Doesn't live up to the first Matrix

Rating: 3/10 (27 October 2005)

The third and hopefully final installment in The Matrix franchise, The Matrix Revolutions has been receiving more hype than any other movie this year, starting with the worldwide release stunt, which was quite odd yet effective (The movie grossed $44 million worldwide on the first day).
The plot is basically this: The freed humans are working as hard as they can to protect Zion from the upcoming machine attack. We witness about half an hour of non-stop fighting, as the humans attempt to fend off the hundreds of thousands of Sentinels the machines sent to destroy Zion. In the meantime, we jump back to the events in The Matrix Reloaded, when two hover-crafts are sent to rescue the Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of Reloaded we learned that the Nebuchadnezzar was destroyed, and it's The Hammer rescued crew. In Revolutions the Hammer sets out to rescue the Logos, captained by Niobe. After again consulting The Oracle, Neo finally realizes what he must do. He must reach the machine city in order to stop the war. Neo and Trinity take the Logos to the machine city, while the rest remain on the Hammer and attempt to return to Zion before the machine army gets there. Agent Smith has a much bigger part in this movie than in Reloaded, as he replaces the machines as the main villain. In an attempt to prevent Smith from destroying the real world, the machines aid Neo in a final showdown between him and Smith.
Here's my theory. There are three things that make a Matrix movie:
1) Meaning behind the words, philosophical discussions, witty dialog, elements that make you think. The first movie was full of this stuff, which is one of the things that made it great. I think that Reloaded tried TOO hard to add philosophical meaning, which is what made it less great than the first. Also, Reloaded attempted to include too much witty dialog, which in some cases (such as the Merovingian's speech about causality) is completely irrelevant to the story. Revolutions, though, had no meaning at all. It just continued what Reloaded said about the war between freedom of choice and fate, but Revolutions didn't add anything new to the philosophy of the Matrix, which is one aspect that made it weak.
2) Plot, character development, etc. Once again, the first Matrix gets top marks here. While Reloaded had a storyline, it was neither as extensive nor as interesting as the original Matrix. One of the strong points in Reloaded though is the addition of many new characters. Revolutions has even less of a storyline then Reloaded had, which again, made it a weaker movie.
3) Insane action sequences. The shootout in the building in the first Matrix, or the first time we are introduced to bullet time, are sequences that will never be forgotten. They added a whole new aspect to the definition of "action". And because that the action takes place in The Matrix, the people can do impossible things, which makes it all the more interesting to watch. Now I must say, in this factor Reloaded almost passes the original Matrix. The Burly Brawl (battle against 100 Agent Smiths) is an unforgettable scene, and the car chase on the freeway might be the greatest car chase in any movie. In Revolutions though, the only taste of Matrix action we get is a tiny sequence in the beginning, when Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph duke it out against some of the Merovingian's goons. The only other time we witness Matrix action in Revolutions is the final showdown between Neo and Smith, which I personally thought, compared to the first two movies, was weak, slow and didn't leave enough of an impact. The other major action sequence in Revolutions is the battle in Zion. My problem with this is that it just wasn't... Matrix style. When I go to see a Matrix movie, I expect to see some insane impossible stunts and intense bung-fu scenes, not just another sci-fi war scene. The action was okay, but it just didn't live up to my standards of "Matrix action".
Watching Revolutions gave me an entire new level of appreciation towards Reloaded. I'm not sure why, but it did. Now I'm not saying that it was that bad a movie - I just personally felt that it didn't live up to the first Matrix. I, personally, was quite disappointed by The Matrix Revolutions. See it if you like the series, but lower your expectations first.