(Orig posted 2003)

Now that I’ve slept on it, I have some further thoughts on Matrix Revolutions.

I was struck by the emphasis on eyes, and not just the obvious “Bring me the eyes of the Oracle” and Neo losing his sight in the fight with Bane/Smith but also the use of sunglasses. In the final fight, both Neo and Smith lose their sunglasses and you can see their eyes, which reminded me of the scenes with sunglasses in the first movie: Smith removing his glasses to “make a deal” with Neo, Neo moving from no sunglasses to sunglasses, Morpheus removing his sunglasses when he enters the Oracle’s apartment, Smith’s glasses being broken in his first fight with Neo.

I noticed, seeing the movie a second time, that when Trinity and Morpheus go to see the Oracle in ‘Revolutions’, they do NOT remove their sunglasses, perhaps as an expression of their distrust and displeasure with the Oracle in what they saw as her failure to tell them important information. I think the change of actors for the Oracle’s character clouded this scene, because initially I was just checking out the Oracle and not paying any attention to the other characters.

I was really surprised that the image Neo saw of Bane after losing his sight was not just of Smith, but of Smith with his sunglasses. How odd that Smith’s residual identity required sunglasses. (And by the way, Bane did a great job of channeling Hugo Weaving’s Mr. Smith)

This reminds me of why I was so impressed with Carrie-Anne Moss in ‘Reloaded’. The scene as she is falling, as you watch her face, there is a shift when she is shot. She changes from the all powerful Trinity of the Matrix, to the vulnerable Trinity of Zion. I’m not quite sure what it is that changes about her, but perhaps it is the look in her eyes.

I think that the glasses did make a huge difference in moving characters from the Zion personas to their powerful Matrix personas, although it is more than the sunglasses. Wearing the glasses, you can’t truly see emotions—they’re hidden, the soul (for eyes are the window to the soul) is hidden. In that I find it interesting that the Merovignian does not wear sunglasses, for his eyes betray him, at least in Reloaded. But then neither the Architect nor the Oracle wore sunglasses, perhaps their power and control are great enough that they do not need to hide behind sunglasses. After all, the Oracle, sitting passively, waiting, giving nothing away, when Smith came for her, did seem to frustrate Smith. He could see her clearly, yet he saw nothing. (And I did like the new Oracle, except that she was completely unbelievable as a smoker. Better that they had not had her smoke at all then had her obviously not knowing how to smoke.)

Perhaps that was a sign of the Merogivnian’s weakness, that despite all his seeming power and influence, despite his desire for knowledge and his facade of control, he did not really have control, he didn’t have the power that allowed the Oracle to walk in the open, eyes unveiled.

Perhaps that was a sign of Neo’s arriving at his full powers towards the end. Despite losing his sunglasses, Smith could not read him, and just as Smith was frustrated by his inability to read the Oracle, so was he frustrated by his inability to understand Neo, which in the end cost him everything as he was destroyed.