Just as good as the rest

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2005)

Say what you will about The Matrix Revolutions, but you certainly cannot call it short on ideas or ambition. Picking up immediately after the finale of Part 2, Revolutions continues the odyssey of Neo, his spiritual adviser Morpheus, his leather-clad, ass kickin' girlfriend Trinity, and the soon-to-be-demolished stronghold of humanity known as Zion. There are, of course, numerous colorful side characters, most of whom figure quite prominently in the final battle between man and machines - none cooler than the rogue Agent Smith, now an all-powerful computer virus hell-bent on devouring everyone it comes across. Which is apparently a whole lot of people.
When attempting to 'synopsize' a Matrix film, one can take two different routes: keep it short and sweet as an acknowledgment to the film's labyrinthine plot developments - or pen a massive and sprawling dissertation on the film and its myriad (and lofty) conceits. I choose the former route, as the element of discovery is one of the series' sweetest plums, plus I quite simply don't have the brains or energy to catalog everything the Brothers Wachowski have on their minds.
Suffice to say that The Matrix Revolutions (much like its predecessors, only to a slighter lesser degree) is overstuffed with slick action set pieces, thought-provoking sci-fi mind-benders and cool characters dressed in slick leather and torn sweaters. If Parts 2 and 3 don't seem to measure up to the lofty groundwork laid in the original film, I suspect much everyone's relative "disappointment" in the sequels perhaps stems from unfair expectations and not the dazzling pieces of entertainment offered up on screen. (If The Matrix Reloaded didn't have those "boring" moments of self-reflection, it would end up being derided as "mindless action" - proof positive that filmmakers are often damned if they do and damned if they don't.)