where the defense attorney seems to have everything stacked against him. And, given how specific The Whole Truth is, it is somewhat unsurprising that the film is not getting a lot of attention. Just as Spotlight (reviewed here!) occasionally became mired in the process story - the details of investigative journalism - The Whole Truth is very much a legal process story that explores how two people build a defense on the fly from the evidence they have available to them.

Richard Ramsay is the defense attorney for Michael Lassiter, a young man who Ramsay has known his entire life. Mike is accused of killing Boone Lassiter, the seventeen year-old having stabbed his father in the heart. Tried in Louisiana, Michael is being tried as an adult and Ramsay quickly discovers just how hard it will be to exonerate Michael. Because Mike has not spoken to Ramsay, he has no real defense for his client and when he is joined by outside counsel, he works to turn around the case.

After prosecution witness after prosecution witness buries Michael, Ramsay works to unearth the truth to keep his client out of prison. Ramsay and Janelle begin to bond while looking for evidence after Ramsay reveals his strategy to make Mike look like an underdog and turn the jury in his favor. He is spooked when Michael demands to testify and Ramsay struggles to keep him out of prison.

The Whole Truth is a stiflingly dull legal drama, which is very much concerned with procedure and some sense of realism, as opposed to working to entertain the audience. The film spends time discussing jury selection, ethnic bias, and inconsistencies between recorded statements and testimony in court. While Mike doodles through the court case, Janelle tries to figure out what actually happened between Mike and his father.

Like many legal dramas, The Whole Truth is dominated by scenes set in the court room. To keep it visually interesting and to fill in the narrative gaps, testimony from witnesses leads to flashbacks. The flashbacks illustrate various events that supposedly motivated Michael to kill his father and piece together what actually happened the day Boone Lassiter was killed. The flashbacks are paired with tedious voice-overs that do little to expand the story or satisfactorily flesh out the characters involved.

The Whole Truth mark's Renee Zellweger's first top-billed performance on the big screen in six years and her role is largely a supporting role. Loretta is the mother of Mike, widow of Boone and Zellweger is virtually unrecognizable in the part. Zellweger plays the role of an battered spouse and object of a teenager's desire and she plays both well, though the part is hardly her most extraordinary. Zellweger does fine, but the character is pretty bland, forcing her to play Loretta as very reserved.

The Whole Truth features some truly terrible lines. The writing in the film is awful in the third act. The scene between Ramsay and Janelle in their war room after Mike testifies is a mess of logical faults and ridiculous emotional moments; it sinks the film's climax.

In similar fashion, Keanu Reeves plays a shockingly dull character whose performance is designed to elicit plot exposition. Reeves does a fine job as Richard Ramsay, but The Whole Truth suffers because it is not The Practice or Boston Legal; the film does not have the time to develop the characters enough for the viewer to care about them. The defect in The Whole Truth is that outside the horror one feels for the surviving Lassiters over how terribly they were treated by Boone and the little victory of Janelle's first successful cross-examination, the film fails to make viewers invested in the characters and the outcome of the trial.

That is the death knell for The Whole Truth. The Whole Truth is adequately-performed, but in every way underwhelming.

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Suicide Squad
Star Trek Beyond
Breaking The Bank

3/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Payback For The Next Generation: John Wick

The Good: Decent acting, Good action sequences, Cool protagonist and supporting characters
The Bad: Entirely simplistic plot
The Basics: After the death of his wife, the grieving John Wick finds himself drawn back into the criminal underground when a Russian mobster kills his dog and steals his car.


Every now and then, I find an action movie that is simplistic, but laudable, or at least easy to recommend and equally easy to enjoy. For many years, my gold standard of such movies has been Payback (reviewed here!). So, when I continued to hear good things about John Wick I decided to check it out. While I enjoyed the film, it is, for all intents and purposes, Payback remade.

John Wick is an equally straightforward action thriller and directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski have a decent sense of style to make the film watchable. But they and writer Derek Kolstad are not winning any points for originality with the film. Instead, John Wick starts with a simplistic premise and, because of the film’s opening narrative conceit, works to the only logical conclusion an attentive viewer can expect. The film is enjoyable, but not highbrow, and the fact that it is set-up as a flashback robs the film of much of its spontaneity and suspense. That said, it succeeds as entertainment and as a surprisingly satisfying revenge flick.

Days after he buries his wife, John Wick is bloody and near-death; collapsing and he watches a video left by his lost love. The film flashes back to Helen’s death, John being visited by Marcus and receiving a posthumous gift from Helen; a dog. John slowly adapts to having Daisy in his house, life and car. After a young thug takes notice of John’s 1969 Mustang, he is visited in the night by the thugs who kill Daisy and take the car. The thug is Iosef Tarasov, son of the Russian mobster Viggo Tarasov and when Iosef takes John Wick’s car to Aurelio, even Aurelio wants nothing to do with it. The reason is simple; John Wick is an incredible assassin, the one who built Viggo Tarasov’s empire by eliminating his competition.

Learning the identity of the car thief, John Wick calls Viggo and when Viggo refuses to turn Iosef over to him (or make any sort of deal), Wick begins a spree of killing and destruction that puts him on a direct course for Iosef and Viggo. Viggo puts a bounty out on Wick’s head, but when the first waves of assassins are easily dispatched in Wick’s house, Wick moves into the criminal hotel. Protecting himself and the underground, Winston turns over the location of Iosef and that leads Wick to hunt the young man through Little Russia, destroying much of Viggo’s infrastructure and leverage in the process. Inspired by an ever-rising bounty, assassins like Perkins and Marcus turn on Wick, even in the confines of the protected hotel. Left on his own, John Wick tracks down the son and his father for revenge and to get the price lifted from his head.

John Wick is characterized beautifully by Viggo as “The man you send to kill the boogeyman.” The fear Aurelio and Viggo have relative to the apparently easy-to-subdue Wick is made understandable when Viggo’s initial barrage of men are wiped out with startling ease. John Wick is one of the few such films based upon an almost entirely believable premise; because Wick eliminated most of the mobsters and assassins in the City for Viggo, he knows Viggo’s weak spots and the surviving members of the underworld who are still active. As a result, he lets several people live (and they are grateful for the opportunity to run away) and he slays through the rest with ease.

The thing is, the initial attack on John Wick aside, John Wick is an entirely sensible movie so far as revenge movies go. Wick is retired from a lifestyle, but retains all of the skills and contacts he had. So, of course, he could get a clean-up crew to help him dispose of the bodies he racks up.

