Nothing Revolutionary in Revolutions

Rating: 5/10 (7 November 2003)

For those of us that went to see THE MATRIX in the theater, what we saw was a thinking-man's action-adventure film. The special effects were there to propel the plot and to emphasize the film's underlying questions on the nature of reality, the nature of humanity and the power of the mind over the body. The film was a self-contained story -- beginning, middle and end -- and it told its tale very well, with style grace and power.
The potential in a trilogy based upon this stellar beginning was great. Sort of like those of us that watched STAR WARS about the 10th time and suddenly there was the words "Episode IV" at the beginning subtly telling us that there was a lot more of this great film to come.
For those of us that went to see THE MATRIX: RELOADED in the theater, we saw a film that displayed for us what it would have been like if the first half of THE MATRIX had been expanded to a full-length film. This was alright, however, because we got to have our interlude -- the search for the "McGuffin" of the Key-Maker lead us to the Architect and gave us a list of questions dealing with the nature of the matrix that would keep us talking for months until the next film came out. it was not as good as number one, but it served its purpose. After all, the big payoff was coming in the third installment, right?
For those of us that went to see THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS in the theater, we saw a film that reminded us that, in the end, what it all boils down to is this: THE MATRIX is just another series of action-adventure flicks, nothing more. In the end, it leaves us feeling as emotionally detached as a DIRTY HARRY movie.
And this is sad, because the first one gave us so much hope that this trilogy could be so much more than it turned out to be. It asked dozens of deep, philosophical questions and in the third movie, ignored them, talked around them, and managed to answer none of them. The war is over. But is it? After all, the human population will grow in Zion and with the machines still up there, they are bound to but heads again... Neo is dead. But is he? After all, he dies in the first episode too, and he was still around for two sequels. Agent Smith was destroyed. But was he? After all, he, too, was destroyed in the first film, and he, too, returned for two sequels.
All of this leads me to believe that we were given some smoke and mirrors in the first episode. It was great smoke and mirrors, to be sure. But in the end, it was every bit as phony as the world within the Matrix, and had about as much substance.