Agent Neo

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2004)

Warning: spoilers. Read only if you've seen the film.
If there were no such thing as the Matrix, or Reloaded, it's entirely probable that the following would be a positive review of the Matrix Revolutions. 'Dark City', tepid mediocrity that it is, would have been slammed in the same way 'Revolutions' got slammed if it had two awesome prequels.
As it stands, 'Revolutions' limped through the gate and couldn't finish fast enough. The initially much-loved story of the Matrix got old and my attention drifted further with every knowing speech earnestly delivered by the wise, urban minorities in Zion.
The ending. It mercifully delivers the SFX goods and brings an end to Neo's Quixotic voyage to triumph over the Machine, a menacing historical figure since the early 19C for the Luddites, communists, and clergy. Yet no machine, now matter how great its abstract computational abilities, will ever triumph over the best machine [Man] when it lacks intuition. How did Agent Smith get that bit of source code written in? Nebulous philosophy didn't accomplish it, which is what everyone in this movie is so adept at.
Notice how, in the glorious climax, when Neo plants his fist into Agent Smith to convert him, that the Wachowskis immediately cut to extreme long shot over the city for a short light show of all the Agent Smiths turning into Neo. This is necessary to complete Neo's status as a Christ figure; referencing the conversion of the pagan Roman emperor Constantine to Christianity and subsequent dissemination of that religion to the world.

However, the Wachowskis realized that mass conformity is unsightly no matter who the leader figure is, and skip the spectacle of showing a million Agent Neos looking on from the sidelines.
5/10