What makes John Wick more watchable than the average action revenge film – outside the realistic motivation of a man in mourning who continues to lose the things that are most important to him – is the general sense of realism to the film. John Wick may be the ultimate revenge fantasy, but Wick has to contend with realistic issues like police and hotel management calling him out for noise violations! Chaos does not ensue as fast in a loud Russian nightclub as it does in an otherwise empty house because of the loud music. The directors got the sound engineering absolutely right for a film where noise is a real-world problem.

Like Payback, John Wick has a delightful sense of irony as viewers watch the protagonist kill his way to the top while all the while wondering, “Why the hell didn’t this bad guy just give him what he wanted in the beginning?!” The problem with John Wick is that the viewer waits for the film to get back to where it began, knowing that – against all odds and reason – John Wick must survive until then.

On the plus side, John Wick has an excellent cast which is used well. Led by Keanu Reeves, John Wick includes the talents of Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Adrianne Palicki, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick and Alfie Allen (as Iosef, a role that makes one wonder if the Game Of Thrones actor can play anything other than a terrified maniac). Reeves is great in the brooding role of John Wick and he sells the action scenes well. He and the supporting cast play off one another perfectly to create a very real sense of a world where this sort of thing happens all the time and people don’t get too terribly attached to one another.

Ultimately, John Wick is well-executed escapist entertainment, even if it is not particularly original.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
To Write Love On Her Arms
Paddington
Still Alice
Predestination
The Interview
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
Expelled
Annie
Comet
Horrible Bosses 2
10,000 Days
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Sacrifice Of Philosophy For Effects Drags Down The Complete Matrix Trilogy

The Good: Interesting setting, Surprisingly good acting, Great initial idea, DVD bonus features, Effects
The Bad: Characters become progressively less interesting, Plot becomes rather formulaic, Themes gutted for effects
The Basics: The bonus features for The Complete Matrix Trilogy are amazing, but not quite enough to overlook the poor (but great looking/sounding!) source material.


Once upon a time, there was a great idea for a film. One brother went to another and said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a movie where we presented the idea that all of our lives right now are just simulations controlled by machines to keep us all in check while they drained us of energy to power themselves?" And the other brother said, "The people would never buy that, it's too complicated." And the first brother said, "But we could make it with incredible special effects and popular actors and intriguing characters and hide our themes of the values of life and freedom in among the gunshots and car chases!" And the second brother said, "We should do just that!" And they wrote it. And they directed it. And it was good.

And it was The Matrix.

And then the screwed it all up by adding onto the film with the vastly inferior The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions! Why couldn't they just quit while they were ahead?! I have rated a number of film trilogies this year, like The Indiana Jones Trilogy (reviewed here!) and the Back To The Future Trilogy (reviewed here!) and while they might have had their issues, none of them take quite the nosedive away from what they were than The Matrix Trilogy, now compiled into a 3 disc set.

For those unfamiliar with The Matrix Trilogy, this was a series of three science fiction/action adventure films that pitted humanity vs. machines in an all-out battle for survival and control over a ruined Earth.

In The Matrix (reviewed here!), Thomas Anderson - a hacker who goes by Neo in the virtual world of cyberspace - is approached by a group of hackers who offer to wake him up to the reality of the world by helping him break free of the Matrix. Neo accepts and suddenly finds himself in a war-torn, barren world on the run from giant Sentinel machines that are slaughtering the last free humans on the planet. The rest of humanity is plugged into the machines, their minds existing in the virtual reality world of the Matrix (an ordinary world and life by any objective standard) while their bodies are used to generate energy for the machines! Trained by Morpheus, Neo soon takes up the mantle of savior to the people trapped within the Matrix and he returns to the constructed world to free the people there.

In The Matrix Reloaded (reviewed here!), Neo appears to have not blown the minds of everyone in the world of the Matrix, but instead created a monster in the construct in the form of Agent Smith, who now has the ability to replicate himself by absorbing individuals within the Matrix and making them into himself. As Smith goes on a killing spree to absorb everyone he can in his hunt for Neo, Neo works to balance his role as savior with his love for Trinity and formulate a way to destroy the Matrix while Morpheus desperately tries to protect Zion, the last human city.

The story is concluded (or is it?) in The Matrix Revolutions (reviewed here!), where Neo finds his way out of the Matrix with the knowledge of how he may defeat the Agents Smith and liberate the humans still trapped by the machines only to discover that one of the Smiths has managed to enter the real world. As Neo fights to save the enslaved humanity, Morpheus marshals the forces needed to try to prevent the millions of Sentinels boring down into Zion from killing every last free human there.

The fundamental problem with The Matrix Trilogy is that it starts as a fairly well-conceived, highly philosophical exploration of reality, perception and the nature of freedom and the value of freedom over tyranny. What it degenerates into is a pretty mindless giant special effects battle movie that shoots everything and does not care much for sensibility or reality and instead goes for the glitz and the shiny objects. Where The Matrix ended was perfect and if the films had continued in that direction, instead of a big-budget special effects movie, the next films would have been allegories about the responsibilities of a god to the world it has dominion over. But no, instead, in order to continue the trilogy, The Matrix reboots with stories that allow the films to continue by retelling the first story but with a different ending. In other words, this was a poorly conceived trilogy. Great first film, mediocre and abysmal sequels.

Now, don't get me wrong, if you like mind of mindless, big battle special effects movies with less in the way of talking and characters relating, The Matrix Trilogy works out just fine! This set gets most of the talking out of the way in the first half and allows for the second half to be filled with giant action sequences, massive amounts of gunplay and hand-to-hand battles that will make your nose bleed just watching them! (They gave me a headache anyway . . . ). The problem - for those of us who like something more and who like some measure of consistency - is that the first film, while packed with action and more than enough intrigue to keep us rewatching it over and over again, is not set up that way. It is anything but mindless and so when we go into the Trilogy and discover there is a great deal of thought and philosophy behind it, we are ultimately disappointed by the abandonment of that by the time the final film comes around.

