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A Warner Brothers release. Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski; starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. Released to DVD on April 3, 2004.  It takes real work, dedication and even a little luck to make the final film of a trilogy so bad that it actually lessens the impact and entertainment value of the otherwise enjoyable first two movies. Picking up right when The Matrix Reloaded left off, The Matrix Revolutions aims to definitively and satisfyingly close the book on The Matrix trilogy, a daunting task given how many questions Reloaded's hackneyed script generated. Keanu Reeves returns to the matrix as Neo, former computer hacker turned savior of the human race. Battling the domineering machines (read computers) with the help of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), lady love, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and scores of Australian bit players, the rebellion's belief in faith and in the words of the all-knowing Oracle (Gloria Foster/Mary Alice) came crashing down at the end of Reloaded. Revolutions opens with Neo taking some time to sort things out--it's a genuinely bad sign when even the characters in the movie need to spend time trying to understand what's going on. He decides that he and Trinity are going to go to the "machine city" while Morpheus and crew are going to fly back to human city of Zion to do battle with the attacking machines. After many convoluted ideas, one line of dialogue from the talented Monica Bellucci, significant amounts of punching and kicking between Neo and arch-enemy Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and a finale I'm being generous in calling a letdown, The Matrix trilogy ends with a whimper. A soft whimper.  The beauty of the first Matrix lies in its simplicity. There were complex ideas investigated in the Wachowski's script, including the importance of free will and the effect that big business has on the individual, but it was always easy to grasp what points were being made. Instantly mistaking this positive feedback as a sign that they should significantly up the ante by asking many more questions in far more diluted ways, the Wachowskis delivered Reloaded, a film that took the simple brilliance of the original movie and smashed it to pieces in a hail storm of "what ifs?" Continuing this trend in Revolutions, the Wachowskis made a film that was so confusing and hard to follow that during the final showdown between Neo and Agent Smith, all I could think about was whether or not the two could hurt, let alone kill, each other. It brought to mind a similar instance in The Pirates of the Caribbean where, during the climactic fight sequence between the British army and the pirates, I kept thinking, "Those soldiers are fighting the undead. They can't win." Ultimately, Agent Smith asks Neo the same question on screen--it's a genuinely bad sign when even the participants in a fight ask why they are fighting one another and then acknowledge that neither of them can actually win. Most surprising is that there are no stunning sequences in Revolutions ala Neo's rescue of Morpheus in the original and the highway chase in Reloaded. There is a twenty-minute battle between the humans in Zion and the CGI machines that burrow their way in, but the material was intensely hollow as every major character in the series is elsewhere at the time. How producer Joel Silver allowed this cut to be finalized without any jaw dropping gunfights or action scenes inside the matrix is hard to fathom. That the wondrous Monica Bellucci only had one line of dialogue in the film is not only hard to fathom, but such a sickening misuse of the cast's most talented member that it needs mentioning in this review. Twice. The Matrix Revolutions is a sad, pathetic addition to the Matrix trilogy. Minus the sharpness, amazing human special effects (save for one brief scene involving security guards who can walk on the ceiling) and heart of the first two films, there really isn't anything positive to say about this series now other than the fact that no more Matrix styled disappointments lie ahead. As the end credits to Revolutions rolled, I sat in an introspective silence, with only one thought reverberating around in my mind, "That's it?" Sadly and unfortunately it is. | |||||
