Religious/spiritual/philosophical beauty

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2015)

I just love this film. I am not going to try and explain the whole ingenious concept of the trilogy here, others have done this already here and on other sites. Suffice here to say maybe, that for me the first Matrix movie is ontological, the second one is postmodern and the third one religious/spiritual. Maybe that's why many people feel less for Revolutions than for the first two films of the trilogy.
Of course all three of movies have pronounced religious elements but the third part of the trilogy is special. To begin with, as someone else noted here, different characters clearly embody biblical archetypes: Neo = Messiah, Architect = the Father, Oracle = Sophia (= the female wisdom element of the ancients and of early Christianity), Merovingian = Devil (see what's written on the button when they take the elevator to his club at the onset of Revolutions) etc. Not only is Neo transformed into a pure and simple Messiah and depicted as such towards the end of the film. But if you look carefully, it seems that Neo isn't only a Saviour for the people, but also for the machines. Just look at how the machines respectfully put him back onto the floor after he delivered the matrix from the Smith virus, how they pull him carefully onto some special ceremonial carriage to then take him away in a manner which makes one think they will construct him a temple and an inner sanctuary somewhere inside of machine city. Instead of Christ solemnly pronouncing 'It's done' just before dying on the cross, it's the machine Father which does it.
In my view, Neo is thus some kind of Christ who sacrifices his life and his heart as salvation to both humans and machines. Not only does Neo set the matrix free by no longer fighting Smith to keep evil out. As Neo was the first one of his kind to plug into the machine like he did, by sacrificing himself to Smith so that the machines can heal the matrix, I feel he taught the cold, heartless machines what it means to respect humanity and feel for them. Or maybe he evoked feelings in them for the first time as such. Surely, Neo is the very first being of flesh and blood to be resurrected into pure light (see end of the movie) before being carried off as a holy chalice inside of machine city. I'm just speculating here, but it seemed to me that as a result of Neo's crucifixion upon the cross of the matrix, the Architect -originally pure and cold analysis- was a bit more warm hearted at the very end of the film, when addressing the Oracle, telling her that humans will be free to leave. In my interpretation that's the result of what Neo gave to the machines when he sacrificed his life. In doing all that, maybe Neo even brought the two opposite poles of Oracle/intuition/feminine and Architect/ratio/masculine a bit closer together, a split which is, incidentally, a classic in Western philosophy.
Some words about the overly long battle between Neo and Smith towards the end. Many people think this is all too long and tedious, but for me it makes total sense. The long battle is meant to emphasize to Neo that the path to truly become humanity's and the machine's Messiah, and maybe to bring a beginning of understanding between them, is not by trying to destroy Smith/evil/sin. By endlessly fighting him in vain, he is shown that he will never succeed that way. Neo had to fight until he almost perished from fatigue before the Oracle shows him the true path to his function as the world's Messiah: not by fighting sin can he save the world, but by taking it upon him (cfr Christ on the cross). Only then does Neo sacrifice himself by becoming Smith, his antithesis realizing that, despite all his superpowers, this is not the right path. Behind this is both a very Buddhist and a very Christian philosophy of life.
Anyway, it's clear that if you are the kind of person with no feeling for such kinds of things, as it seems there are many, you will probably find Revolutions a tedious film.
A final word on the death scene of Trinity. I for one truly felt the moment of Neo's and Trinity's love only, but intensely, upon her death. I was quite touched by this moment of tender honesty in the middle of the cold machine city. The Wachowski brothers managed to make this moment in the movie shine. In addition, it's only after Neo had to let go of Trinity that he's truly ready to sacrifice himself as the Messiah to save the world. Remember that in Matrix Reloaded Neo was not ready for that yet, as at that time Trinity could still be saved.
Brilliant film and the crowning achievement of a magnificent trilogy.