That said, there is a lot that The Complete Matrix Trilogy does right. First, the stories do have interesting characters, even if their characters get somewhat gutted by the end of the three films. The principle, consistent characters throughout the Trilogy include:

Neo - An ordinary working class man who has a glimmer that something is wrong in his world when he discovers he is not living in the real world. Freed from the Matrix, Neo succumbs to suggestions from Morpheus that he has a greater destiny and might well be the one to end the war between the humans and the machines by freeing the enslaved minds trapped within the Matrix and bodies that are plugged into the machines powering it. He soon discovers he has powers that verge on godhood and his exploration of them is complicated by a growing love for Trinity,

Trinity - A tough-as-nails sidekick of Morpheus, she falls in love with Neo when helping him realize the extent of his powers. Uncertain how she fits into his life when he becomes something of a religious icon to the freed people of Zion, she redoubles her commitment to freeing everyone from the Matrix by any means necessary, even if it were to cost her her life,

Morpheus - The mentor to Neo who helps free him from the virtual world and becomes obsessed with the idea that Neo is the One and therefore somewhat infallible at destroying the Matrix. He devotes his attention to protecting Zion and leaving Neo to himself once he has set him on that path,

and Agent Smith - One of the defense mechanisms of the Matrix, he starts as a simple human security program designed to stop dissidents within the construct. After Neo overcomes him, he finds his programming altered and he goes rogue. Obsessed with destroying Neo and all biological life, he begins to clone himself through the Matrix becoming a threat to everything and everyone!

Agent Smith is aptly played by Hugo Weaving, who played Elrond in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (reviewed here!)! Weaving reveals his versatility in the role of Smith by going deeper and darker than most of us have seen him before. Weaving is stone-faced and ruthless most of the film so when he emotes - like when he wrinkles his nose in complete disgust at the smell of perspiration coming off Morpheus - it is powerful and expressive.

Carrie-Anne Moss plays Trinity and she is a worthy successor to other science fiction heroines like Ellen Ripley, Wonder Woman and . . . hmmm . . . pretty short list. Moss , like Fishburne and Weaving, plays the role with a duality of stone-cold affect and highly emotive. Her acting chops are won not when she opens the second film with a bang, but when she relaxes her body language and becomes vulnerable for the love scene, which illustrates her humanity and the depth of her character's love.

Lawrence Fishburne plays Morpheus and he is wonderful . . . in establishing his character. Fishburne plays the mentor role wonderfully and establishes Morpheus as a guide and sage with the body language of a warrior and guardian, but as the films progress, he is given less and less to do and while his character stagnates, Fishburne allows his performance to remain fairly static. He's good, but the Trilogy simply does not know what to do with his talents and they come to neglect him and his character.

But Keanu Reeves is the one with the burden of making part of The Matrix Trilogy make real sense and this is the role he was born to play. Reeves with his understated acting is the everyman Neo, the awkward man coming to be a deity. He plays the role with a slouch that evolves with his character until he owns the part. His deliveries are almost never melodramatic and he has a quality to him that lends itself perfectly to the more muted superhero role.

But for a giant special effects series, the devil is in the details. In The Matrix one of the wonderful visual cues to humanity's desperation - made all the more clear on Blu-Ray - is how threadbare the costumes are. Humanity is on the run, of course there are no sweatshops, er, factories making new clothes. But in the two sequels, with a budget, suddenly the people of Zion are pretty well coifed!

Similarly, for a film series that pays so much attention to style and look, it's amazing how much they cheat on some of the special effects. Yes, the big climactic battles are SO tremendous and huge in scope and scale that there is no possible way to take in all that is going on on the screen at any given moment. On HD-DVD the battles look good . . . what you can see of them. They move at a pace that is oppressive and overwhelming such that one gets the idea of the battles, the ebb and flow, but no specifics stand out.

I've long argued against the whole Blu-Ray/HD-DVD concept (I gladly admit that). My reasoning is simple: DVD is a wonderful, durable, enduring media and the highest grossing form of entertainment in the world for the past few years has been DVD Boxed set television series'. A lot of people have a lot of money tied up in DVDs and with television shows being the primary place they have their money invested, there is not much a higher quality DVD can (affordably) do for most consumers. Upgrading to any form of Blu-Ray is just milking people for their hard-earned money a second time (unless players are all backwards compatible) and that's just wrong.

My other reason for pretty much despising (well in advance of its release) the HD-DVD medium is that the vast majority of consumers cannot possibly afford all the equipment needed to fully take advantage of the enhanced medium. Well, my huge splurge in recent years was my HD-TV (reviewed here!) so I've had occasion now to occasionally test out an HD-DVD or Blue-Ray disc from time to time. Honestly, The Complete Matrix Trilogy is what this medium was made for! With a kicking system these films (especially the first) look and sound absolutely amazing! This DVD set is enough to make one believe in the Matrix it looks so real and sounds so vibrant on screen and over the speakers.

On the three discs, (one per film) there are commentary tracks (which have the cast and crew and philosophers discussing the making of and implications of the movies), 18 featurettes, music videos, advertisements, and trailers. This is essentially the "lite" version of the "Ultimate Matrix Collection," which also includes the Animatrix and some other goodies that tied together the franchise. The Complete Matrix Trilogy is just the cinematic Matrix adventures in HD and there are ample goodies for the fans. The nice thing is, for those who purchased any other version of The Matrix on DVD or HD-DVD, there is NOTHING exclusive in this set to make you want to buy it as an upgrade to what you already own. Conversely, one is not losing anything by purchasing this set; it includes ALL of the DVD bonuses from the "Ultimate Matrix Collection" as well as the picture-in-picture HD options from the HD version of that set. The only reason to buy this set is because you do not have the Trilogy and you're starting at the HD level and you don't want the Animatrix.

And honestly, I can't even recommend it for those people. The only one of these movies worth seeing is The Matrix. I'm sure there is (or will be) a single-disc DVD version of it with all the same bonus features. Go for that instead, this is not worth it, even though it makes magnificent use of the medium!

For the other film saga reviews, please check out my reviews of:
The Star Wars Saga
The Twilight Saga
The Dark Knight Trilogy

5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Giving Just Enough: Something’s Gotta Give Is Not Bad.

The Good: Good acting, Interesting characters, Initially interesting plot
The Bad: Film mortgages characters for safe plot resolution
The Basics: When the playboy Harry Sanborn meets the cultured playwright Erica Barry, an unpredictable friendship is formed that is generally satisfying.


The problem with writing a review for Something’s Gotta Give is that all of the serious detractions to the movie come in the resolution of the film. I'm not one to spoil a movie where it is probable that one does not know where it is going, so my review (and average rating of the movie) will be somewhat less developed than it could be.

While famous bachelor Harry Sanborn is dating his latest young, uncomplicated conquest, he finds himself in the presence of noted playwright Erica Barry. Barry is repulsed by Harry's immediate air of implied chauvinism and prejudiced against his business (despite being an older white guy, Harry owns a hip-hop label). When Harry has a heart attack, he is forced to stay in Erica's house, where he begins to develop a relationship with her, as opposed to her daughter Marin.

