A bag of hot air after all

Rating: 1/10 (7 November 2003)

In my review of The Matrix: Reloaded' I declared that it would be impossible to precisely rate it without first examining its resolution. Finally, with The Matrix: Revolutions,' that resolution has arrived, but unfortunately it turns out to be even less satisfying than what I could have possibly predicted in my most depressing nightmares.
To call the Wachowskis' spiritualizing a bag of hot air would be an
understatement of almost biblical proportions, as the ending most resembles
Tron' run through a pretentious Anime filter (don't get me wrong, Tron' is a very fine film and infinitely superior to this dreck). Add to that a barrage of bad sci-fi clichés (even worse than the Asimov and Bradbury `inspired' Second
Renaissance Part 1 & 2'), hackneyed lines that will make you squirm in agony, headache-inducing action scenes, and characters one wants to die a most
painful death, and you get a concoction fit only for the most fanatic Matrix' fan, devoid of even the most subtle smidgeon of taste.
All of this wouldn't be so bad if the Wachowskis hadn't presented it in such a ponderous and padded manner. Let's face it: There is absolutely no good
reason to split this material into two films  it could have been easily told in two and a half hours (at the most). If brevity is the essence of wit, the Wachowskis are the most humorless filmmakers since Rainer Werner Fassbinder (don't get
me wrong, his 15 1/2 hour epic Berlin Alexanderplatz' still seems much shorter than what they delivered here). For the love of all that is good and decent: Stop!