Vatican Radio says 'Matrix Revolutions' commercializes Christianity

Published: 2003-11-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican Radio has given "The Matrix Revolutions" a thumbs down, saying the film represents a superficial commercialization of Christian ideas and symbols. The movie, which completes the Matrix trilogy, engages in open looting of the Christian story, the radio said in a review Nov. 10. For example, toward the end of the film the messianic hero -- Neo -- stands against a cross and appears to turn into a Christlike figure. But Neo attains salvation for the human race "not with the heroism of the Beatitudes, but with the labor and blood of whirling and violent duels, in the oriental style so popular in today's cinema," it said. His sacrifice "has nothing to do with Golgotha and with the Christian path of redemption," it said. The film plunders Christian traditions in the most shallow way, using them "in a direction opposite that of the original, in order to commercialize them," it said.

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