As Erica and Harry get to know one another, Erica finds herself charmed. Their friendship opens her up to a relationship with Harry's young doctor, Julian. Julian is a big fan of Erica's plays and he makes it clear from their first meeting that he would love to get to know her. So, Erica's personal and professional lives become complicated by relationships.

And the two real problems with Something’s Gotta Give (outside the ridiculously inappropriate title) are how the plots are resolved and Keanu Reeves. The movie establishes a premise that challenges the conventions of relationships that people in the United States are accustomed to. I like that. While Erica is exploring her options with Julian, the movie is intriguing. When Harry is spending time with Erica relating why he enjoys dating women in their late twenties, he reveals levels of relationship complexity (or lack of complexity) that defy the expectations we have of a man who does not date within his age group.

So, Something’s Gotta Give sets the viewer up for an experience that will challenge our conventions, possibly make us think and otherwise be something different. I like different, especially when it works. And for a time, this movie works. But then . . .

The other problem I have is with Keanu Reeves. Reeves is not a great actor and in this movie he's required to show interest in Diane Keaton's character. We never feel a real spark here. Reeves does not emote in a way that makes the viewer believe he is truly into Erica. As a result, the plot problems in some ways become evident. This, I'm sure, was not intended. That is, the only reason the ends come as no real surprise is because Reeves does not play his part with any on-screen chemistry.

Outside that, the movie works. It's funny, it's heartwarming, it is heartwrenching all in turn. The plot is fairly well put together and the characters are interesting. The acting, outside Reeves, is great. Frances McDormand enters the movie at the outset and leaves far too early. Amanda Peet gives a vivid performance as Marin and from her opening scenes, we believe that she could be with Jack Nicholson's Harry.

Nicholson, for his part, gives a performance on par with his appearance in As Good As It Gets (reviewed here!). He is more articulate as Harry Sanborn than in any role in recent memory of his. His portrayal in Something’s Gotta Give almost redeems his unbearable About Schmidt (reviewed here!). When appropriate, he is articulate, then funny, then genuinely emotional. Seeing him work through his issues is impressive as a character study and Nicholson makes the character work.

The movie turns on Diane Keaton's performance as Erica Barry. First off, it's always a pleasure to see women past what Hollywood considers their prime taking supposed risks like nude scenes and Keaton pulls hers off with panache. Keaton is given the toughest role in the middle of the movie of expressing loss and sorrow while attempting to be productive through it. During that wrenching sequence, which might last a whisper too long, Keaton is utterly convincing. Her performance is powerful and it is impossible not to feel empathy for her character. That empathy is not guaranteed by the audience, Keaton earns it. And that's pretty cool.

Who will enjoy Something's Gotta Give? Anyone who would like a decent romantic comedy. This is fairly archetypal but it opens well and sucks the viewer in quite effectively. It's worth a viewing, even if it's a tough sell for one's permanent collection.

For other works with Diane Keaton, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Morning Glory
The Family Stone
Annie Hall
The Godfather, Part II
The Godfather

5.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Okay, It's About Time For A Worthwhile Romantic Story: The Lake House Fits The Bill!

The Good: Adequate acting, Excellent concept, Direction that keeps the flow good, Kate is a good character
The Bad: Somewhat derivative, Moments of acting
The Basics: In a decent romance-across-time, Alex and Kate exchange letters while sharing a house in two different time periods. Charming and fun.


It's a good time to have a decent romantic time travel story. Having recently read - and completely loved - The Time-Traveler's Wife (reviewed here!), when I learned of The Lake House, I decided it might be a nice piece to sit and watch. The truth is, I was not exactly prepared for it to be as good as it was. As the public opens up to varied stories that stretch the imagination and the limits of suspension of disbelief, those intrigued by time travel have the chance to create new stories that push the envelope of reality.

Alex Wyler lives in a house on a small lake in 2004 with a very thin dog. In 2006, Kate Forster takes up residence in the lake house and finds a note from Alex, essentially asking her to forward the mail and noting a few eccentricities about the house. When Kate mails something in the mailbox to Alex, the letter materialized in 2004 and the two begin to correspond through time and develop a relationship without actually meeting one another.

What makes The Lake House work (outside the wise choice writer David Auburn made in not naming the film The Mailbox or even worse Alex and Kate's Adventure With The Time-traveling Dog Via The Mailbox Of Wonder) is two basic things. The first is that, unlike the novel The Time-Traveler's Wife which is very attentive to temporal mechanics, time is fluid in The Lake House and when the characters and audience accept the basic premise of the movie, the movie works. So, for example, the temporal corridor (my words, it never comes up in the movie) operates from a starting point, so while Alex and Kate exchange letters, the letters do not translate outside real-time, so when Kate gets busy for a week and cannot write to Alex in that time, a week passes before Alex gets his next letter. Events are not treated as inevitable or immutable in The Lake House and it offers a nice, distinct difference between this movie and the substantial book.

The second thing that makes The Lake House work is that the mechanics of the temporal anomaly are never explored. The movie does not belabor the premise, merely uses it to tell the story that it is telling. As a result, the viewer does not have to wonder about how things are happening and when the protagonists decide to go along with this reality, the viewer feels comfortably compelled to go along.

Based on the movie Siworae, The Lake House was adapted by David Auburn and directed by Alejandro Agresti. Agresti does excellent directoral work here, keeping the film flowing through a positive visual sense of movement. The pacing of the movie is excellent and it keeps the viewer engaged. This is a story that is laid out well for the viewer and it works in part because the director is doing his job well.

The characters in The Lake House are fairly substantial, at least Kate. Kate Forster has an ex-beau (Morgan), a mother, a boss, a new job, an entire and rich backstory. She is a doctor at a new hospital and when she moves into the lake house, she is just getting her bearings and she is bringing with her a lot of issues and past. She is very well-defined for a movie that is only 105 minutes long.

Conversely, Alex is not so well-defined. He has father issues and a brother who is working in the same field (all three are architects). But his girlfriend feels like an accessory and there is no real chemistry between the two. As a result, Alex is less well-defined.

