Irrelevant Opinion/Review: Alien3 and the Matrix Revolutions are the Same Movie

It’s time for an irrelevant opinion! This will be a slightly different entry to this site. Instead of writing about books, I’m going to write about movies. Specifically, I am going to write about two very similar films and why I think they might be a little too similar: Alien3 and the Matrix Revolutions (Matrix 3).

These threequels came out 11 years apart, but are extremely similar. For those who don’t know, Alien3 came out in 1992, starring Sigourney Weaver as her third time playing Ellen Ripley. The Matrix Revolutions came out in 2003, starring Keanu Reeves as his third time playing Neo.

The setting:

Let’s start with the setting – the first part of why I feel these two movies are really just the same movie.

Both movies are set in the far future, but this isn’t a glamorous, pretty, sleek future. The setting is rusty, metallic, dark, claustrophobic, depressing, poor, dirty, and looks more like a rusty old factory than anything else. Everything feels soulless and industrial.

Characters in this world wear ragged clothes – dirty, cheap, ripping apart clothes. Lots of loose, baggy clothing. Nothing pretty. Nothing new. Nothing clean.

This image is from one of the two movies, but you’ll never know which one because they both look the same. Give it a guess. You have a 50/50 shot. That’s because both movies look identical as far as set design.

Next – the characters – specifically, the protagonists.

Early on in these movies, the protagonist, whether it be Sigourney Weaver or Keanu Reeves (a shaved-headed, ratted/dirty clothes-wearing “chosen one”) discovers that he/she is immune from being attacked by the hive-minded enemy. This is important because the enemy is out to exterminate humankind.

In the case of Neo (Keanu Reeves), the sentinels will not attack him because Machine City needs him in order to defeat the Smith virus.

In the case of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the xenomorphs will not attack her because they need her to birth their next queen and continue their race.

So our shaved-headed heroes wearing ratted clothes are immune from being attacked by their hive-minded enemies because the hive-minded enemies need our hero to save their own people. Got it so far?

As the movie goes on, our hero loses his/her love interest in a tragic death. The death of the love interest pushes our character to stop at nothing to see the task done. The task: to save his/her species from extermination.

Shortly after discovering that a computer system the protagonist has previously dealt with has manifested in human form and after making that human manifestation of a computer bleed, our protagonists have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity… themselves.

In the case of Neo, he discovers that Agent Smith, a computer system, is now possessing the human body of a man named Bane, who he kills.

In the case of Ripley, she discovers that a robot named Bishop, with whom she shared an adventure, was actually designed and based off of its creator, a real man named Michael Bishop, who she makes bleed.

Ooh! After that run-in with human manifestations of computers, as I said, our heroes then make the ultimate sacrifice. In sacrificing themselves with outstretched “Jesus arms” surrounded by orange light, both shaved-headed, rag-wearing heroes save humanity for the rest of time. This is the only way.

These pictures are from two different movies.

The endings:

So, as the exact same ending plays out in two different movies even down to the visuals, the series is now wrapped up. Everything that arose as a problem in the first film, then carried on into the second and third, is finally complete with a nice bow. The story has come to a natural conclusion with no way for a sequel to really be necessary. All is well. There is no sequel bait. The series has a natural, fitting, and conclusive ending.

After an orchestra takes us out with a sunrise shot, archaic computer text appears on screen as it takes us out of the movie and closes out the series…

The sequels:

Next, a movie named Resurrection comes out. A completely useless movie, both Alien: Resurrection and the Matrix Resurrections betray the ending of the third films simply by existing in the first place.

Guess what? Our protagonist you know, the one who died sacrificing his/her life to save humankind… well… he/she is back. A resurrection has taken place. In the case of Ripley, she is back so they can make more alien queens. In the case of Neo, he is back so the machines can still run Machine City. You know… the whole thing that made them immune from those enemies in the previous movies. How dare a movie make creative progress by changing things up? That needs to be undone.

In these unwatchable fourth movies, our dead, now-resurrected protagonists have to relearn who they are, piece together what happened to them in the previous movies, contend with the fact that one of their confidantes in the movie is actually a machine, and then get lost in an overly complicated and pointless mess that feels like it shouldn’t actually belong as canon.

So… if you’re still with me… thank you.

I rest my case. These two movies are the same.