Ruins the legacy of the Original (Spoilers)

Rating: 1/10 (7 November 2003)

I'll start by saying I'm a huge HUGE fan of both the original Matrix, and Reloaded. In those, the Wachowski Brothers successfully blended original special effects and beautiful, talented actors with philosophy, religion, and literature, creating a movie that could be enjoyed by people with IQs from 50 to 170. That having been said, this 'final' installment was nothing more then obvious pandering to every Billy-Joe-Bob who cares for nothing but the same old hat. Gone are the mind twisting philosophical speeches, the religious overtones, the character depth, the sly literary references: in short, everything that made this movie special and different in the first place. Instead, Morpheus has been reduced to (literally) a tv-sitcom naggy backseat driver, Trinity's fight scenes are glaringly obviously cobbled together from those in the original movie, the Merovingian has become just another brooding second bad guy type with five pointless minutes of screen time, and Smith is every maniacal, insane meglomaniac we've seen in countless other less-worthy action flicks. We're forced to cringe through rehash after rehash of the special effects that everyone raved over in the first two films (the Trinty Eagle, the Dock APUs, the burly brawl), and a few more thrown in and repeated ad nauseum (the water bubble - FOUR times) until one realizes that this franchise has obviously sold out the the Hollywood "bigger and more expensive is better" sequel generator. Neo is no longer the savior, the One; he's become Bruce Willis from the Diehard flicks. Trinty is a Bond Girl. The Matrix was a fabulous movie, a total mind trip, a "thinking man's" action movie. I'm not sure it needed a sequel, and I originally had misgivings about the followups. While Reloaded was a little less perfect, it still retained much of the original's freshness, and I liked the direction they appeared to be going in (the Smith Virus and the Architect program). It seems that they dropped the ball somewhere between May and November - was there a meeting somewhere along the line in which it was mentioned that "people thought Morpheus' and the Architect's speeches were boring" and "those Aliens looking machine things went over really good, use more of those."? I would have loved some really in-depth continuation of the virus plot (especially with Bane), or some background on the relationship between the Oracle, the Merovingion, and the Architect. I even would have liked just some smaller concessions, a fight between Sereph and Smith, another scene of faith-inspired Morpheus addressing Zion, or the Merovngion twisting a few more programs around to maintain his empire. I might even have settled for a good old fashion "we've planted the bombs and will blow up the machine city in 10, 9...". Anything would have been better then what we got. Basically two big CGI fight scenes and "oh yeah, we'll cease hostilities after years of war, and destroying your civilization four times before, not a problem". Sadly, this movie looks like just any other pitiful sequel with an overly large special effects budget and no writers. (And with what Reloaded had left it with, it shouldn't have been.) The beginning was absolutely pointless, the kung-fu fights were uninspired and too effects laden, the Dock battle was too long, and the ending was a cop out. All the leads look tired, and in a few scenes Carrie-Ann Moss looked positively ready to be over and done with this character and get on with being pregnant and motherhood (props to Carrie-Ann!) In addition, the list of minor gripes: I hope Monica Bellucci got to keep that marvelous wonder-bra in addition to a big fat paycheck - what a waste her screen time was. How sad that Morpheus has been reduced from secondary savior and faith-guru (John the Baptist and Simon Peter if you will) of Zion to co-pilot. Apparently white girls in Zion have really bad hair. As always, if you are the general's right hand man you're going to go down fighting and die imparting wisdom to the new recruit. If you burn someone in the face, only their eyesockets will be affected. The dock doors, which we're lead to believe have repelled machines for years, can be destroyed by a ship that can be destroyed by machines. Taking off your sweater makes you fly better (what, she was worried about more snags?) The Oracle can change shapes but always has to be an older black woman. They apparently wasted a lot of their time in the second film, the Merovingion can be threatened successfully with just a gun to his head. Neo's clothing metamorphosis was a subtle hint at his character evolution; why is he back in the priest's garb in the super burly-brawl? What happened to Sereph's magical hallway key? And my biggest minor gripe: Neo, originally machine Energizer battery, then the One chosen basically to help control the pest (Zion) population, and finally Mr. Norton Anti-Virus, carried off through the machine city on his stately funeral barge of glory?! Whatever. I actually have a dozen more of these but I think you get the point. There were a few decent parts, on which I'll elaborate instead. While most of the acting was underdone, it was almost saved completely by Ian Bliss and Mary Alice. They each managed to capture the EXACT nuances of the other actors their characters were based on. Bliss says 'Mr. Anderson' almost as well as Hugo Weaving, but it was the characteristic moves of his head and body that were pinpoint accurate and really stood out. The same for Mary Alice, who even managed to hold a cigarette exactly like Gloria Foster. Wow. The idea of flipping the vampire-like programs in Hell to the ceiling for the fight was inspired. The Merovingion eating a green and red olive while Persephone sits next to him in red and olive green was cute. I was happy to finally see just why Niobe was a ship captain; I was starting to think it was just because she dated high ranking men. All in all, I retain my love of the first two, and my respect for the Wachowski Brothers, as well as Fishburne, Moss, and Reeves. But I feel like The Matrix Revolutions was a poor poor ending to this fabulous trilogy, a complete waste of getting up early to see it (yep, I went to the first show), a huge disappointment to the fans, a waste of a lot of somebody's bankroll, and quite frankly, a foul piece of cinamagraphic tripe. If you loved the films, buy the first two on DVD and skip this one. Maybe someone more inspired will do a Anamatrix type alternate sequel. We can only hope.