Yes, I understood it. Yes, it was bad.

Rating: 1/10 (29 November 2003)

I don't care what you learned in your Philosophy courses, this movie wasn't any good. I don't say this because it was "too deep," because it wasn't, I say this because it was a film that failed miserably at everything it set out to do.
First off, the battle for Zion. This would have been interesting, had it not been a case of a bunch of minor characters being the focal point. Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are the central characters of this film, and they were nowhere to be found in what was supposed to the biggest action scene. While the concept was cool, it just came off as watching some kid you don't know at an arcade play video games. Sure, some of the stuff is neat, but there's no emotional attachment. I could have also done without this battle including every single war movie cliche ever. The momment I saw the kid tip his cart over, I knew exactly what was going to happen, and I was correct. Not because I'm smart, but because I've seen it done in dozens of other movies.
Then we get to the script. Here is an excerpt, more or less:
NEO: What am I supposed to do? ORACLE: You know what you're supposed to do. NEO: Ok. ORACLE: By the way, I'm a different actress, I better explain that every time I'm on screen.
This goes on for about 20 minutes or so and makes you want to put your lip over your head and suck your eyeballs out of the sockets. In fact, I'd say that a good 60% of the script consists of characters saying "You know what you need to do" "You know the answer" "When the time comes, you'll know." This is fine in a comic book or a novel, where we know a character's thoughts, and there's room for introspection, but on film it just doesn't work. Screenwriting 101, people.
Also, when did they replace the actors with wax statues? Keanu is Keanu, but even since Reloaded, the acting seemed to drop off. I've always thought that Morpheus was the most interesting character in Martix lore, and Larry Fishburne usually is a high point of the movies, but he sleepwalked through this one, mailed in every line and had a look on his face that seemed to say "I really don't wanna do this any more." This is probably due to the fact that they really didn't give any of the principal characters anything important or interesting to do. Morpehus was relegated to playing second banana to Niobi, which pretty much was a total betrayal of his character. The same guy who gave a speech to fire up Zion is now just sitting around being yelled at?
As for the philosophy stuff, there wasn't all that much in this one, which was one of the positives, because if I had to sit through another half hour speech about causality, I'd declare holy war on france. But not to fear, this one's chock full of religious symbolism. If you never made the connection that Neo was supposed to be Christ, well.. this movie will not only make that clear, they will beat you over the head with it, to the point where a cross actually appears on Neo's chest, and he's dragged off while in a crucifix position. Why not just end the movie with 100 years later everyone celebrating a holiday called "Neomas?" Despite all the Matrix fans who say that this is a film designed to "deprogram" people and "open minds," and all the Matrix fans I met who bash christianity, this is a pretty pro-christian movie.
When I first saw the Revolutions trailer, I said "This fight between Smith and Neo had better be the best throwdown ever caught on film." Well, it wasn't. Now, I'm not gonna go on a tirade about the CGI, because even though it looks like The Sims fighting, that's what you expect in the Matrix series. My problem is how on a whole, the fight was just pretty un-interesting. It's basiclly like watching Dragonball Z. Stuff blows up, they punch each other through buildings and fly around. The problem simply is that the first Matrix was so innovative, they just were unable to top themselves, no matter how hard they tried. It just seemed like everything they did in terms of action and fights was just... old. They even just redo the lobby fight from the first film, except this time the bad guys are on the ceiling.
As for the ending, I wasn't as angry about it as some other people were. I can see why it ended that way, and I think in a way you have to respect the risk that went with ending the trilogy like they did.
This movie seemed like it was running on fumes, and that ultimatly was the failure. I think that if they had not shot Reloaded and Revolutions back to back, if they had time to say "What worked in Revolutions?" before they did the third, they would have been able to come up with something better. But alas, they ended up with what will most likely prove to be one of the most disapointing films of all time. And worse even is the fact that Reloaded and Revolutions take away from the original. I tried watching Matrix the other day, and it just wasn't as good now that I know the full story and most of the disapointing answers to the questions asked in the original.
So those are my problems with the movis, but I've got one other problem pertaining to Matrix Revolutions. I'm pretty sick of the main defense of this movie being "You didn't understand it!" or "You had too many expectations!" Please. The movie is flawed, horribly flawed. Just because it has "The Matrix" in the title, doesn't mean it's good. It's ok to dislike this film, you can still call yourself a matrix fan. Heck, I hate Rocky V, but I still call myself a fan of the Rocky movies. If you loved it, great, that's ok. But if you realized that it's not good, don't grasp at straws trying to prove to yourself that you liked it, I'm sure your compatriots over in the mIRC Matrix Chatroom will love you nonetheless.
Also, you really dont have to be a rocket scientist to understand the Matrix Trilogy. We're not dealing with 8 1/2 here. So if you wanna respond to someone who didn't like this movie, don't play the "I'm smarter than you because I liked this" card, because that's just silly... it's a movie, not a way of life (if you think it's a way of life, please get help immediatly.)
So before you're about to call someone a mental midget for daring to dislike a Matrix film.. just think: What would Jesu...err...Neo do?