You have something in your eyes, let me burn them out for you

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2004)

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW:
I have to say, that I really like this movie. I don't necessarily love it but at the same time, it gets lots more playtime in my DVD player than Reloaded does. I've heard a lot of complaints about this film but I feel that it is the better of the two sequels for multiple reasons, even if it is still flawed in some ways. Wanna hear why? In keeping with the style of my review for Reloaded, here's my three point breakdown:
THINGS THAT REALLY SUCKED ABOUT THIS MOVIE:

No Gloria Foster. No matter how you cut it, the fact that she's gone just flat out sucks. Mary Alice does a great job in filling the role but the fact that the change is never explained in a satisfying way definitely hurts the movie. - Sati, the little Indian kid. I always feel bad when criticizing the performance of a child in a film but let's face it, she just wasn't that good. Cute but... no. - Trinity's Goodbye Speech. The filmmakers should have realized that this was going on a bit too long. When you're secretly wishing for one of the story's main characters to die so they can shut their trap already, that isn't a very good thing. - Morpheus becoming little more than a supporting character. What does he do in this movie? A lot less than he does in Reloaded, that's what. - Some more wooden acting. Again, I am not naming names.

THINGS THAT KINDA SUCKED BUT WERE ALSO KIND OF COOL:

The Superbrawl between Neo and Smith. This is a pretty interesting two sided coin we have here. The movie simultaneously gives you a fight that the makers of the next Superman will have to work pretty hard to top and also ends up dragging it out a little longer than it needed to be. It reaches a certain point where you just want it to end already and being that this is probably the most important moment of the movie, it is kind of disappointing to feel that way when you shouldn't. - Not having all of your questions answered by the end. They managed to tie up the trilogy in a satisfying way more or less, but I was still left scratching my head afterwards when it came to certain questions I had. I'm not going to waste space listing them all but if you want an example of one such question, I'd really like to know what the hell that was all about when the ghost of that Sentinel went through Neo while he and Trinity were heading to the Machine City? Hello? Anybody? While I don't think it's absolutely necessary to answer EVERY question in a movie, this one seemed to leave one loose end too many. - Neo losing his sight by way of a severed electrical cable. I have mixed feelings about this and it does suck but not necessarily in a bad way. It doesn't suck in that it was executed poorly or something like that but it sucks in that it is one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen happen to someone in a movie and it happens to the hero of the film. Losing my eyesight is one of my biggest fears and this just disturbed me to no end. I'm not docking the movie any rating points for this but I just had to bring it up because it is one of the things that stick out the most for me when I recount the movie. It's a great scene but it's the one moment in the movie where I really felt for Neo. From that moment on, you know that it isn't going to end happily for everyone in general. It just sucks in that way that it does when a film's protagonist gets injured really badly. Like Boromir at the end of Fellowhip of the Rings. - Not enough events taking place in the Matrix. I would've liked to see more stuff happen within the lovely green tinted world of the Matrix but then again, the important thing in the story really is the fight of the Zion inhabitants to survive, so I guess I can deal with the fact that most of this film takes place in the real world. - Lobby Shootout Part Two. Think of the Lobby Shootout from the first one but instead of SWAT guys, you have S&M club bouncers running along the ceiling letting off shots. You somehow get the sense that they were trying to update and top the shootout from the first Matrix but it doesn't quite work. It's a cool scene but suffers from being in the shadow of the original. - The Kid/ Clayton Watson. He wasn't grating as he was in Reloaded but I was kind of led to believe that this guy was going to have some major role to play in the film due to the fact that he got his own story in the Animatrix. Something about the way his role was set up in the film distracted me a little bit. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of him but at least he came through when they needed him most.

THINGS THAT WERE REALLY COOL ABOUT THIS MOVIE:

Seraph/ Collin Chou. Yeah, he makes his first appearance in Reloaded but I thought he really shined here. - Neo in the Machine City. Everything from getting there to his meeting with the machine leader. The whole idea of that scene was pretty cool and it's interesting to see the conflict from the side of the "enemy" for a moment. - Smith/ Hugo Weaving. I don't really need to go into why, do I? - The attack on Zion. Exhausting to watch? Sure. Entertaining? You bet. Robot suits, machine guns, screaming, explosions, savagery committed by machines and humans alike, it's all here. My favorite moment: The "Hand of God" scene where that rush of Sentinels spills out of the hole from the ceiling of the dock, becoming a massive force of destruction. Still gets me every time. - Bane/ Ian Bliss. His impersonation of Hugo Weaving is one of the best things about the movie. You have to give this guy his props for his work here. - The Flight of the Hammer. This scene is awesome and easily Jada Pinkett Smith's best moment in the two sequels. - Neodammerung, the music that played over the Superbrawl. I think it compliments the on screen action really well. - Lock/ Harry Lennix. Very good performance. You gotta love an actor who can make you genuinely hate him. - The overall sense of defeat that grows and grows through the movie. I love movies that are kind of depressing to watch like this one is. You know while watching this movie that you're not going to get a perfect, happy ending. What were they gonna do, free everyone from the Matrix and live under a nice, dark sky without the Machines bothering them? I'm glad that didn't happen because if it did, this movie would've sucked big time. I liked the fact that the Wachowskis weren't afraid to cave in to the Hollywood standard of happy endings with no strings. - That moment where Trinity sees the unclouded sky for the first time. It's the one moment of the movie that really gives you the message of the movie.

CONCLUSION:
A fitting end to the trilogy, even though we all wished, maybe unreasonably, for cinematic perfection. I like this movie for many different reasons and though I wish that the entire trilogy lived up to the standard set by the first, it still managed to be a very inventive and entertaining series. I feel that Revolutions succeeds, especially in its dumping of all the boring psychobabble that weighed Reloaded down in favor of the goods. A somewhat anticlimactic ending and some crappy acting keep the movie from being better than it could've been but not by much. In it's defense, it feels like a more complete movie then Reloaded does, regardless of it being one half of a big movie split down the middle.
I would actually like to see another Matrix trilogy at some point in the future. I'm pretty sure with the advance of technology in films today that they can expand the world of the Matrix and make it even richer. Lastly, I think the sequels need to be seen at least twice to be able to appreciate them at all.
Rating: ***1/2 out of *****.