However, the character problems with Alex support the acting of Keanu Reeves quite well. Reeves is a somewhat awkward actor, with little onscreen charisma. In short, the role of Neo in The Matrix (reviewed here!) was perfectly cast with Reeves; he was a stiff, awkward man on the verge of godhood. Movies where Reeves is in a role that requires a lot of smiling, joy and easy human interaction often end up with Reeves falling flat with his performance. The Lake House seems to use that by making his character a believable loner, whose reaching out to Kate through letters might seem more natural than with a more socially-at-ease performer (who the viewer might watch and say "Why does this person need this social outlet when they seem to have no problem making contact with people in the real world?").

Christopher Plummer pops up throughout The Lake House as Alex's father Simon and I note him because he is one of my favorite actors and here he is aloof and wonderful as Simon. I've never seen quite this performance from Plummer before and I liked every scene he was in.

Much of the movie rests on the acting talents of Sandra Bullock (she deserved top billing in this movie, which went to Reeves instead). Bullock is wonderful in this role, playing Kate with a sense of longing that is far more understated than expressed. Bullock successfully emotes with her voice-overs and her eyes. The climax of the movie hinges on her ability to emote and she does it with flair and realism that make the whole piece worth watching.

This is not high drama, but it's a clever concept well-executed and I found myself pleasantly surprised. This is a great movie for a weekend when you are curled up with your partner and want to just sit and watch something together.

For other works with Lynn Collins, be sure to visit my reviews of:
John Carter
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
True Blood - Season One
Towelhead

7.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Theological Action-Adventure Meets Its Star With Constantine!

The Good: Decent characters, Good plot, Decent DVD extras, Decent effects
The Bad: Some of the acting does not hold up
The Basics: While John Constantine's time on Earth runs out, he works to vanquish demons back to hell and uncover the mystery of what truly happened to Isabel Dobson.


Have you ever watched a movie and thought, "I wonder why that didn't do better at the box office?" Too often lately, I've seen flicks where my reaction is "I can't believe that grossed as much as it did!" Then I sat down and watched Constantine on DVD and my thought was that of all of the film's based on comics or graphic novels lately, this one was possibly the best and most interesting of the bunch. And you know, it kept me interested the entire film, which is pretty much a rarity these days. Here's what you can expect from Constantine:

John Constantine, a chain-smoking exorcist who has the ability to see the shadow realm of demons that coincides with the known real world, is drawn into a case where a police detective's identical twin has committed suicide, much to Angela's complete disbelief. Constantine begins to doubt that everything is as it seems as the forces of Heaven and Hell converge on Earth in such a way that indicates that the fragile separation between the realms is breaking down.

Constantine soon finds himself working to protect Angela from one of the prime servants of Hell, Balthazar, who is bent on capturing her. Problematic as it is, Constantine finds his clock ticking as God prepares to claim his soul and he finds himself trying to outrun the angel Gabriel and his coming mortality.

Constantine is a pretty pure action-adventure with a little mystery-horror twist to it. The film takes a few minutes to clearly establish the tenants of the universe it embodies, with the clear understanding that there is a heaven, hell, and Earth and John Constantine is able to see the forces of both sides on Earth. But more than that, it becomes clear that Constantine is part of a war between the forces of heaven and hell where he is a tool and the rules are pretty simple: Demons cannot appear on Earth in their natural form. Apparently the rules of engagement allow for the forces of hell to possess any life on Earth, but not appear directly.

The film begins to get real interesting when it becomes clear that that rule is being broken by Satan.

The whole conflict about whether or not Isabel was killed or killed herself becomes a decent incentive to involve Constantine and Angela and the search for the truth is both a good plot point and an opportunity to explore the characters. And they are reasonably dark characters. John Constantine is a man who has been to hell and returned and while he now works for the forces of good, he lives with the knowledge that he is soon to die and that he will not be going to Heaven when he dies.

Constantine might sound like a lot of religious hoopla and no one is more wary of the advance of the Evangelical Right into the mainstream (check out my review of The Sinner's Guide To The Evangelical Right here!), but it's basically an action-adventure/horror film using religious characters. Think of it as Van Helsing with characters from the Bible as opposed to Bram Stoker. And unlike some of the films made and marketed toward the Evangelical Right, Constantine is pretty strongly edgy and dark as opposed to uplifting and preachy.

John Constantine is a pretty clear anti-hero, he's not looking out for his own best interest and he's not looking for redemption because he knows he's not getting it. Instead, he accepts his place as a tool in the grand scheme of things and he works for Gabriel and god only because he is compelled to, not out of some sense of nobility or desire for grace. Constantine is played by Keanu Reeves with the same sense of destiny and quality as he played Neo in The Matrix (reviewed here!). In other words, Reeves isn't asked to play above his ability here and instead, the role seems tailor made to his understated ability to deliver lines and his ability to do things like run, play opposite CG villains and shoot a gun. Reeves is fine as the title character and he leads the cast well.

In fact, if anyone disappoints, it might be - sadly - Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. Swinton is such a great performer that one instantly notices her nuances. As a result, it is Swinton who ruins one of the bigger surprises of the film with her portrayal of Gabriel. Swinton tips her hand as to her character's conflict and it's unfortunate because had she held out longer for the surprise, the character's motivations could have been seen as truly shocking.

Either way, this is a dark film loaded with special effects and one of the nicer bonus features on the DVD deals with the special effects and the making of the movie. The behind-the-scenes featurette is worthwhile and entertaining and adds value to the disc.

At the end of the day, it's entertaining and pretty well made. The film holds up over multiple viewings and it's worthy of the attention of anyone who likes a good, dark action-adventure story or who has been waiting around for a horror film that is interesting. Much more on the side of action-adventure/detective, Constantine is well directed by Francis Lawrence who has a good sense of how to keep the convoluted plot moving along at a decent pace.

For other works with Rachel Weisz, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Definitely, Maybe
The Fountain
Envy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Revolting Conclusion To What Could Have Been A Classic: The Matrix Revolutions!

The Good: Moments of special effects, Daring defiance of audience expectations
The Bad: Speed of special effects, Lack of character, Terrible resolution, Abandonment of themes, Bad acting
The Basics: In a disappointing conclusion to a movie franchise gone wrong, The Matrix Revolutions forces the viewer to ask what kind of dimwits are enslaved by such stupid machines?


When I left The Matrix Reloaded (reviewed here!), I had some ambivalence. When I rewatched it, I came to appreciate it more. In the interim, I had seen The Matrix Revolutions, which may have been what softened me up for Reloaded again. It's important to note that Revolutions, in addition to "revolt," also means "turn over," which seems to be a double entendre the producers intended. For every bit of ambivalence I had after The Matrix Reloaded, the first time, I had dislike of The Matrix Revolutions. Here is why the series should have ended with The Matrix . . .

