Ambling into the emptied theatre sounded almost like walking into the credits of a Farscape feature film. Alas, that is still to be and instead, the final minutes of The Matrix Revolutions of the session prior. Outside keeping focus were a few hidden objects in the displays for Eddie Murphy's The Haunted Mansion. Time was trickling and the people started to fill the seats. First it looked hopeful toward a small gathering of only five, but then a rowdy load of teenagers brought the number up to thirty.
On sight of the final scene of The Matrix Revolutions the back row brought on a wave of applause. This coming from the group who earlier on gave the distinct impression that they were in the wrong place, highly expecting Jackie Chan's The Medallion type action and reaction. The type of talk that swims into itself endlessly carrying on a ripple of sense once but now no longer.
Choosing not to strap against the bondage that is time can make for unreliably measured moments. As such, the gloriously weaved flurry of bullets, sentinels and APUs in the attack on Zion, where the humans fight desperately against the machines, felt like it must have taken off more than a mere few minutes of my life. Feeling close to a half hour, watching the lines crisscross and shells flying empty was tense. Nearly suffocated having at times to remind the lungs to breath in given that a shock to the system was hardly anything easily walked away from. Exhaustion and depletion came when pockets of air popped all around the armrests.
The dialogue in The Matrix Reloaded was heavy and delivered not in sizeable chunks but crammed into the brain like a fist, Revelations was a whole lot more paced and easier to take in, like a shot of milk through the eyes. Speaking of, Persephone's (Monica Bellucci) cleavage was certainly a feat to behold in all its massive display. The costume designer must have run out of enough PVC to carry over the entirety of the two films for everyone.
Finally, sense was made of the credit listing with the actors placed according to their real names and not importance or appearance. Sense too then, given in the form of the film itself wrapping up the mythos of The Matrix nicely. Everything that has a beginning has an end.
Reviewed on Tuesday, 11 November 2003