The Matrix Revolutions

'The Matrix Revolutions' is the much-anticipated conclusion to the Wachowski Brothers' cultic sci-fi trilogy, whose previous entries were 'The Matrix' and 'The Matrix Reloaded.' In the series' final installment, the messiah figure, Neo, does battle with the diabolical forces that have imprisoned most of humanity in a world of cyber unreality via a massive computer program known as The Matrix.

Of the three films, 'Revolutions' is definitely the least imaginative and the least interesting. What separated the first two episodes in the series from most other action films was the willingness on the part of the filmmakers to bring some thematic depth and narrative complexity to a genre that, all too often, finds no room for such qualities. The previous two films didn't always succeed in their endeavor - often emerging as more hollow and pretentious than meaningful and profound - but they managed to remain intriguing even in their moments of failure. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for 'Revolutions,' which spends so much time on repetitive action scenes and special effects that there is little time left over for storyline and theme. In a strange way, Neo himself ends up getting lost in this film, dropping off the radar screen for astonishingly long stretches of time, only to re-emerge periodically to remind us that there really is supposed to be a purpose buried somewhere beneath all this ear-splitting commotion (this could be re-titled 'Finding Neo'). The sad fact, though, is that, once we arrive at the climactic scene to which all three films have been building, the resolution turns out to be a ham-handed muddle, utterly lacking in clarity and coherence After an almost six-hour-long buildup over the course of the three films, the audience is left scratching its collective head wondering just what it was that happened before the closing credits started rolling by. Perhaps smarter people than I can figure all this out for, frankly, after the overall disappointment occasioned by this film, I couldn't muster either the desire or the effort to probe very deeply into the matter.

It goes without saying that the special effects in this film are spectacular - we would expect nothing less - but what we don't get from 'Revolutions' - which we did from the two previous 'Matrix' films - is that little something extra in the form of intelligence and sophistication that made them more than just the bland, over-produced, assembly-line products they easily could have become - and which 'Revolutions' very nearly is. Even the stolid earnestness of Keanu Reeves can't convince us this time around that there is anything hidden under all those cool gadgets and explosions worth our looking into.

Thus endeth the Matrix series, not with a bang but with a whimper - intellectually speaking that is.

We gorge on the binaries prophesied once again, through an ever increasing bandwidth, as we exponentially widen our dietary desire to become what everyone wants us to be without thought for who or what we really are or could be.

And in the end it all comes down to difference and a right to choose.

Going into this movie I had one wish: To leave feeling that it was a successful conclusion to a two-part film. Taking Reloaded/Revolutions as a single (very large) movie with an intermission is the best way to evaluate it. Viewed that way I think it succeeded. I thought Revolutions was the equal of Reloaded, yet I can see how many will think it failed. The ending gave us everything we needed to know, but did not show us all we wanted to see. I'm speaking of the last twenty minutes or so here. After a visually robust middle, in which I felt my eyes grow larger in their sockets more than once, the ending seemed like an anticlimax. It needed to be longer, and I would gladly have traded some of the fx flair used earlier to give the final part of the film it's justified due. It will be awhile before I can look at it more objectively (perhaps I'll have to wait to view the two parts as one on DVD). I only suggest now that anyone seeing it let it sink in completely before being too critical.

As the city of Zion fortifies itself for defence against the influx of sentinels, the two remaining ships of the fleet prepare to return to the city. Neo lies in a coma with the sole survivor of the attack on the fleet, however his brain patterns show that he is lost somewhere within the matrix. Trinty and Morpheus go to rescue him and return him to the real world. Back in the real world, Zion is under attack from the sentinels, Neo decides that he must travel into the machine city and confront the creator of the matrix while Niobe pilots the remaining ship back to Zion to take on the sentinels.

I love the original Matrix, but can't help feel that the 2 overblown, over serious sequels have damaged it. This film works a little better than the second sequel but not by much. Where Reloaded left us with unanswered questions, Revolutions offers us the answers. Sadly the "answers" just left me confused and bewildered. I didn't feel like the film even tried to explain what was going on, and the ending came about far too suddenly and with little explanation. I know that a film is good if it leaves you thinking about things and I could sort of guess that Neo might have become some sort of programme etc at the end, but I still felt that the film should have helped me out even a little bit!

