Better than the second - Nowhere near the first - Altogether disappointing conclusion to the trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2019)

There's no questioning the first one is by far the better film in the trilogy. However, opinions about the second and third volumes differ very often.
Despite this one having just as much action as the second one, there's an epic tone to the action scenes and context with philosophical undertones to the central theme (man vs machine, and the implications behind that narrative) whereas the Matrix Reloaded was just sheer Hollywood blockbuster action for the sake of action: senseless, lengthy action with no meaning or purpose besides being spectacular big production spectacle. This film is close to the second one though in how it delivers plenty of utterly clichéd manufactured one-liners and obvious stereotypes that always come up in war/action movies.
All in all, this film delivers a lot more answers and story content and wisdom than the previous volume, but fails at being emotionally potent like the first one was. The scenes set up to be the most poignant and powerful fall short in terms of punch and efficiency, for e.g. Trinity's death or even Neo's for that matter and the ending as a whole.
It feels globally like parts II and III were just manufactured Hollywood productions that fed off the Matrix universe, with a few good elements: the Architect and Merovingian in 2, here some of the imagery (Zion battle or the machine city) and some good scenes (most of the ones involving Mr.Smith). After being subjected to the utterly mind-altering experience that was The Matrix (original) it certainly feels disappointing ultimately to be fed such a bland ending with almost no power or moving quality to it. Better than the second for sure, more back on track in the Matrix universe, but not anywhere near the first in any regard.
7/10 for epicness, relentless and intense action that manages not to feel boring, and a good effort to at least attempt to conclude probably the greatest sci-fi of all-time that blew everyone away at the end of the 90's.