Neo is the Messiah?

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2003)

Granted, it's difficult, if not impossible, to capture the surprise and awe of the debut of a revolutionary film style and plot concept. This, the third (and dimmest) view into the Matrix, falls even shorter than the second (Reloaded) by showing us little we haven't seen before. It starts right where we left off at the end of Reloaded - Neo is seemingly still comatose, with sentinels drilling their way down to Zion. The next two hours is nothing but an occular exercise in fight scenes and special effects, while still trying to stimulate the heart and brain with philosophical and religious metaphors spoken in techno-babble (it's all GEEK to me) that were already revealed in Reloaded. But, rest assured, there is still plenty of action to go around - a little less of the martial arts fights (with little "bullet-time" shots), but more shoot-em-up's than the first or second, and no sex scene (save for a brief nipple twist in a hell-like club).

Time is spread more evenly to all characters, making it less of a Keanuisance (which is best since he's even forced to try to act without his eyes now). Thankfully, the weird dreadlocked albino ghost twins don't reappear. Speaking of ghosts, the actress who played the Oracle in the first two movies died unexpectedly before filming, so her replacement gives an explanation for her change in appearance. Agent Smith becomes a key factor, but his motivation remains a mystery - he hated the Matrix in the first place, yet now he's populating it with duplicates of himself. Meanwhile he's still bent on fighting Neo. Go figure. When it's all over, one can't help feeling unfulfilled. There are still some unanswered questions, with the Wachowski brothers placating with the obligatory possible return to this slightly greenish world. As the tagline says, everything that has a beginning has an end. So, did it end? 7 out of 10.