Beginning moments after The Matrix Reloaded, Revolutions finds our people in fairly dire straits. Neo appears to be gone and Trinity and Morpheus are hitching a ride on another ship, while the Sentinels are nearing the subterranean city of Zion. Neo finds himself in a holding room within the Matrix, having developed the power to jack himself in without actually being attached to a computer. Rescued by Trinity and Morpheus, Neo visits the Oracle moments before she, like most of the personalities within the Matrix, is absorbed by Agent Smith. As open war wages within Zion, Neo and Trinity journey to the machine capital city, stalked by the evil Smith made incarnate until Neo can face Smith inside the Matrix for one last showdown.

Right off the bat, the single most disappointing aspect of this movie is its complete abandonment of where the series had been. What was the purpose of the first movie, The Matrix (reviewed here)? It was to get Neo out of the Matrix because humans were enslaved by machines and they needed to be freed. Even The Matrix Reloaded found some time to debate philosophy and attempted to put up the pretense that the war was about freeing the humans who were enslaved by the machines. The Matrix Revolutions makes no such pretense. In fact, the closest mention that is made about freeing the humans comes as an afterthought at the very end of the movie and in a context that implies that there will be no humans freed (i.e. the humans in the Matrix are told they will have a choice, but given the nature of the revolution in the Matrix, there is little or no reason to believe anyone in the Matrix at the conclusion of the film would actually know or suspect they were in the computer environment.

Furthermore, for a film series that prided itself on innovations in special effects, The Matrix Revolutions seems to have no real sense behind the special effects. The perfect example is in the battle for Zion. The machines bore a hole down into the earth, into Zion, through which hundreds of thousands of Sentinels emerge. While the humans start firing at the hole right away (good strategy), many Sentinels make it through (as one might expect). Why then, would the Sentinels be so stupid as to remain in streams to be picked off? How have these idiot robots stayed in power without realizing the most elemental strategy, which in this case would be to get through the small hole, then expand as much as possible. Given the limited armaments of the humans, the Sentinels should easily have overrun them by simply forming a blanket (a wave instead of a trickle) once they were inside. It's that type of lack of sensibility that makes The Matrix Revolutions quite difficult to watch. Add to that that the special effects occur at ridiculously quick speeds. It's almost impossible to tell what is going on because the Sentinels and bullets and such are moving so fast.

Beyond the battle of Zion, we are left with our protagonists. In The Matrix Revolutions, we are down to Neo and Trinity as heroes because Morpheus - who was such a powerhouse in the previous pictures - is a complete nonentity here. Morpheus has a place in the film, but it's way back in the balcony. He does not advise Neo, he is not prophetic, he's not even interesting. Had he been left out of anything after the first five minutes, the movie would have evolved without any differences.

So, how are things with Neo and Trinity? Trinity is still a strong female character and Neo is still something of a dimwit who is trying to solve things with force. However, Neo's strategy in entering the machine city does beg the audience to ask three important questions: 1. Why haven't any humans before Neo figured out that if they want to destroy the machines, all they have to do is go above the clouds?, 2. Why did the machines build such an elaborate system for getting their energy as harvesting humans when they could have simply made really big poles to push the solar panels they depended on above the clouds? and 3. If the humans had noticed the machine inability to figure out how to get above the clouds, once their subterranean cities started getting wiped out, why didn't any of them strike up the idea to start building cities above the clouds?

Apparently, the Wachowski brothers assume we are all sheep or idiots that would never conceive these things. Watching their movie, I came up with these ideas within ten seconds. Ten seconds to come up with more viable, intelligent and inspired ideas than Neo or Morpheus. Hey reader, I am the One! One would think that with the fate of the entire human race on the line, the surviving people would become inspired and creative. Apparently not; they'd rather dance around in caves. Sigh.

My point in all of this is that Neo fails to develop into more than he was in the last movie. He's still a guy trying to fight violence with violence and as a result, the film degenerates into more battle scenes. This culminates in the least inspired fight of the series, when Neo takes on Agent Smith in the ruins of the Matrix. I said at the very beginning that I always wanted to see Neo expand his perceptions to the point that in his realization that the Matrix wasn't real and its parts had no affect on him that there should come a time that he is hit unbelievably hard and he is not thrown backward. Can you dig it? If gravity and force don't have an effect on Neo in the Matrix (because he knows his body is not really there), it does not matter how hard he is hit, he should not be pushed backward. Unfortunately, the Wachowski brothers never developed their idea that far and even in the last scenes of the battle between Neo and Smith, when Smith hits Neo unimaginably hard, Neo goes flying tremendous distances.

If it seems all I am doing is harping on the special effects and the fight sequences, you are quite perceptive. The reason for that is that they make up not only the bulk, but the substance of the movie. While The Matrix belabored philosophy and training, The Matrix Revolutions is almost exclusively a stream of battles and hand to hand combats strung together. There is little reason, less thought and almost a complete lack of empathetic characters.

In the end, the only thing at all noteworthy about The Matrix Revolutions is that it defies the audiences expectations in the end. Some of them, anyway. I was expecting the series to end, but they left far too many doors open for me to be left satisfied that they might learn from their mistakes and end it here. If nothing else, even more than the prequel trilogy to Star Wars, the Matrix trilogy illustrates the importance of quitting while you are ahead. Had The Matrix ended with Neo flying off with the godlike potential he appeared to have, we never would have been subjected to the pointless sendoff that is The Matrix Revolutions. This movie is only for those who have seen the other two, though it is likely to leave those who appreciated either of its predecessors woefully disappointed.

For other special-effects driven films, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Sucker Punch
Thor
Alice In Wonderland

3.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Why Reloading The Matrix Wasn't The Best Or Worst Idea: The Matrix Reloaded!

The Good: Special effects, Moments of philosophy, Moments of acting
The Bad: Repetitive fight scenes, Boring analysis, Lack of emphasis on freedom fight
The Basics: When Neo, Trinity and Morpheus re-enter the Matrix, a fight ensues that defies reason or philosophy or the viewer's ability to appreciate.


Some things are best left as they are. That is to say, some films do not need sequels, some musical artists ought to be content with their one #1 hit, and some people who successfully publish books should be happy with the one they get out on the shelves. The Wachowski brothers had successful movies like Bound before they did The Matrix (reviewed here!). Once they had the smash with The Matrix, they should have been content to let that universe they created be. That is to say that the end to The Matrix was a nice end to the plot of that story. Indeed, when I heard they were doing a sequel to the movie, I said, "Unless they're doing a prequel, that's going to be boring; after all, who wants to see a movie about a god reorganizing the world?"

