Matrix Revolutions

"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.

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.

Like it's predecessor, the final installment of The Matrix trilogy is overcomplicated in plot, yet even more excessive in CGI. The entire 2nd half of the film is a huge barrage of special effects, and while it's not a huge bore, the brilliant choreography has been sacrificed in it's place; save for the final battle between Mr. Anderson and Mr. Smith, and it's always a pleasure watching the two stars square off. Fun moments aside, it feels overlong like Reloaded and is just as unnecessary.

...that this film is not getting the credit it deserves. It is in my opinion one of the most underrated films of all time along with The Matrix Reloaded. Revolutions is undoubtedly different from the previous films both in general and in terms of tone but why is that necessarily a bad thing? I won't be so arrogant as to say that the people who don't like this film are unintelligent. Whether or not people like a film or not is a subjective matter but I can't help feeling that the people who dislike (or even hate) this film are missing something because Revolutions is an intelligent, entertaining, beautiful, sad and moving picture.

The acting of all three films have been a mixed bag and although I usually join in the bashing of Keanu Reeves I find him strangely fitting for the part of Neo. His voice is not the perfect voice due to its monotonous tone but his body language is very good and sometimes even great and that is the case in Revolutions as well. Carrie-Anne Moss plays her character like she did in film two and that is neither particularly good or bad but a decent performance. Laurence Fishbourne's character has been reduced somewhat for the final part of the series but I found that the lines he did have were delivered with conviction and experience. As most people know Gloria Foster died before finishing her scenes for Revolutions and thus a different actress was cast to take over. The choice fell on Mary Alice and while she is no where near as good as Foster she is decent enough. Ian Bliss gets a chance to show his worth in the third film and personally I found his scenes to be among the most interesting of the film and his uncanny imitation of Weaving was spot on. Most of the secondary cast from Reloaded returns in their parts in Revolutions and they all do decent jobs with their characters. Harry J. Lennix (Lock) improved his character tremendously in spite of limited screen time. Hugo Weaving still provides the best acting in the film and steals every one of his regrettably limited number of scenes. He is probably my all time favorite screen bad guy. He manages to show the change in his character remarkably well considering how limited his screen time is. Agent Smith exhibits an increasing amount of human traits including anger, hatred, jealousy and even a sly sense of humor. This change happens to mirror Neo's growing understanding of the machines. Neo and Smith are linked in that way as well.

The effects are of course extraordinary which was to be expected after the stellar effects in the second film. Although there weren't as many scenes inside The Matrix this time around I still found the effects of the "real" world to be awe inspiring at the least and the battle for Zion was an incredible display of special effects. Of course the directors never lost sight of the people involved in the battle making it more tense had it only been effects. The climactic battle between Neo and Smith is quite simply stunning. It takes roughly 15 minutes and I for one hardly breathed in those 15 minutes. All three Matrix films have been inspired by Japanese animé comics and that is very visible in the final battle as one can't help but think of Dragonball for instance. The action in that particular scene is frighteningly well done and I got the chills when I watched it in the cinema. Very well done.

The story is darker in this film than in either of the previous films but that is to be expected as the first film was about birth and the second about life. Obviously that means that the third is about the inevitable end that must come to us all: Death. This does that the tone of the film becomes much darker and I felt that was good. This did that the film distanced itself from the previous films in the series and rather than become another rerun the film becomes its own entirely and that is both its weakness and its strength. I think it is its strength as it increases the originality of the film but apparently a lot of people didn't like the interpretation that the third film represents as is clear from the bashing the film has gotten from audiences and critics alike. The film does still have great symbolic value and you can interpret the film in a great number of ways like the previous films. For me this improves the film(s) greatly as you can watch it again and again and still find new things that will renew your interest.

Sadly I cannot make you love this film as much as I do because that would defeat the purpose of the film which is to make people think for themselves. My conclusion about Revolutions is that you will either love or you will hate it but in my opinion Revolutions is almost as good as the first one and one of the best films I have ever seen.

9/10 - On my top 10 of best films.

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.