A good, but not memorable way to conclude the trilogy

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2003)

Matrix: Revolutions will be one of the hardest movies to review this year. Filmed at the same time as Matrix: Reloaded, but theatrically released six months apart, the Wachowski brothers (Larry and Andy) intended for the movie to be critiqued as one long film with an extended intermission. The problem is that if you tease an audience months earlier with a film that ends in a cliffhanger and then make them wait half a year, their expectations will be through the clouds. People will expect Revolutions to be greater than Reloaded simply because we are conditioned to seeing sequels that turn up the violence, body count, special effects and anything else that can be improved upon from the original.
But let's think about this for a second. At the time of release, the two Matrix films really had no equal. Back to the Future II and III were filmed back to back in the 80's, but they were released in two separate calendar years with stories that went in two different directions. Other than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which has yet to screen the third in the series, never before has a franchise shot one complete film and then split the whole into separate parts.
So as a lone film in the series, Revolutions does disappoint compared to the groundwork laid in the previous two. Where the original and Reloaded had cutting edge special effects and fight scenes never before caught on 70mm, Revolutions goes through the motions of showing us the exactly what we have come to expect, just for longer and in different locations. And where the first two films brought surprises around every corner, you can see Revolutions play out before the characters do.
Also adding to the disappointment is the lack of recurring characters in Revolutions. The previous film brought us such new and interesting characters as The Keymaker, Persephone, The Architect, and Merovingian, all of which are either missing or have such little screen time in Revolutions that by the time you remember their name, they disappear forever. And the two electrifying twins from Reloaded, become the Boba Fett of the fantasy film vault (i.e. being one of the most intriguing villains to get no screen time in the concluding film).
This disappointment aside, the movie has incredible visuals. The scene where the Sentinels breach Zion and begin their destruction of human kind is a feast for the eyes. Humans don walking metal gun ships and put up a fight that would make even George Lucas ask `how'd they do that' questions. There is more humor in this film that the other two combined, and the final act does contain a few revelations and a non-Hollywood style ending that is always refreshing in genre films.
But, what makes it hard to review is that if the movie was indeed played as intended viewing by the directors (4 hours of mind and bum numbing action), we would all be praising the film for being the most cutting edge, special-effect laden film of all time. Instead, we spent weeks speculating, anticipating and formulating ideas as to how good the third one must me to close off the series. Maybe it will play out better on DVD.