It is rare that I am so right and so wrong. That is to say that I was wrong in that the sequel to The Matrix was neither a prequel, nor a film about a newly formed god freeing the enslaved people of the Matrix. I was right in that outside the visual elements, most of The Matrix Reloaded is boring.

Beginning some undefined time after The Matrix ended, The Matrix Reloaded finds the war between the machines and the humans at a potential turning point. The machine army has discovered the last human city, Zion, and they are mounting an attack. As they drill toward the subterranean city, Morpheus convinces Neo and the Council of Zion that the battle must actually be fought inside the Matrix and, as a matter of faith, he believes Neo will win the war for them.

This brings Neo, Morpheus and Trinity into the Matrix to search for the Oracle and then the Keymaker in a series of pointless fights and witless chases that climax in a cliffhanger designed to get the viewer to watch the last installment of the trilogy.

What works in The Matrix Reloaded is that it looks good. While The Matrix was groundbreaking with its special effects, it also told a wonderful story about a band of humans trying to fight off slavery in a very physical, real form (i.e. being chained to computers for power) and in an intellectual level ("Free your mind"). The Matrix Reloaded spends about a tenth of the time on the philosophy and too much of it is raw exposition in the form of two exceptionally boring white men (Merovingian and The Architect). Basically, these two characters spend a lot of time talking about cause and effect and programming. Almost completely gone is the whole philosophy of what it means to be free and the importance of self-determination. Much of The Matrix Reloaded is about predestination.

The problem with this is that The Matrix ended with Neo having the big epiphany. Neo understood that anything that happened in the Matrix was not real, it could not harm him and he could undo it. In The Matrix Reloaded the closest the viewer sees of that is Neo's ability to see the actual programming around him. It's a cheap out used to cover the fact that it's almost impossible to do a movie about an omnipotent character. In short, if The Matrix ended with Neo understanding how to change the world, by completely defying it, the hold the machines had over the enslaved humans should have been broken and humanity should have been entirely freed.

Instead, The Matrix Reloaded spends a great deal of time with fighting. Neo fights Agents, Neo fights Smiths (who have returned with new powers), Neo fights Seraph, Neo fights thugs, Neo lets his friends fight the two badass programs that can make themselves immaterial. The short point: it's boring. We've seen Neo fight. We saw Neo fight in the first one. He fought, it was cool. He (and the audience) moved beyond it. By the second fight sequence in The Matrix Reloaded, anyone who truly enjoyed the depth of the themes of The Matrix is bored and basically saying "Get on with it!"

That said, The Matrix Reloaded was not the worst film I saw in 2003. It was not even as bad as The Matrix Revolutions, which completed the saga. The truth is, I liked The Matrix Reloaded more when I saw it the second time. I was still bored by the fights and I still thought the primal dance scene was somewhat ridiculous, but there was a lot to enjoy.

The first thing I enjoyed about it was Lawrence Fishburn's portrayal of Morpheus. Fishburn plays him like a quiet zealot and it's an intriguing role. Fishburn does amazing physical work with his stunts and makes us believe in Morpheus and the strength of his belief in Neo. At the end of the day, without Morpheus, the viewer would care a lot less about Neo. Fishburn adds presence to a great number of lines that could have easily sounded cliche from any other actor.

The second thing I enjoyed was the performance by Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. She is flat out cool in The Matrix Reloaded. She moves like a cat, talks like a sweetheart lover poet and drives like a maniac. She is the most fun to watch in The Matrix Reloaded.

The other thing I liked about the movie was the scope. Entering Zion, a lot of effort is made to compare the surroundings with humans, so the viewer sees how very big everything is. There is a wonderful sense of architecture and physical majesty to the buildings in The Matrix Reloaded.

Unfortunately, that detail was not carried into the smaller details. One of the most sensible aspects of The Matrix was the detail in the costuming. The freed humans wore spun-looking, ratty clothes. They looked like fugitives and rebels. In Zion in The Matrix Reloaded, humans are wearing finely made garments that would take extensive machining to make. And in this world, we're at war with those machines.

In the final analysis, The Matrix Reloaded was a movie that should never have been made, but now that is has, it disappoints the sensibilities of those who wanted to see a thoughtful continuation of The Matrix. While some of the elements are exciting (the freeway chase, for example), most of the movie is visually fast, thematically devoid and repetitive in the most uninspired ways. Not for anyone who hasn't seen The Matrix and for those who loved it, save yourself the disappointment and let the series stay with the high note. Not for anyone who isn't a fan of science fiction either.

For other epics that push the envelope of special effects, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Watchmen
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Matrix: A Special Effects Classic Where The Casting Defines The Characters!

The Good: Excellent story, Good character development, Great effects, Wonderful acting, DVD Extras
The Bad: ? That sequels were made?
The Basics: The nature of reality is explored in an action-adventure context when an ordinary man comes to understand the real world . . . isn't!


One of the films that I frequently reference when I am writing reviews of films is a little film called Bound. Bound is a brilliant crime drama that is very intimate in scope (it has a remarkably short cast list), but surprisingly large in the way it was shot. It made the lives of two women who fall in love and take the Mob for millions of dollars seem like the most cinematic adventure that could ever occur within an apartment building. Years ago while waiting in line at a convention, I listened to actor Joe Pantoliano tell eager fans about Bound and how it was basically an audition tape for two untested directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski. According to Pantoliano, it was the cinematic success of Bound that proved to the executives that these two brothers, the Wachowski Brothers, could properly execute a little project they had been sitting on called The Matrix.

The Matrix is one of those films that begs to be seen on a big screen or, barring that, on the biggest television one may find provided that it has a pretty significant sound system. The sound effects in The Matrix are incredible and a great sound system makes The Matrix pretty much an indispensable DVD for the cinephile!

Thomas Anderson, a mild-mannered computer programmer, spends his nights writing computer codes and creating software to help others hack into places they are not supposed to be. His virtual life at night has made him a celebrity in the hacker world, where he goes by the name Neo. Anderson's life is turned up-side down one day when he finds himself pursued by mysterious agents whose job it is seems to be detecting and eliminating computer-related crimes. The agents, particularly one who simply goes by Smith, work Anderson over, but are not given the satisfaction of finding out any of the people he has done work for.

