Can't Compare to Original, but . . .

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2003)

The original MATRIX was a thoughtful film as much about society as it was an action film. When I heard they would be making these two sequels, I immediately wondered how they could tackle that aspect in a second film. The answer, they can't. The first film is about Neo discovering himself, and a freedom from restraint and rules. It was about living independently of 'the system' and not being a cog in the machine. These two films deal simply from an action point of view most of the time, and the focus is on freeing humans and ending the war with the machines.
In REVOLUTIONS, Neo must travel to the machine city to face the enemy, while the others try to fend off the coming attack. Admittedly, more efficient story telling and elimination of some meaningless scenes and overly long special effect sequences could have broken these last two films down into one final chapter, but I guess there's less money in that.
Still, despite some wooden emotional sequences, this film is entertaining. I like the ending, and I don't think the film could have ended differently. Neo had to go off to face the Machines, even if it meant almost certain death. And, given the parallels drawn between "the one" and Christ, the end of the film is inevitable. Some of those on the site didn't like the end, but I don't see how it could have ended.
Bottom line: MATRIX was an untouchable 10 out of 10. REVOLUTIONS and RELOADED are probably somewhere between 6 and 7 out of ten. Good, not amazing. But how could it be otherwise.