The soullessness of a new machine
The 'Revolutions' will not be humanized
By Todd Leopold
CNN
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Keanu Reeves returns as Neo in "The Matrix Revolution."
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ON CNN TV
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"Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon EST Thursday.
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(CNN) -- The original "Matrix" asked the question: Is a life worth living as part of a machine worth living at all?
It's a good question. After all, we're surrounded by machines in human skin nowadays.
Consider popular music, so tweaked and molded that even Britney Spears sounds like she has perfect pitch -- when she doesn't sound like a synthesizer.
Or reality TV, edited and cut so that plotlines are clear and linear, not messy and complex like real life. Sure, it can be entertaining, but "real" is the last thing you'd call it.
And then you have the movies.
So many of today's blockbusters have been CGI'd and Dolby 5.1'd to within an inch of their celluloid lives. They're nothing but big special-effects set pieces surrounded by connecting tissue -- something Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne acknowledged in a recent article in The New Yorker. Despite his status as one of Hollywood's handful of go-to guys -- or perhaps because of it -- Towne wasn't so much asked to write a script for one of the "Mission: Impossible" films as to connect the explosions.
Somewhere in the midst of all this are the "Matrix" movies created by the Wachowski brothers: hailed by some for their willingness to mix philosophy with action, deplored by others for letting the action (and special effects) overwhelm that philosophy. And given that the philosophy involves humanity's relationship with machines, there's a wonderful irony in the movies' dependence on computer-generated material.
Eye on Entertainment offers its Kant.
Eye-opener
"The Matrix Revolutions" concludes the story begun in "The Matrix" and continued in "The Matrix Reloaded." It also tries to answer many of the questions surrounding its future world.
By now, Neo (Keanu Reeves) has accepted his status as The One. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) try to clear the decks so Neo can do what he has to do. Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) kicks butt. The Oracle (Mary Alice) talks in riddles.
And the machines are sending giant robot calamari to destroy Zion, humankind's future home.
It makes for a lot of action and some splendid special effects, but there's something missing: humanity. The human characters talk in short, cliched bursts and, despite their determination to maintain their underground community, don't seem to have much depth of feeling for each other. No fault of the actors; the dialogue doesn't give them much with which to work. (Read Paul Clinton's review.)
The person -- or thing -- who has the best lines is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who gets to clench his teeth and chew a little scenery as he multiplies out of control. He actually looks like he's having fun, and he seems genuinely upset when he struggles to subdue Neo.
There's something charming about that, really. Like HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey," Agent Smith is the most human character in the movie. (Or at least the most interesting.)
But hey, after three movies of wonder and whammo, perhaps that's the essence of the Wachowski brothers' message. The machines do win. After all, they get the best lines, the coolest looks and the vast majority of the budget.
Still, I thought movies were made for people. We already spend so much of our lives beholden to machines. Must we make movies for them, too?
On screen
• If the dystopian future of "The Matrix Revolutions" seems bleak, then actor Will Ferrell and director Jon Favreau have the antidote: "Elf," a holiday film (yes, I know it's still three weeks to Thanksgiving) about a human boy taken in by Santa Claus. When he finds out he's not really an elf, he goes in search of his real family.
• "Love Actually" places a bevy of stars -- Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney -- in a series of stories about people struggling with love. Written and directed by Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Bridget Jones's Diary").
On the tube
• Every so often, the broadcast networks like to put their big guns directly against each other. On Sunday, it happens again: CBS airs the instant movie "The Elizabeth Smart Story," and NBC rolls out its ripped-from-the-headlines quickie, "Saving Jessica Lynch." Wouldn't it be nice if both of them tank? They're on at 9 p.m. EST.
• For eight years in the 1960s, Andy Griffith was the chief lawman and core of decency in the idyllic town of Mayberry, North Carolina, just down the road from the big city of Mount Pilot. Griffith, Ron Howard (who played Griffith's son, Opie), Don Knotts (Deputy Barney Fife) and Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) reminisce on "The Andy Griffith Show: Back to Mayberry," 8 p.m. EST Tuesday, CBS.
Sound waves
• Pink tries to start another party with her new album, "Try This" (LaFace). The record is due Tuesday.
• Pearl Jam's new album, "Lost Dogs" (Sony), is released Tuesday.
Paging readers
• Last time out, Nathaniel Philbrick won a National Book Award for "In the Heart of the Sea," the story of a whaling ship that ran into trouble, forcing its crew into cannibalism. His new book, "Sea of Glory" (Viking), tells an equally harrowing tale -- this one about the U.S. Exploring Expedition of the late 1830s. The book is due Tuesday.
• Jessica Lynch isn't just on TV this week -- she tells her story in a new book by former New York Times writer Rick Bragg. Called "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story" (Knopf), the book retraces Lynch's childhood in West Virginia and her experience as a prisoner in Iraq. Due Tuesday.