Following a surreal encounter with Smith where he is bugged, Neo is approached by others who seem to have the answer to the question that has been underlying Neo's cyber life: What is the Matrix? When he is introduced to a fellow hacker named Morpheus he is told that reality is not what it appears to be and he is invited to step out of the artificial life he has been living in and come into the real world.

The real world is a dark one, which Neo learns quickly. Humanity is almost extinct, having been killed off by sentient machines that have taken over the surface of the planet. The humans that are alive are either freedom fighters or mindless sleeping drones plugged into machines used as batteries to power the mechanical monstrosities that enslave them. The Matrix, then, is an artificial construct used to keep those legions of battery-people docile and inert, a virtual reality where they live normal lives oblivious to the truth. Accompanied by freedom fighters including Trinity, Neo is informed that he has a destiny, a destiny to destroy the Matrix and free all the enslaved people from the machines.

Despite what many think, the idea for The Matrix is hardly a new one. Only a few years prior, Fox had a television show that began to explore the nature of psychology and reality when virtual reality was involved called VR.5 (reviewed here!). William Gibson wrote Neuromancer (reviewed here!) a decade prior to The Matrix and it has remarkable plot similarities as well as thematic ones to it. I've pointed these things out publicly before and often the most vociferous defenders of The Matrix will tell me that it's not so much the story that is important, it's what The Matrix did as far as advancing special effects that makes it great. Usually, I point out to them that the film Dark City (a masterpiece reviewed here!) utilized many of the same visual stylistic elements about two years prior to the release of The Matrix!

The special effects defenders are wrong; the story is incredibly important. But it is also wrong to suggest that The Matrix might need defending. This film defends itself remarkably well because it is a tightly-written, well-acted piece that has viable and interesting characters, amazingly explored themes, and some pretty amazing special effects. The Matrix does not need to be defended because (unlike its sequels) there is nothing wrong with it.

The Matrix is a philosophical action-adventure film that asks the viewer to contemplate the nature of reality. How can we truly know what is real and what is not in a world where one may construct another life within the confines of a computer? Is cybersex cheating? The sex may be unreal and masterbatory, but the emotions are real, where is the line drawn? The Matrix envisions a world where our very sense of reality is as masterbatory as cybersex only we are too asleep to even realize it! Disconnected from reality, humanity has fallen to machines that oppress them by giving them a sense of being in a life they can comprehend.

But the philosophical exploration does not stop there. The character of Neo is a man on the verge of godhood. The Matrix is the story of understanding how one becomes part of something larger and how a hero rises up to become a champion for the oppressed. Neo is the everyman whose journey is to step out of his 9 to 5 job and become a savior to millions who do not even know they need him.

The brilliance of The Matrix is that Neo is a reluctant hero. Like the audience, Neo must be convinced as to the reality that parallels our reality. He must be shown, he must open his mind, and even then he wrestles with the implications of the dark future he finds himself in. Neo is not a generic action hero, he is an ordinary man whose feeling of not fitting in come from being programmed to believe that he is like everyone else. His journey is about losing the programming and becoming the man he (and others) believe he may be. It is the journey from Thomas Anderson to Neo.

But Neo does not go it alone. He is accompanied and guided by Morpheus and Trinity. Morpheus is a sage character whose wisdom and strength and leadership abilities make him a high target of the Agents. He is also one of the few people who knows the location of Zion, the last human city far underneath the earth. Morpheus is a spiritual man who is also able to fight with amazing proficiency and skill because he understands the difference between reality and the Matrix.

Neo's other ally is Trinity, a warrior woman who seems unsure about the destiny Neo is supposed to have, but implicitly trusts Morpheus. She is strong and secure and she wants to help Neo, even if she does not necessarily believe that he can succeed. And the romantic subplot between her and Neo does not seem nearly as forced as one might think.

Trinity is played by Carrie-Anne Moss who has a strong performance that powerfully differentiates between her character's invulnerable persona inside the Matrix and the more shy individual in the real world. Moss plays Trinity with a strong sense of humanity, compassion and loyalty when she is in the real world and an inscrutable deathmask when in the Matrix. It is surprising how much mileage one actress can get out of her eyes, but here Moss makes most of her emotions clear with just her eyes (when they are visible).

Laurence Fishburn portrays Morpheus and he plays him as the coolest mentor since Yoda. Written with a strong sense of spirituality, Fishburn transforms Morpheus into a powerful warrior/mentor with his stride and dignified bearing. He has a leadership quality to him that dominates every scene he is in. Indeed, with his powerful presence, he could have even made Star Trek: Enterprise palatable, had he been cast as the captain! Fishburn not only takes what could be a remarkably generic mentor character on the page and owns it on screen, but he also creates a sense of style and voice for the film that defines it.

It is Keanu Reeves that seems like he might be the weak link in such a cast, but the truth is, Reeves is perfectly cast as Neo. Thomas Anderson has to be a kind of mumbling loser, anyone can be him type guy and that's the role Reeves was pretty much born to play. But with the transformation into Neo, Reeves must overcome that and illustrate some genuinely heroic abilities and to the surprise of audiences everywhere, he delivers. In The Matrix, Reeves is able to play a transformational role as he evolves from ordinary man to superhero. Part of the reason the sequels fail (other than losing most of the philosophy in favor of pretty mindless action) is that Reeves is actually so good at what he does that the end of the film implies the end of the series. Yes, it is Reeves who comes into his own and comes to carry himself with the bearing of a hero after presenting himself as a schlub the first half that makes the character work. Reeves acts with confidence in the latter portions of the film and he does it in an utterly convincing way. This might well be his best performance!

All of the actors in The Matrix seem to be required to do massive amounts of stunts because this is an action film. This might be the film that truly opened the American public up to the idea of wireworks stunts. This is an action film that has a lot of people defying gravity, jumping surreal distances and being really flung around. The stuntwork is amazing and there's not a wire to be seen, but it might be the film - because of how many features were done on the special effects (which are on the DVD!) - that cracked the magician's secret about wirework.

On DVD, the film looks and sounds great. It includes behind-the-scenes featurettes on the special effects, casting and story. As well, there is a wonderful commentary track that is informative and entertaining. The bonus features will treat anyone who comes to the film looking for more, whether it is a first viewing or the hundredth!

The Matrix may have had to have been fought for, but it shows a clear mastery of storytelling and directing abilities from Larry and Andy Wachowski. We're fortunate they started their cinematic endeavors on such high notes!

For other works featuring Hugo Weaving, please visit my reviews of:
Captain America: The First Avenger
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers
Happy Feet
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

9.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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