The plot is very heavy going and it lacks the light imagination evident in the first film. This really sucks the fun out of the film and makes it hard work - I have nothing against it being thought provoking and requiring thought, but it all seemed very laboured to me. The opening hour is quite hard work and the whole "train station" thing is never really explained and just seems designed to fill time or something. The action all looks great - the attack on Zion is visually very impressive and is quite exciting. However some fight scenes are so overblown that they failed to inspire. The shootout in the check room of the club is simply a tired retread of the groundbreaking lobby shootout but it is the final fight with Smith that shows what I mean. Neo's showdown with Smith in the first film was great fun and very exciting. Here (and in Reloaded) it is an excess of special effects, horribly overblown - visually impressive but not enjoyable.

The film seems to have taken on the mantel of "meaningful epic" where once it was a clever film with no assumptions. Listen to the music - that's where the clue is. Instead of the rock mix from the first film it has taken on big sweeping classical pieces that it scatters around liberally to try and give the film an epic feel that it doesn't deserve. It is still worth seeing as it finishes the trilogy but it is hard work at times. The acting continues the curse of Reloaded in that everyone thinks they are reading Shakespeare and gives their performance as if they were speaking words direct from God. Even Weaving's Smith is a little too full of himself this time. The dialogue is pretty bad as before - full of clichés and over wordy speeches of grandeur, it just gets tiresome before it gets engaging.

In the first film we were told no one can be told what the matrix is, we must see it for ourselves. We were then taken on a journey (with Neo), led by Morpheus into this world that was explained as we went. Here we are simply dumped in the middle of an impenetrable plot and basically left to work things out for ourselves with little or no help. Attempts to have characters like the Architect or the Oracle explain things are simply clunky and don't work at all. I'm not adverse to thinking, but the more I think about the film as a series the more i see unanswered holes. I was hoping that Revolutions would tie things up from Reloaded and actually serve to make part 2 work better, but it didn't. It took some positive steps but really the same weaknesses just continue.

Overall I was glad I saw it to finish the story, and visually it had some very impressive moments. However the feeling was of a film with no controls, spiralling out of control - with narrative flow lost behind half ideas and spiritual nonsense. It is over indulgent, bloated and full of a sense of it's own importance - an importance it simply does not have and should not be wearing on it's sleeve. The Wachowski's created a fascinating universe but, as they opened it out, their egos have inflated the material and their inability to control and tell such a massive story has shown and the last 2 films have really suffered as a result. Worth watching for what it attempts to do, but ultimately very frustrating for what it actually delivers and, more importantly, what it fails totally to do.

"Wait. I've seen this. I stand here, right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo." - Agent Smith

Picking up where "The Matrix Reloaded" left off, "The Matrix Revolutions" has a big task ahead of itself. While attempting to wrap up looses ends from the previous installments, it also has to provide closure on the overall saga as well as live up to the precedents set before it.

Was "Revolutions" a disappointment? Well, financially it performed much weaker than its big brother in "Reloaded" but otherwise, the answer remains a resounding "no." In fact, "Revolutions" slightly succeeds at besting the second film, as well as wrapping up the trilogy in a nice and neat manner.

Unlike "Reloaded," the third installment carries more emotional weight rather than show off its visual marvels. There are two big action scenes that make up about a third of the film. One is a breath-taking invasion of Zion by the sentinels which is so good that you almost forget that we haven't seen our two main characters for the better part of a half-hour. The other, the final showdown between Neo and Agent Smith, is nothing short of epic. Thousands of Smith's clones watch in the streets and the buildings as the two duke it out mano a mano in the rainy streets of The Matrix. These two scenes best what was done in "Reloaded" and push the plot forward all the better, all the way to its inevitable conclusion.

Sure, the film's loaded with clichés and yes, it still has an overall feel and tone similar to "Reloaded" that doesn't sit well with the original film (Powerade, anyone?), but it's as close to a perfect closing chapter in the trilogy as we were ever going to get. It's got a grand feeling. It's both sentimental and definitive. There are very few franchises in Hollywood that end in a way that ensures there will be no more sequels to water down the formula, and "The Matrix Revolutions" ends in such a way that not only do you feel satisfied, but that simply, there is nothing left to be done. The Wachowski Brothers close out their trilogy with a bang, slightly redeeming itself while providing appropriate closure.