UNDERWHELMING!!!!!

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2003)

True inspiration can be spoiled by forcing ideas too hard and too fast. Inspiration can also be destroyed when it's forced at the wrong time. Sometimes ideas need to be sat on, culled over, and perfected before they are foisted on the general public. True art takes time.

In the case of THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, it has one really huge mark against it. That is that it was shot back to back with RELOADED. So while the brothers Wachowski were able to up the ante that they set with the original MATRIX RELOADED, REVOLUTIONS has nowhere left to go. While this film is creative and visually stunning, it feels like a lot of the same thing. George Lucas did one thing correctly with his STAR WARS films being spaced three years apart. He was able to create new and stunning visual effects with technology that he only dreamed of with the previous films.
In REVOULTIONS Neo (Keanu Reeves, The Replacements) and his `Superfriends' are back where we left them. Fighting the endless war with the robots. You see where we last left the human race the robots were drilling into the last human city, and the dark suited Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, Babe) was running amok inside and in this installment outside of the Matrix. As the war to save the human race commences, it's up to Neo to prove he's `THE ONE'.
REVOLUTIONS can be summed in one word: UNDERWHELMING. There is nothing new, nothing exceptionally cool, or anything of consequence going on. In fact except for the tail end of one really neat action sequence, (that's too difficult to explain without ruining some vital plot points) the film has no suprises.
In fact the first hour of the film renders the last hour of RELOADED utterly pointless, it merely ties up some loose ends and you begin to wonder why they were introduced in the first place.
It also squanders Lambert Wilson's funny and sadistic Merovigian, and Monica Bellucci's Persphone. They are in the film for mere moments. I can only surmise that its because the Wachowski's thought it would be cool to visit them again. This entire scene proves is how unnecessary they were in RELOADED and I liked them in that one. (As a side note this scene also includes a moment that earns this film it's R-rating. Yes this is a PG-13 film with a moment in which a male extra grabs and tweaks a female extra's breast. Why? I'm not quite sure I wanna to know.)
As with the other two films REVOLUTIONS has a backbone of stunning special effects. While they look really good, they lack the creative spark that made the first MATRIX groundbreaking and it's sequel a joy to watch. REVOLUTIONS spends it time tying up the story and forgetting the tradition of not only stunning but also magical special effects. The race to Zion sequence is the only segment that half works, and even the final showdown just kind of ends. It should be awesome and it elicits only half the awe of the amazing final battle in the first Matrix or the breathtaking final shots of the Highway chase in RELOADED.
I just wonder how much better this film could be had it been made on its own two or three years down the road. What amazing visuals could have been created? What interesting philosophies could have been dreamed up? What new and unusual characters could have been conjured? We'll probably never know, and I guess I can deal with that, but I do want to.
To be fair THE MATRIX REVOULTIONS is still leaps and bounds above typical action movies. It's full of enough eye candy to keep and action junky busy for a while. I still intend to see this film on the IMAX screen, an experience that greatly improved the last film as well. As it stands I probably wouldn't recommend this film to a casual moviegoer, or a sci-fi enthusiast. But for fanboys and action buffs you just might like it.

*** Out of 5