The Grand Finale

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2018)

I have to confess that I went to see this film with fear and trepidation. I have been a big fan of the Matrix trilogy and I was afraid that the finale would be a major letdown. Sequels are a risky business at best. If you've seen Rocky V, Jaws 3-D, or any of the Halloween movies after the first one you know of what I speak. In Rocky for example, we meet characters, situations, and places that are fresh and new. The hero's quest is as old as mythmaking itself but the new contexts and characters allow us to approach old myths in new ways. As each successive sequel was made, the myth became trite and clichéd, the characters devolve into caricatures, and the formulaic nature of the films makes them mundane and boring.
It is admittedly a difficult task to keep the mythmaking fresh and awe-inspiring. I am pleased to report that the Wachowski brothers succeed in doing just that. I read several reviews that were fairly negative about the film, but as I read the reviews it was clear to me that the critics simply didn't get it. They reminded me of the critic who criticized Field of Dreams for not being as good as other baseball movies. If you have seen Field of Dreams you know that that film is not really a baseball movie at all.
As in the previous films, there is an abundance of special effects in the battle sequences. There are also more sparks in the relationship between Trinity and Neo. In my review of the original film I praised the film because of the abstractness of the mythology. When we try to literalize metaphors they lose much of their power. Neo-Marxists, Buddhists, and Christians could all walk away from this film feeling as if the film had strengthened their faith. If we look at the film as a commentary on the postmodern world, the Architect and the Oracle become perfect metaphors for the competing voices of modernity and postmodernity respectively.
One of the reasons I was nervous about this final installment was my concern about the Messianic Neo character. The Christological images are fairly strong in the film, but I have always had a problem with Neo as a machine-gun toting Messiah. Once I let go of my literal reading of this metaphor I was able to appreciate the richer metaphors contained in the film. I resonate with the film's critique of the "domination system" (to borrow a phrase from Walter Wink's The Powers That Be), but I did not want this film to degenerate into yet another legitimation of the myth of redemptive violence. Fortunately, it does not . . . to say more is to give away too much of the ending.
This will not be everyone's cup of tea, and more than a few viewers will leave scratching their heads or disappointed that there wasn't even more computer-generated mayhem. But for those who have eyes to see, this film is clearly worth a look.