The Action Blows You Away, the Ending Just Blows

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2004)

WARNING: SPOILERS
The third and least of the MATRIX movies reduces Morpheus to a bit player and likely kills off Trinity and Neo. Guess I was wrong on part of the religious allegory, but I thought the POINT of "Reloaded" was that Neo had his powers in BOTH realities. He was the Messiah, the "promised one" of Judaism, Christianity AND Islam (probably others as well). He was battling the "antiChrist," Smith, who had broken through the Matrix and could steal souls. Instead, we're left with "the Oracle" (God?) and "the architect" (Satan?) on EQUAL levels and "Love," (personified as a beautiful child) awaiting the eventual return of Neo. It all seemed pretty pointless; as, alas, does life, sometimes.
I HAD hoped Neo would confront the architect, disable the matrix and awaken those who were "sleeping." THAT would have eliminated Smith and disabled the machines. Instead, Neo makes a bargain with the "collective conscious" of the machines in order to defeat Smith, who threatened to destroy them all. NONSENSE! Smith NEVER showed contempt for the machines. Besides, Smith was intelligent software that had developed a foolproof method to keep the "awake" from penetrating the matrix. If they did, Smith could capture their souls. The machines should have LOVED permanently perpetuating the matrix, even if they "feared" Smith was becoming TOO powerful.
The final confrontation with Smith reminded me of the climax to "Scanners." In this connotation, that seems a bit silly.
IF Neo WAS the messiah, what was the need for the LOVE software?
We are left with an ending in which there was no longer a need for a matrix at all, since "the architect" promised to release the "sleepers. Since such a conclusion would likely mean the end of the machines, WHY would they EVER agree to it.
Great action but the ending blows.
I give THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS a "5".