The Matrix Revolutions

It is Humanity’s darkest hour.  The Machine Empire’s invasion army nears the walls of Zion and there is little Humanity can do to stand against it.  Trapped inside The Matrix, Neo must unlock his true potential to defeat the real threat: a chaotically insane Agent Smith.  War begins on two fronts with the fate of two races hanging in the balance.  Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and their remaining allies will be sorely tested.  Will they find Humanity’s salvation or ultimate downfall at the end of road?  Everything that has a beginning, has an end.

The Matrix Reloaded might’ve had some saving graces with its bigger action set pieces, but overall, the long awaited sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time disappointed big time.  There was still hope that the conclusion of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, would make up for Reloaded’s shortcomings and end the saga on a high note.  Oh no…no it did not do that at all.

The biggest sin against The Matrix Reloaded was its long and overbloated scenes of philosophical debating and existentialism.  Well apparently, the Wachowskis were so in love with these scenes that they fill up the bulk of the films opening act and more.  Seriously, when the action finally got going, before it abruptly ended, I was already bored.  There should have been far more urgency with the fate of Zion and the impending arrival of the machine army.  Nope, we can waste more time talking about choice and cause and effect some more cause YOU LOVED THAT SO FREAKING MUCH!!!  There isn’t a chance or any kind of effort to make these scenes entertaining or interesting.  It’s just more Professor talk and YES it will all be on the final exam.

But there’s no chance of anyone passing that exam because anyone talking, moving, even breathing in Revolutions just feels so damn tired.  It’s like they put their all in the (believe it or not) much better opening act that was Reloaded and then realized they were in trouble and just wanted this entire film shoot over and done with.  It’s not quite watching the walking dead but everyone feels lifeless in their performances, their action scenes, and, of course, their delivery philoexistenz passages of sheer boredom.  The redeeming factors are incredibly minimal when your movie feels like its on total autopilot.  Even worse, the film tries to explain the replacement of the Oracle and fails (even with the additional supplement of the Enter The Matrix video game).  Gloria Foster passed away shortly after filming her scenes for The Matrix Reloaded.  Actress Mary Alice plays a new version of the character (think Doctor Who regeneration I guess) but feels just as unexcited to be here as anyone else, which makes me sad.

And what of the action that defined The Matrix in the first place?  Gone are elaborately conceived hand to hand fight sequences and in for the final act are a slew of CG heavy action fests that feel more in line with Michael Bay’s Transformers than The Matrix.  To be fair, the much anticipated Siege of Zion is visually impressive and it makes sense why this film was delayed from being released a month after Reloaded to six (or so).  However, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are nowhere near the action and thus its hard to care about any of the new characters, who got no time to shine in Reloaded, to hold down the dwindling Zion fort.  It also goes on for a bit, definitely the action centerpiece of the film.  And what about the big promise of Neo vs over a million Agent Smiths?  Well trade the One Million for just One and throw them into a hugely ripped off poor mans Dragon Ball Z match off and…well it’ll make you long for the simpler days of fighting in an abandoned subway station.  Lesson learned: bigger scale isn’t always the best thing to close out a franchise on…unless youre gonna do it right like Star Wars.

Sigh, let’s just wrap this up.  If The Matrix Reloaded was one of the most disappointing sequels of all time, then The Matrix Revolutions is one of the worst sequels/conclusions of all time.  All of the magic of the original has been sucked dry, replaced by the worst Psych 101 Summer Course imaginable with the occasional gun shot, kung fu kick or CG squid being fried.  It’s sad.  This franchise was supposed to be an all around game changer this side of Star Wars or any James Cameron scifi epic.  Instead, the original Matrix will live on as the best of the best and many, myself encouraged, will try to forget it had a Part 2 or 3.  The Matrix Revolutions had a chance to go out with a bang.  But it went out with less than a whimper and more of a…whatever.

3/10

And now that those are all out of the way, let’s see how The Matrix gave back to the world of Anime that inspired it.  We close out our trip down Matrix road with The Animatrix tomorrow.