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The Matrix Revolutions Review By Shawn McKenzie 11/09/2003 The final chapter in the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, has finally arrived. Was it worth the wait? Based on what I saw…no.
The world is still a place where machines obtain their power from unconscious human slaves who exist in “the Matrix,” a fabricated reality that seems normal to them. Our favorite human rebels are getting ready to make one last stand against the machines and their robotic sentinels. Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) have one little nagging problem though. At the end of the last movie, Neo (Keanu Reeves) managed to enter the Matrix without being directly plugged into it. Another crewmember named Bane (Ian Bliss) is also unconscious with Neo, and there is something fishy about him. Morpheus and Trinity meet with the Oracle (Mary Alice) once again, who is now in her new “shell” (Alice replaced the late Gloria Foster.) She sends them, along with her bodyguard, Seraph (Collin Chou), to an S&M club in the Matrix called the Hel Club owned by the Matrix power broker Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and his wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci.) They have trapped Neo in a train station-looking purgatory between the Matrix and the real world, manned by the Trainman (Bruce Spence), who won’t let him leave. While Neo is there, he meets a little computer-generated girl named Sati (Tanveer Atwal) whose parents have made a deal apparently with Merovingian to leave the train station and live with the Oracle (it’s a plot point that made no sense, other than some weird point that machines can feel love too.) Morpheus, Trinity, and Seraph free Neo (after getting into a gun battle when they refuse Merovingian’s offer to free Neo in exchange for the Oracle’s eyes.) Morpheus meets up with Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), Link (Harold Perrineau), Ghost (Anthony Wong), and Roland (David Roberts) to head back to Zion, the last human city, in the Nebuchanezer. At the same time, Neo and Trinity head to Machine City in Niobe’s ship, the Logos. Neo has discovered that not only can he enter the Matrix without jacking in, but also he can destroy sentinels with his mind. Little do they know that Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), the anthropomorphic physical representation of the machine world, has escaped the Matrix through the unconscious Bane that they are taking with them (even though it is so friggin’ obvious), and he still has payback on his evil little mind. Back in Zion, Lock (Harry J. Lennix) and Captain Mifune (Nathaniel Lees) lead the ground forces that include Zee (Nona Gaye), The Kid (Clayton Watson), and many others. They hope to hold off the sentinels long enough for Morpheus and Niobe’s ship to get there with the electronic device that will destroy the machines. Neo realizes that his responsibility as “The One” might mean that he will have to make a sacrifice to save everyone and end the war between humans and machines.
What was wrong with this final chapter? Well, let’s recap the series so far first. The first one as we all know by now has gone down in movie history as one of the most creative and influential science fiction movies of all time. The second one, Reloaded, was overly long-winded and no where near as innovative, but it still had some cool action scenes. This one doesn’t even get that benefit. Sure, there are some cool effects, but know where near as cool as Neo’s battle with the thousand Agent Smiths or the highway chase scene from the second one. Even the few gun battles (I’m not counting the battles against the sentinels in the Aliens-like machine suits as “gun battles”) aren’t as cool. Neo no longer looks as cool when fighting Agent Smith for some reason. Maybe I was suffering from severe been-there-done-that disease.
Another problem with the movie is that it has now created a world that only hardcore Matrix geeks can understand. I usually am turned off when sci-fi flicks attempt to get deep. I want cool action with an interesting story that isn’t hard to follow. This one has its own religion and philosophy that only really means anything to the characters on the screen and not at all to the audience. The Matrix Revolutions is unfortunately an unsatisfying conclusion to the story of Mr. Anderson and company. I’ll be curious to see what directing/writing brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski work on next now that it is all over. I hope that it is not any more chapters of The Matrix, which, sadly, could be a possibility, because this movie ends with a few loose ends not tied up. I think it is time for sleeping dogs to lie down now. I do feel sorry for Reeves though, because this essentially means the end of his career. Hey…how about making a third Bill & Ted movie? I’m sure Alex Winter is free!
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