Why it doesn't work

Rating: 4/10 (4 November 2003)

The third installment of the vastly popular Matrix series is a grand disappointment on all fronts. Where we were hoping it was going to be a combination of the first Matrix and the better half of the second, it ended up taking the worse half of the second and extrapolating an entire movie. Sorry, folks. Remember how one of the biggest problems with 2 was that it didn't give you enough to work with in 3's absence? Well not only is Revolutions completely unfulfilling intellectually, but it also lacks the interesting characters and impressive scenes that Reloaded had to make up for things like annoying dialogue. And if I had to pick one place to start when tearing Revolutions to shreds, it would have to be the annoying dialogue. The lines in this film had such an immense clichÃ© feel that at times I felt like I was watching a sci-fi James Bond for third graders. And it's no surprise because the movie focused entirely on the most annoying characters: the humans.
Just about the entire thing takes place in Zion, where the humans are trying not to get destroyed by machines. Whatever. It's extremely difficult to care about things like the possible extinction of the human race in a movie series where the interesting, likeable characters are all actually computer programs. Perhaps that's what the Wachowski brothers were trying to get at: humans are flawed and lame, computers are gnarly and perfect. There were hints of that theme in the film, but over-all I think this is a case of the directors not knowing what it was about The Matrix that people liked so much. Let me fill them in: it was the matrix. It was the world where nothing is as it seems, and you can prance around with superior control over the properties of physics. It was not a dank ship where cheesy catchphrases moved the plot. In the matrix, your enemies are extremely intelligent and intriguing agents, not annoying robot octopi. In the matrix there are discussions of philosophy, religion, politics and cookies. In the real world all you have is your same old good vs. evil bit going on. It's nothing new and it's nothing interesting. The only thing that can make it interesting is that sometimes you have to go into the matrix for some answers. But when too much of your movie resolves itself without any time in the matrix, as Revolutions most definitely does, what you have left is big old 'when will this be over'-fest. As far as the `did Revolutions answer the questions posed in Reloaded?' query goes, the answer is- not really. All you have in Revolutions is a bunch of unglued philosophical and religious references. On top of that, the story is unclear. There were too many points in the movie that make you go, `what exactly just happened?' And for those of you who are hoping for a super profound ending to this tale, I hate to disappoint you. The ending was awful. Even if it had made sense there would have been far better ways to end it. There are so many bad things to say about this movie that I don't have nearly enough time or space to focus on specifics, and I CERTAINLY don't have time to focus on the only good thing Revolutions had which is the continued brilliance of Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. And frankly, by the time the long-awaited Neo-Smith showdown occurs, the movie is so far past the point of possible redemption that it's almost impossible to enjoy. It's not at all Weaving's fault that the long-previewed showdown does little-to-nothing to save the film, since he more than does his part. His Agent Smith goes down in my book as the best movie villain since Darth Vader. Which is a fitting, considering the fact that the third matrix plays out a lot like the third Star Wars (or sixth. I can never keep it straight). The exhausting battle scenes that switch back and forth from sentinels vs. ship to sentinels vs. Zion aren't even all that fun to watch. That which worked for Return of the Jedi roughly thirty years ago does not work for The Matrix. That which does work for the Matrix-fights and story within the matrix-is stuffed back to the point where you want to just make the Wachowski brothers take it home and do it again. It's unfortunate that this film turned out the way it did because I suspect it is going to cost The Matrix franchise a lot of fans.