An improvement over the second

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2003)

The trilogy concludes in this film, coming out only a few months after part 2 hit theatres with a thud. As for the concluding chapter, it's hard to review without revealing spoilers.. but it was at least better than the dreadfull part 2. Now the first half hour - 45 minutes of this one is dreadfully borring and similar to what was wrong with "Reloaded".. leaden dialouge, lack of story momentum..etc.. However the mid-section of the film, featuring the battle for Zion was terrific.. very exciting action sequence that woke me up and kept me interested for most of the rest of the movie. Alass, the climatic showdown with Smith at the end was a bit of a letdown in that it was abunch of supposedly cool fx shots with no emotional weight to them.. and the actual ending of the film just was such a "what the heck" moment that it really left you wondering what the whole point was. Keanu Reeves is the lead character again, but he remains unable to deliver a convincing line read, and much of his dialouge, especially at the ending, is incredibly corny. Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishbourne in this chapter get left pretty much on the sidelines and dont get to do much.. the visuals take center stage in this chapter.. though Jada Pinkett Smith is the only supporting player to come off pretty good. On the whole, it was a hit and miss affair that is an improvement over the inept part 2 but nowhere near as good as the original. Still, for technical merit, and the one terrific fight scene, I'll give it a decent grade here. GRADE: B+