Great live-action japanime movie <*minor spoilers*>

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2003)

I think I've finally reached a verdict on the Matrix trilogy : not only is it a comic book movie - it is truly a manga film (based on a comic that doesn't exist, but perfectly could have; by the way, most of the story boards and scene designs *were* done by a couple of accomplished comic book artists, including cult icon Frank Miller of "Sin City" fame)! The Wachowski bros. themselves have always been very clear about the anime influences in their work, and with the release of the (rather mediocre) Animatrix some time before the last two movies, it should have been clear to everyone what direction they were planning to go with the next two installments.
And fans of the genre will get themselves a smattering of goodness in this film : mecha battles, massive-scale robotic assaults, Dragonball-Z type combat sequences, frantic and Akira-esque tightly paced action sequences... And of course there are the cliches : the camp, the epics and the larger-than-life drama (like the obligate tragic death of the love interest) that forms an irrevocable part of the tradition. And the good thing about it : I think it actually works PERFECTLY! This is the first time a project of this type has been attempted on such a scale, making it in itself a milestone in action movie history. As far as I'm concerned, it is also one of the single best comic book films to be released in the last few years, better than the Spiderman movie, vastly superior to the X-Men soap operas (say `character-driven' one more time and I swear I'll break your neck) and in my opinion on par with seminal classics like the original Superman movie and Tim Burtons interpretation of Batman.
I thought the technical quality was also superior to anything seen in any of the first two movies. The SFX actually manage to create a realistic-looking Zion, and a truly apocalyptic machine city /Matrix core. Reloaded had a few scenes in which the CG was just a bit too obvious (especially when the hordes of agents Smith came into play), but that problem seems to have been eliminated in this final issue of the series. Overall the movie looks great. And it sounds nice too : the soundtrack is as epic, bombastic and campy as the rest of the movie, but it is very well performed and does the job nicely. Every frame, every scene is clearly well-planned and the brothers keep their (in my view : limited-talent) acting crew well in line. Even Keanu Reeves manages to make his character believable at times - an achievement knowing that in my not so humble opinion, Reeves just really can't act. Luckily, this is certainly no character-driven movie - none of the Matrix movies were. It's all about cartoon action fun with enough cool plot elements to keep you interested all the way through the ride.
The plot explores further into the story lines launched in Reloaded, and brings them to an epic and fitting conclusion. The only moment that felt "off" was the very ending of the film, which was (a) just a bit too melodramatic for my taste, and (b) was rather convoluted, in the same vein as Otomo's movie adaption of Akira but using a more christian inspired theme. Apart from that, I really had a roll watching this one.
All in all, it was worthwhile spending time in the personal cartoon-action universe of the Wachowski brothers and I'll look forward to their next work. Certainly worth watching, I think, even for non-anime lovers,. After reading this review, you should at least know what to expect.
A word about some of comments I've read on IMDB : it seems like opinions on Revolutions are as divided as over the previous episode. Personally, I liked "Reloaded" better than the first, and I like this one even more. Contrary to some people, I didn't see a philosophical treatise in the first - it was so campy you just couldn't really take it serious and most of it was *very directly* inspired by anime with similar themes anyway. Nothing new there, certainly for the people who had seen previous movies using the same premise, like "Dark City" or "The 13th Floor". And the action wasn't nearly as groundbreaking as most people seemed to believe as well : bullet-time effects had been done before in a couple of other movies and Kung Fu had been coming back in style for a long time. Of the two high-profile martial arts flicks of that year, "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", I have always considered "Tiger" to be the vastly superior film (and felt it was dearly cheated off of its "Best Movie" oscar - Gladiator? Sheesh...). Reloaded had more action, more fights, with more, really groundbreaking visuals (maybe a bit too "on the edge" even sometimes), less opportunity for Reeves to show he can't act and more and better plot twists. What more could one ask for? Well, hear ye, hear ye : I feel that what more you could ask for, you get it here! If you really hate the style of Japanese animation, don't go watch it, but one shouldn't break down on a film that is truly a milestone in its genre exactly for being just that.