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THE HOTTEST PICKS IN ENTERTAINMENT
FROM A DAILY ARTS WRITER
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Led Zeppelin H - Listening to this again with stereo changed
everything. Between Jimmy Page's guitar shredding and Robert
Plant's patented howl, blues metal never sounded so good.
ing precious little besides cliched action for the finale.
"Revolutions" begins precisely where "Reloaded"
ends. A still unconscious Neo (Keanu Reeves) hap-
pens to actively remain somewhere between the world
of the Matrix and the machine world, trapped in a
subway terminal controlled by the Trainman. Mor-
pheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Ann
Moss) plug into the Matrix to pull Neo out. One gra-
tuitous fight scene with thugs walking on the ceiling
and a pointless discussion with Merovingian later,
they rescue Neo from the Mobil Ave (limbo scram-
bled anyone?) station.
While Zion fervently prepares for the impending
machine attack, Neo finds time to visit the Oracle -
who, in a poor attempt to mask the replacement of the
late Gloria Foster with Mary Alice, has received pun-
ishment for her choices by being physically changed
as an attempt to explain her morphed appearance -
asking yet more questions to which Neo, as usual,
already knows the answer.
It would seem that the intrigue of "Reloaded," that
distanced so many, returns in full force, but setting
most of "Revolutions" in the machine world dispels
the questions after the first 15 minutes. Neo's coma-
tose counterpart Bane (Ian Bliss), a human body now
inhabited by one of the many Agent Smiths (Hugo
Weaving), awakens and attempts to rid the world of
Neo while the Agent Smith program continues to rap-
idly replicate itself throughout the Matrix.
Unfortunately, the long-winded dialogue droning
through "Reloaded" is here replaced by more insipid,
even laughable, speeches. Only this time, no excit-
ing twists or superb special effects can cover the
cheesy babble. Without the established stylistics 4
of the Matrix world to drive the plot, the story
places its hefty load on a bland and ugly reality.
Cohesion and quality suffer as a result of the under-
established set pieces and jumpy action.
As is characteristic of the Wachowskis, some daz-
zling sequences and cinematography enter the pic-
ture, but so sparsely spaced is that wonderment that
the majority of the battle for Zion has the feel of an
abysmally written war movie. Yuen Wo Ping's chore-
ography and the innovative motion-capture that raised
the bar for every action movie since both receive
drastically reduced significance in favor of the more
characteristically sci-fi clash. New relationships
appear during the incredibly time-consuming battle
- notably a painstakingly long period in which Neo
and Trinity are absent - that have no pertinence to
the story whatsoever.
When "Revolutions" finally returns to the heart of
the trilogy and we are introduced to the machine city,
the entire prelude of the first two films and the driv-
ing conflict of the overarching plot, the war between
man and machine, has been shoved aside. All the phi-
losophy and religious amalgamation is replaced by
one supreme and blatant religious symbol. Even the
impressive final showdown betweenAgent Smith and
Neo can't
resolve the fact that basically the
entire setup means nothing in the
midst of an easy-way-out realization.
Worst of all, both the Morpheus and Trinity char-
acters lose any significance they had attained previ-
ously. Morpheus' prophetic persona is scrapped for a
simply human and unimportant role, and Trinity, after
saving Neo from Mobil Ave, basically only serves the
purpose of flying Neo where he must go. Somehow
Naobi (Jada Pinkett Smith), in a totally useless
flight/chase sequence, literally becomes the driving
force, and although it might signify humanity in a
unified plight, removing any semblance of a main
character during the Zion war frustratingly slows the
pacing of what should be a tense fight.
Unworthy of the canonical status attained in 1999,
"The Matrix Revolutions" is a dismal, disappointing
end to a trilogy that began with amazing promise
and potential. Maybe the highly discussed and
debated iconography made it an inevitability, but the
closing chapter to the incredibly complex original
"Matrix" achieves exactly the opposite of what it
was meant to be: an average, utterly unoriginal prod-
uct of studio-system cinema.
"Batman 5"I"1Spider-Man 2" - Yes, it's a bit early, but with
Christopher Nolan ("Memento") on as director and Christian Bale
("American Psycho") cast as The Dark Knight as well as an enticing
preview poster for "Spider-Man 2" things seem to be back up for the
superhero genre
3 Kanye West - "Home" - West's allegorical tale of leaving
home and loved ones over a ridiculous beat and hook that must be
sung along with, shows why he is one of the best producer/rappers
out now. College Dropout may already be the album of next year.
"The Matrix Revolutions" - I still have faith. Give the fights
some meaning and use the characters for more than pretty action and
this could be a classic. I'm calling it now
- Mr. Smith is one of the old Neos.
"The Sopranos" Season 4 DVD F>
- New Jersey never looked better.
Tapping perfectly into post 9/11
Tri-State angst without maudlin
attempts for sympathy and sen-
timentalism; every aspect of
this season works in unison.
Deep continuity, constantly
developing characters, deft
writing, Meadow and a friend
from high school in the show
make the countdown to Season 5
that much harder. Courtesy of HBO
5 /-
QDAL .ATS
WE'RE LIKE WEEKEND DAD. WE MAY
NOT MAKE IT TO ALL OF YOUR SOCCER
GAMES BUT WE RE TAKING YOU TO
CEDAR POINT'
JUST DON'T TELL NEws (om)
I
We're good at fitting people to jobs.
And jobs to people.
It wouldn't be clear to every firm that a man with
an M.F. A. in poetry was the right choice to head an
automated block trading unit. Or that a designer
of solar-powered race cars was the right woman to
help launch a new venture in computational chem-
istry. But after we talked to them, it was clear to us.
The D. E. Shaw group is an investment and technol-
ogy development firm. Since 1988 we've grown into
a number of closely related entities with approxi-
mately US $5 billion in aggregate capital by hiring
jack player. An operatic mezzo-soprano. And a lot
of people who are just exceptionally strong in CS,
EE, math, and finance.
The firm currently has openings quantitative
analysis, software development, information tech-
nology, computer architecture, business devel-
opment, computational chemistry, finance, and
accounting. We're looking for creative but prag-
matic people: articulate, curious, and driven. Our
working environment is intense but surprising-
The D. E. Shaw group will host an information
session on Thursday, November 6 at 7:00 PM in
Room D1210 at Michigan Business School. On-
campus interviews will take place November 7.
To apply for an interview, please send a resume
and cover letter stating your GPA and standardized
test scores, broken down by section where
applicable, to oncampus@deshaw.com.