I Saw the Matrix
Note: At least three MAJOR spoilers, so don't read this if you want to watch the movie tabula rasa.

Last night I wasn't sure, but by this morning, I had somehow decided that I liked Matrix 3.

Following Matrix 2, the third installment -- well, let's just say that it could have been, like, Titanic-bad, and still come out smelling like roses. Matrix 2's biggest crime was not that it was incomprehensible, but that it was boring. And superfluous. Okay, maybe that's two crimes.

In comparison, Matrix 3 moved with some energy and purpose toward a final goal. (That's gonna help any movie, obviously, and you might say, "Hey, Matrix 2 had a difficult role to play, being the middle child," but I would then refer to you to Empire Strikes Back, my friend, because that's a case of the middle child outshining both its dashingly original but hastily amateurish older brother AND its meticulous but sap-sodden younger sister.)

I'm still baffled by a number of loose ends that may or may not have been on purpose (oh, those tricky Wachowski brothers!), there were cliches (you can call them tributes if you want) all over the place, and that damn Merovingian shows up, again for no conceivable purpose, but the final fight scene was nifty enough, the final message was deep enough for the likes of me, and Trinity gets in a couple cool moments that make up for her having to stand there during the completely gratuitous Keanu-Monica Bellucci kiss scene in 2 . (I do think that Gloria Foster's absence really made a difference, though -- her replacement does as good a job as one could after such grounded, rich performances, but can't possible live up to the original cookie-baking, chain-smoking Oracle.)

I liked that Neo was blinded, I liked that Trinity died, I liked that we're not sure if Neo dies in the end. No one wants to imagine the erstwhile Symbol of Positivism and his babelicious partner screaming at each other that no, it's your turn to take the kids to macrame class or whatever. Of course, the most moving scene is when Trinity dies -- though I must say, Trinity's dialogue is a hell of a lot better when she is, um, silent -- and Neo, crushed by grief, weeps into her shoulder. Judging by the collective sniffling and clearing of throats in the theatre just after that scene, the Korean audience (who must have been even more perplexed than I was by the story) agreed with me.

Besides the fact that we're all programmed, on a certain level, to enjoy a good death scene, this particular scene was the highlight of the movie in that it helps us actually connect with Neo. I mean, the temptation of Christ and the hubris of Oedipus -- that's all supposed to pull us closer to those figures, right? There's no drama to a hero who has no weakness, can feel no sadness, and does no wrong. One of the major flaws of Matrix 2 and 3 is that we lose the Thomas Anderson aspect of Neo, the nebbishy, confused, "whoa" and "I know kung fu" spoutin' human side of Keanu's character.

We get a few moments of that side in 3 , mostly played for laughs, such as when Neo runs after the Trainman's subway car, only to find himself back in the same station. Who wouldn't curse after a moment like that? But when Neo says, "I'm scared" to Trinity, who believed him? I didn't. The only place where any true emotion manifests is when he's huddled next to a dying Trinity, whom he can't see, listening to her so calmly tell him that she can't go any further with him.

The rest of 3 was pretty cool, action-wise, and provides enough intellectual meat for a couple days' worth of subway rides, but the heart of the movie was all there in the death scene. All 120 seconds of it.